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When The Browser Doesn’t Cut it: Basecamp’s Lack of Mobility
we at readwriteweb are huge basecamp fans. it raises the productivity of small, physically dispersed teams (like ours) to a level that enables remodelled virtual companies to be be viable. basecamp changes the well-known answer to the inconceivable: “can we operate virtually from around the world, or do we all need to remain in the same place?” readwriteweb, for example, lives on basecamp; it is our establishment.
But there is one problem. Basecamp is browser native. I want mobile native. And ReadWriteWeb’s VP of Content Dev Marshall Kirkpatrick tweeted today that he wants a Basecamp AIR app. Either way, it’s clear that browser-only doesn’t cut it anymore for Basecamp.
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Why Lack of Mobile Version is Such a Pain
Let’s focus on the mobile issue in this post. Like many people, I don’t live at my desk. I am up and about, meeting people. I like it that way. So I rely on my Blackberry to stay in touch. But here is the problem. I get an email notification of a post within Basecamp. I can read it fine, no problem. But when I want to reply, I have to use the Blackberry browser to log into Basecamp. That is kludgy to say the least. So I open an email thread, annoying everybody else on the team.
Sure I could switch to an iPhone with a better browser. But that still relies on good connectivity all the time and I don’t want to be forced to make that stromectol online switch. I want something like Twitterberry, a native Blackberry interface to Basecamp.
But when you look at the world through mobile eyes, you see that this is not an incremental change. It is as fundamental as moving from Client Server to browser-native. Browsers on small mobile screens are talking heads on early TV.
This Is a Hard Problem to Solve
Some problems are totally easy to define, such as a cure for cancer, longer lasting batteries or really cheap solar energy - but much, much, much harder to implement. So I am going to do the easy bit - define the problem - and hope that somebody comes up with the solution.
The needs are in 3 “buckets”:
1. Mobile Native user interface 2. User centric, not order Levaquin project centric 3. Collaborative list building
Start With Mobile
My short-hand description is “like Basecamp but mobile native”. That is easy to say, but tough to implement for 4 reasons:
1. Mobile native user interface. Ideally 90% of my actions are on a mobile device with a tiny screen and keyboard. I will do the more complex configuration and housekeeping type work on a browser in the 10% of my time when I am working on a fully fledged laptop/desktop. Most developers spend 90% of their time creating on a laptop/desktop and only 10% communicating in the “real world”. For most of us, that ratio is different.
2. Offline syncing. Much of the time my mobile device is “off air”. Those are opportunities to catch up on To Do Lists, Objectives, Milestones and the other planning type activities. You can do these sitting on an airplane, train or waiting in line at Starbucks. Syncing your personal planning to your group communication tool (Basecamp or whatever) is an annoying extra step that is a time sink.
3. Any mobile device. I use a Blackberry. I like it, but I may get seduced by the iPhone or may have something totally different in the future. More to the point, I cannot possibly predict what devices my collaborators will have and the vast majority of mobile devices are neither Blackberry nor iPhone. Communication has to work at the lowest common denominator but the user interface has to be native. As a Blackberry user, I don’t care a hoot about the compromises the developer faces having to design for Blackberry, iPhone, Nokia, etc. The same is true for people with other devices, iPhone users being the most vehement about native user interfaces.
The SMS Lowest Common Denominator?
SMS without the interrupt or cost issues. “Lowest common denominator for communication” makes one think of SMS. But SMS has major costs - both time and money. Services that generate lots of email messages are bad enough, but lots of SMS messages are way worse.
Individual Centric, Not Project Centric
This may be even hard to solve than mobile native, but the issues are linked.
Like many people I multi-task across multiple projects, working with different teams in different companies. This is an increasingly common experience for many people, even if multiple projects/teams within one company is still more common. “Dipping in and out of” multiple Basecamp projects is a pain. My To Do Lis …
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