QuickAdvice: Work With Basecamp In Style With Headquarters
Headquarters ($4.99) by Select Start Studios, Inc. is a gorgeous and easy-to-use Basecamp client for your iPhone.
For those that don't know what Basecamp is, it's a service that allows you to collaborate with other people on projects - a collaborative to-do list, in a way. Now, I'm not sure about how everyone else is, but I find that having access to Basecamp from my mobile device to be much better than having to access it via the web app.
Thankfully, Headquarters is here, and it provides one of the best interfaces I've seen for Basecamp apps.
In the Pro version, you can add multiple accounts via the Basecamp ID or Open ID. Judging from this screen, you can be sure that the rest of it will be just as good looking. Once you get in, you'll start off at the Dashboard.
The Dashboard is where the main magic lies. It features three views at the top ribbon: Today, This Week, and Updates. If you have any to-dos that are assigned to you, they will appear in the Today tab. Yes, even tasks that don't have a due date will appear in this tab, I suppose to constantly remind you that you have to complete something. If a task has a due date that is during the week, it will appear in the This Week view. The Updates tab lets you see the latest activity that has happened in your projects.
If you need something a bit more organized, you can go directly to the specified project. Once you're in this view, you get a Dashboard specific to that project, along with an option for everything else: Todo Lists, Milestones, Files, and Messages.
In the Todo Lists view, you can view all of your current lists, which display how many items have been completed out of the total. I wish that this count would show a direct number of how many tasks are still remaining, since that's the important part. Need to create a new list? Just hit that sleek button at the top and enter the details, then save it!
When you go to a list, you can view any uncompleted task with a blue checkbox, while those that are completed will be dimmed out and be marked off with a check in the blue box. When adding a new todo item, type it out on that blue sticky note and you can assign it, set a due date, and once it is saved, you can add any necessary comments.
Important milestones can be accessed and created in Headquarters as well. Any files that have been uploaded to Basecamp can be accessed via the Files tab, where you can even download and view them, or open in a separate third-party app. Messages can be viewed, created, and commented on as well.
All of these sections (Todo Lists, Milestones, Files, and Messages) are also color coded as well. This makes the app feel even more organized and it's great to associate a color to a section so you can clearly identify what it is. Plus, it looks great.
The only minor problem issue I have with the app is that while it is loading data or refreshing, you can't really move - the app is frozen while fetching new data. I hope that the developer can improve this, as it can be a bit annoying to have to wait until the spinner goes away to be able to move around.
Those that use Basecamp should definitely check out this app. There is also a free Lite version as well, which has all the features of the Pro version, except you are limited to one account and one project. If you're on the fence about purchasing the Pro version, give the Lite version a spin for yourself and see if it's for you.
