37signals: Live design review for "Basecamp project stacks"

In this live design review with Jason (product), Brian (product manager), and Dorin (designer), we discuss a new Basecamp feature in development that allows people to organize their projects into stacks.
This design includes a round of simplification in response to a more complicated design we looked at last week (not part of this video).
We talk about the pros and cons of the design compared to the previous round, some limitations around how it works (and perhaps could work differently), design and type details, interaction details, and more. We also debate the merits of different approaches, pinning vs. unpinning, maintaining state and status vs. changing on drag, and more.
Finally, we discuss an approach to shipping this without initial support on mobile. Should we wait a couple weeks until that's ready? Should we ship now? How can we approach this?
Hope you find this useful!
basecamp.com
Watch more live reviews here: • Live Reviews

[@m-a-e]

How about "Unstack Projects" instead of "Empty Stack"?

[@meisterklemmer7819]

The “Empty Stack” is very confusing to me as a non-native speaker. It looks and reads like a status. And I was wondering why it shows “Empty Stack” at the bottom if there are projects in it, and it is obviously not empty. So going with something like “Remove all projects from stack” would make things much clearer.

[@yurisilva7860]

As a non-native speaker, I totally agree with you. It really looks like a status message.

[@Gearyco]

The shadow on that modal screams 2004. Please fix lol. Love this feature, though!

[@binpacking]

Have you considered listing all projects in a scrollable list/stack instead of showing how many projects are in the stack?

[@dallasread700]

For the empty/delete stack, did you consider adding an ellipsis in the top right of the modal that opens a menu? This would behave similar to actions in other areas of the app (eg. "Track this on a hill chart"), avoid accidental clicks, and feel familiar as it is a common UI convention. Pulling from my experience using "stacks" on the iOS home screen, I can't think of a case where I'd want to "empty a stack" or "have an empty stack". I would lean toward a single action called "Unstack" that empties & removes the stack. Perhaps the functionality of "stacks" in iOS can provide some additional inspiration.

[@bradpaulp]

I just accidentally found out about this because I was moving a project card around and accidentally let go on top of another project. I am VERY HAPPY about this update! The randomness of unpinned homepage items was cringing.

[@37signals]

So glad to hear you're excited about the new update. You check out more details about how Stacks work in this new video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pHjYapd6bdCtqJo. Enjoy! -Kimberly

[@jimwest4082]

Fabulous

[@tomarcarjack]

How about “Manage Stack” and allow removal of selected projects.

[@yoojinyi9694]

Any way to stack and share? We are trying use a stack multiple departments projects into one. For example in terms of construction we are building a house and each contractor has their project (plumber, carpenter, electrician and painter) and now we want to stack each project under the House Project but then share that for all teams so they can see the project as a whole. Then at the Stack level - have communication on a global level vs project level.

[@37signals]

Home screen organization is individual. There's not currently a way to share your home screen organization (Stacks, pinned projects, colors) with another user or to have global communication outside of a project. One way you could approach this is to have one "global" project, perhaps limiting that project to a few the communication tools (chat, message board) and then use the Doors feature to connect each of the contractor projects together. 3.basecamp-help.com/article/667-doors If you need other ideas for setting this up, or want to submit a feature request, reach out to our team! Just email [e-mail]. Hope that helps! -Kimberly

[@jamesmorris409]

Without finishing the video, the discussion about what happens after a project leaves the stack and is pinned etc.. a small gray pin icon in the usual place of the red pin would show whether the project is pinned or not without giving the idea that it can be edited within the stack.

[@37signals]

Thing is, the pin doesn't do anything once it's in the stack, so showing it may actually confuse matters. -JF

[@fd-tg9eb]

@@37signals from what I saw, I would be more confused about it being hidden rather than being useless.

[@veejay41]

After you empty a stack, why does it still exist as an empty object. You could remove the stack too by default. The way that users create a new stack is by dragging and dropping projects on one another or onto a stack.

[@jf4841]

You could, and that was an option we explored, but allowing for surviving empty stacks makes these into process + flow holders too. You could set up a series of stacks (“Phase 1” “Phase 2” and so on) and move things through those phases. You want to keep the process around even if the projects go away. -JF

[@jimwest4082]

I can not drag one project on top of another

[@anhtrinh8511]

I also dont like a project become pin after unstacking them. If you stack two recently visited and it become pinned is not a great behavior.

[@PhilipPilalas]

Why don't you just have the Stack Name become the focus right after something is added? That way, you don't have to click in to rename just do it in the flow.

[@37signals]

That's something we considered, but we didn't want to add the renaming to the main project page for various reasons. So you have to go inside a stack to rename it. We may alter this down the road, but this is where we landed for now. -JF

[@jimwest4082]

i may have missed it, but how can I use it on desktop

[@jf4841]

It’s not out yet - this is a peek into unfinished work. Should be out within a few weeks. -JF

[@jimwest4082]

​@@jf4841 thx. Great work

[@syedrowmim]

Why aren't you giving us the feature to set priorities of a card inside a card table?

[@37signals]

As with to-dos, you can drag and reorder. Put the highest priority item at the top. We don't believe in numbering priorities - when you do that, you end up with a bunch of stuff that's top priority. Spacial positioning means only one thing can truly be at the top, at the highest priority. This forces true prioritization, not pseudo-prioritization. We're for true. -JF

[@DevonMeadows]

Id say as soon as you drop a project on another project instead of it saying new stack it should immediately show a flashing cursor and you should need to enter a name. Never will it make sense to call a new stack “new stack”. Just like creating a folder on mac desktop. It immediately selects the text “new folder” and you name it. Never do you leave the name “new folder” on a computer file system.

[@andrewmackross]

I think they should put a pin icon on the stacks and then they can leave it called pinned 😂