Concept Preview – Mizen – do less, get more done – for activeCollab

this entry has 21 Comments/ in activeCollab / by
November 21, 2013
A beta of Mizen is now included in Planning module.

Mizen (rhymes with vision), is code name for a new module we are building. In fact, I wanted to build something like it three years ago. We even built a few prototypes in 2010, 2011 and 2012, but nothing came out to public.

This time, we’re removing all the complex “features” and keeping it to the most useful essentials.

Watch the video preview below, and let us know your comments…

Mizen will essentially:

  • Automatically pick up assignment filters and show you results in a cleaner, simpler, faster interface
  • Quickly complete, comment on or add time to your tasks
  • Be available globally – from a link in left most, main menu in activeCollab
  • Integrate well with activeCollab, yet offer something that greatly increases productivity

That’s the vision we are building Mizen with!

What would you like it to do? Should it be a new module, or should we bundle it in Planning module? Or Tasks Plus? Anything else you feel we should include in it? Remove from it?

Let us know! Thanks!

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Mizen Highlights Customer Comments
  • Maxim Matthew

    I would love to see this tool soon.
    And I would voto for having it as part of planning module.

    cheers
    max

  • Damian

    Looks great. If you build it Nirav, you can count me in.

  • http://www.inquesta.com Jacques Island

    Sorry, but the short clip left me with a big question mark. I have no idea of what it’s for or what it can do.

    • https://www.appsmagnet.com Apps Magnet

      This will be a “global” screen. Accessible from the left most “main” menu in activeCollab. Possibly right after the home icon or just above “my profile” avatar icon.

      When you click there, it will show you a flyout menu with assignment filters, you select one, and that lands you on a screen that looks similar to what’s in the video.

      It will aggregate all tasks, across all projects – based on assignment filters you already have set.

      • http://blog.mindplay.dk/ Rasmus Schultz

        Yeah, it sounds interesting, but as Jacques and Len pointed out… show us a video of how you would use this and why? Rock music doesn’t explain much :-)

      • https://www.appsmagnet.com Apps Magnet

        In fact, we want to ask the question: If we were to build this, how would you want to use it? 😉

  • http://quietcitydesign.com Len

    I agree with Jacques… the clip is too short and there’s no context. Does this appear on each project’s overview tab? Can you do another video with more screen, and slow it down to describe what’s happening?

    It could be a fantastic addition to my AC workflow, but I have no idea from this announcement.

  • http://www.docu.ch Bertram

    That’s the thing missing for assignment filters! The filters are great because of their flexibility, but the results are not shown in a good way.
    This could be once more something AC will take over in a next release 😉
    I’d be in if you publish such a module.

  • http://superlateif.nl Bart

    Count me in…. Love to see this as an seperate module

  • Rachel C

    So are you saying this is going to show you everything that you’re assigned to and let you work from there?

    A slower video might help us understand. :)

    • https://www.appsmagnet.com Apps Magnet

      Yes. Everything you’re assigned to – or any other filter you choose. It’d automatically pick up assignment filters you may have set in the system and show results in an easier, quicker manner.

      Videos, speed and music… boy… they deserve another post 😉 When I make a video, I want to make it the shortest (time of a video x number of people watching it = lot of time).. And when I’m making it, I already know what’s going on and all the captions – so a three minute caption feels like a long enough time..

      We will have a longer, more elaborate video once we reach “release” quality..

  • Rachel C

    I see, so its sort of like using an email program with the list of messages on the left panel and the reading pane on the right panel for you to work in. That would be a lot faster than switching pages between projects.

    One of my bigger frustrations with AC is the time I spend looking at the “Loading” screen at the top.

    Would you have some sort of caching going on with all of the assignments that show up in the filtered list on the left so that it’s quicker to switch between tasks?

    • https://www.appsmagnet.com Apps Magnet

      Email would be the perfect analogy… I’m so dumb for missing it…

      And yes, we do intend to reduce the load time with caching and frequent polling for updates…

  • Rachel C

    That sounds good. I spend so much time trying to create filters to make lists for various ways to manage the flow of tasks. Then I spend time trying to go through the items created by my clients waiting for each item to load.

    I most often work using the little “eye” preview feature to open a task from a list in a dialog so I don’t leave my list view, but the load times using AC when switching between items is very laggy. It takes 5 to 7 seconds sometimes to load a page (task). I hate staring at that “loading” popup all the time.

    A page that looks like an email program and caches your filtered list so you can move quickly between items sounds faster and the filtering sounds more robust than the few ways you can filter in AC.

    I use Tasks Plus, so if you added it there that would be great but I don’t mind supporting further development by paying for it as a separate module.

    • https://www.appsmagnet.com Apps Magnet

      Thank you for your inputs Rachel.. It’s certainly cases like yours that we are trying to solve.

      Will keep you posted..

  • http://agencypja.com Evan McDaniel

    Looks quite promising, though I agree that a much more in-depth preview would be needed to provide any valuable feedback.

    Even better, a demo version we could play around with…

  • http://pagemaster.ca Dale Youngman

    Reporting what needs to be done next is a current frustration with AC. Assembling the various tasks and having it available for each employee to view would be awesome. Being able to sort the list manually to group related tasks from various projects would also be good. It would be come a to-do list.
    I want to use the workflow in category tags to create a to-do list from tasks. The idea is the person responsible for a step changes the next one to good-to-go when they complete theirs. There is some frustration with permissions in the reporting.
    We use both planning and tasks plus. This sounds like it is part of the tasks enhancement – would it work without tasks plus?
    The video didn’t communicate.

  • Rachel C

    I hear ya. I would love to have a way to drag items into a “this is what I want to work on today” list. The start dates and due dates are only part of the challenge in scheduling. Instead, I end up with a lot of new open tabs in my browser to try to keep track of the items that I want to keep on my to-do list.

  • Neil Duddridge

    Looks great. We have both clients and contractors requesting an ‘easier’ interface.

    Would prefer as a separate module

  • Laura B

    I seem to have a new Mizen link in the left nav column of AC since my last update, but it brings up an empty window with just the heading “Mizen” at the top???

    • https://www.appsmagnet.com Apps Magnet

      When you click on Mizen link, it should show you a list of your current Assignment Filters. Clicking on one takes you to the actual tasks list. If you do not already have them, create a couple of Assignment filters and then check what shows up in Mizen.

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