On the evening of the 18th of June we release a new version of Projectplace which encompasses many changes in the navigation. We introduce a new graphical look and social planning features.
New look and navigation
Perhaps the biggest change for our existing users is the new look and navigation. Here is a list of the main changes:
Instead of getting to My Overview when you log in from our webpage, you will get back to the last project you were working in. My Overview is still accessible through the house at the top left of Projectplace. My Overview has been renamed My Projectplace.
At the top of the interface you will find a lot of the functionality that was previously on My Overview. In the top bar you will find all your projects, assignments, shortcuts and latest documents in convenient drop-down menus. You can also start or join online meetings. If you have access to a Project Office or Project Templates you can access them from here. On the top right-hand side there is a menu for your personal details and settings and a button to log out.
These menus are always available at the top of the screen when you are logged into Projectplace.
On the Project Overview we have moved the conversation flow to the left hand side. You will find the project work and colleagues on the right-hand side. We swapped the areas around in order to make the flow of important conversations more visible on the page.
As we have removed the left hand panel that listed your projects you now have a larger working space on the page. This was a major objective of the new navigation.
We also created a more elegant and modern look. We have moved away from the grey colour to a sharper black/white contrast with accent colours to highlight the most important aspects of each screen.
Most icons have been updated to be in line with the rest of the product and more descriptive.
Share the big picture
At the top of each project you find a dashboard that gives an overview of the goal and status of the project. The time line is a continuation of the previous graph with decision points. It gives everybody a clear view of where we are heading and what steps need to be completed to get there. Everyone can see the projects purpose and what decision points/project steps/checkpoints are upcoming or completed.
Widgets show how many actions are done, how many days until the next checkpoint and the team spirit. Administrators can decide which widgets are useful for each project and update the project description and timeline on the dashboard.
The dashboard is always available at the top of the screen, whichever tool you are working in, to ensure that everyone in the team share the same view of where we are heading and how we perform right now.
Actions 
Actions is our new tool for short term planning. You find it as a tab to the right of Documents in new projects. Here you find functions for quickly creating the actions needed to complete the next project step. Actions can be prioritised and assigned to project members.
Actions are organised on boards. The boards group actions in a way that is relevant to your project. You can for instance create a board per team, sub-project or week.
Actions will be turned on by default in all new projects created after the release while existing projects will continue with the Tasks tool. Administrators in the project can decide which tool is most appropriate for their project or choose to work with both. Read more about selecting tools for the project.
Read more about Actions and get some tips on how to use the new tool in Projectpedia
Actions will also be included in the new version of the iOS and Andriod apps that we will be releasing in conjuction with the update of the web service. It might take a little while for the approval process of the app store to work it’s magic but the app should be release sometime in the weeks following.
Get started with the new look and functionality
We want to make sure that you have all the tools you need to be prepared for this change. Here are some tips on what you can do/recommend to others, to stay on top.
1. Read about the new functionality in Projectpedia. We have created a pdf-manual that you can also download and send to your colleagues.
2. Join a training session. This week and next our jump start trainings will include the new functionality and look. Sign up or recommend for a colleague. You can find dates and times on our website
3. The Release News page in Projectpedia lists the changes in each release for this release you can find and FAQ there.
4. Watch the release film on youtube
Mobile Apps
We will also release updated versions of our mobile apps for iOS to include action boards. You can create, update and assign actions on the fly. On your Andriod, the updated app will let you keep track of the actions that are assigned to you.
What’s up next?
Each time I write a release blog, I try to include som information of where we are heading with the next release. This time I will do that and also try to explain where we are going with what has been released now. Because this is not the end. We want to continue developing our social planning features to make your project work more efficient, productive, engaging and fun.
-Next release will focus mainly on Unicode support. Unicode support will let our customers use other character sets like cyrillic, greek, chinese etc. This has been a long standing request from our international project customers. See for instance these ideas from Projectplace Ideas:
- http://ideas.projectplace.com/feedbacks/46623-polish-characters-problem
- http://ideas.projectplace.com/feedbacks/46540-resource-plan-problem-with-greek-characters
- http://ideas.projectplace.com/feedbacks/82177-support-for-chinese-file-names
- http://ideas.projectplace.com/feedbacks/50297-support-cyrillic-letters
We will of course also look at other improvements aswell.
-Thoughts on improvements to the social planning features
With this release we are introducing some powerful tools for collaborative planning. However, we are aware that there are more things that we need to look at to make the offering complete. Some of the things we will look at in the future include
- Tracking of Time and Effort
- Statistics and Reporting
- Dividing actions into smaller sub-actions
- Stakeholder involvement
- Relate actions to each other or other objects like documents, meetings, issues etc
- Archiving of actions
- Access rights to actions
- Including actions in My Assignments
The order of importance and priority is still unclear and will depend largely on your feedback and input. Please let us know your thoughts on our feedback forum, Projectplace Ideas.
TIP of the release! Extensive interface updates sometimes cause problems if you have a lot of old files in your web browser history. Please empty the cache / temporary internet files and restart your web browser.
