It’s impossible to talk about the PM space without discussing Basecamp. We’ve spent the most time with it of any web apps, and it’s the main cause of us building our new app. Basecamp just doesn’t fit the way we work anymore… We find ourselves running duplicative systems via email, ical etc. We made a real effort to adapt, but after 3 years, we use less of Basecamp’s features than ever.

Basecamp does a brilliant job of making things simple. In fact, if it weren’t for apps like Basecamp, projects like our new app might never have happened. Still, Basecamp is a bit old, and it’s improvements over the years have been evolutionary. For us, -we think it made the move from old grey Microsoft apps to younger smarter web based apps possible. But would Basecamp be the same if it had been conceived of today? Now that the barrier is down? Now that Twitter, Pownce, Tumblr, and countless others have shown the world new ways to communicate and collaborate?

A few places we think Basecamp misses the mark.

• Everything is broken down into small categories of information. You spend more time refreshing to new pages than digesting their contents. Information density per page is ridiculously low.
• Pages all look the same. For people who live on the web, the navigation is pretty simple. For other people, they feel like they’re trapped in an old Nintendo game where every room in the cave looks identical to the last. Landmarks are rare, and the hierarchy is too subtle.
• The home screen (dashboard) is a great idea, but showing the 5 most recent things on the 5 most recently active projects gives a false sense of chronology.
• Nobody thinks crossing out completed todo’s, and hiding finished lists makes any sort of sense.
• There is a strong dependence on email throughout. If people were able to live in the software the way they ought to, email notifications wouldn’t be as necessary.
• With the mix of “Writeboards”, “messages,” and “chat” communication is spread all over the place. Without self imposed rules, communication turns to a mess.
• Permissions are not transparent. It can be confusing knowing who is able to see what, especially when clients are involved.

Basecamp is a loved, and famous product. We don’t want a turf war, -but it’s not perfect. We think after all these years there is room for innovation in the PM space again. Like Basecamp, our app won’t please everyone, but we think it will strike a pretty strong chord with people who work like we do.