We’ve launched a new “List view” for the messages section.

You can toggle between the views at will. Basecamp will remember which view you last looked at and keep you in that view until you switch to the other view. This is a per-user setting.

What’s it all about?

If you like the basic design of the Basecamp/Highrise forums, you’ll probably like the new List view. It makes scanning multiple message titles a lot easier (one of the top requests we’ve had). It does a great job of showing you which messages are seeing a lot of comment activity (another top request).

• New messages or messages with new comments are marked green.
• Messages/comments you’ve already viewed are marked grey.
• The number of comments per message are listed at the front of each row.
• The last commenter (if any) is listed in the right column.
• Messages with file attachments have a paperclip icon after the subject.
• Private messages are marked with the red private flag.

Here’s what it looks like

To describe…The first message, “Offsite Backups” has 8 comments, at least 1 of which is new to you. The second message, “timezoneless apps” is new to you, has a file attached, but has no comments. The third message, “Coding conventions for CSS” has 3 comments that you’ve already viewed. And so on…

We hope you like it as much as we do. Thanks again for your continued support.

That looks very cool!

We don’t use the Messages sections as much as we could, but I can see that changing with this new interface.

Love the preview.

The Messages section is our main staple. Look forward to the launch.

Lookin’ good, I have to review a lot of posts so the visual aid “You’ve already seen this thread” and “last comment by so and so x minutes ago” will really help.

• A quick summary in tiny font below the author’s name, like the first n characters from the post (allow the reader to quickly determine whether he / she needs to read the thread right now).

• Buttons to “Mark this thread read / unread”.

Now take the rest of the day off!

:)

I would assume, like the forum, the green vs gray icon indicated unread posts (or not)—Michael are you asking to be able to override this automatic feature (and mark a read post unread?). Now we see the reasoning behind the degradation of the red Private bar and background on the recent refresh methinks. Toggling is very important, but seems a bit lost over to the right. Not sure many non-webby users would ever see that or understand the labels. NIce idea. Easy to get lost in looking for new comments to old messages, and the new Overview not much of a help. This will make things better.

“Michael are you asking to be able to override this automatic feature (and mark a read post unread?)”

Yes, be able to toggle it “Read/Unread” as well as “All read/All unread”. Trust me, down the road people will be asking for this ability.

Agree with Tom that “Blog view” and “Forum view” labels are not immediately comprehensible to non-webby users. (Guess at least 95% of my BC users would fall under this category.)

I’d love to have the option to view “All messages”, “Unread posts” and “Most recent posts”.

I agree that blog and forum view may be lost on the average Joe…

Absolutely brilliant! Can’t wait. For the less webby, how about…... Full view | List view?

Will this also work when you select a message category?

Looking forward to this. Makes a lot of sense and, for me personally, I can’t think of any reason to go back to the “Blog View”.

One question, what is the default setting?

I’d like to be able to set the global default to “Forum View” and then let people decide to go back to “Blog View” if they wish. Give ‘em a taste of the goodness and they’ll ne’er go back.

1. Michael’s suggestion of a Read/Unread toggle, and
2. Supriya’s suggestion of an option to view “All messages”, “Unread posts” and “Most recent posts”.

I like it very much. Thanks guys.

Thank you! I think this will be a lot easier to navigate and explain. Up to now I would set up links to specific threads that are active over the entire project in the overview page because things would get lost as random comments pushed the significant threads to the bottom of the screen. I really look forward to trying this out. Most of my users are the antithesis of “webby” and I anticipate that this will be easy to roll out & explain. (famous last words)

+1 to Supriya’s suggestion +0.5 to Michael’s – (I could see liking having this, I just think 95% of my users would just ignore it)

I personally like the “blog” & “forum” titles… They are the right terms ,might as well use them (maybe my users kids will think their parents are a little more hip when they hear them talking about work). Did someone have a alternative suggestion? [Edit: sorry, richallum I missed your suggestion at my first glance through]

Will this also work when you select a message category?

Yes.

I love where this appears to be headed! I can’t wait to try it. I can see this really making things easier for us and our clients.

Regarding those already concerned that people won’t be able to figure out “Blog view” and “Forum view”... Give other people some credit. Some of you guys here act as if only you are smart enough to figure things out.

“Regular” people (re: your clients) aren’t as dumb as you make them out to be. Do your clients know you don’t think they’re smart enough to figure a few links out on their own? People will see something, click it, try it, and get it. And if they don’t they don’t – big deal, then things are the same as they were before. People are smart enough to learn and try new things without you having to constantly look out for them like they are children. They were smart enough to hire you, weren’t they?

Regarding those already asking for more more more! More features already! This feature isn’t even out yet, but some of you already want it to do more!!! More buttons! More views! More options! No wonder 37signals is so careful about adding new stuff. Everyone wants everything which is why most software is a cluttered mess.

BJ: Regarding those already asking for more more more! More features already! This feature isn’t even out yet, but some of you already want it to do more!!! ...

In my opinion the spirit of useful discussion, be it on a forum like this or over lunch, is to be able to float ideas without recrimination, ridicule or knee jerk rejection. The important thing is to get collective ideas tabled.

37 Signal’s developers are competent and capable—they don’t need anyone to censor feedback here on their behalf.

We are doing ourselves as well as 37 Signals a service by airing our notions of what makes their software more effective and usable. A lot of software languishes because of a lack of feedback and involvement from users.

Passionate and imaginative users like us.

:)

Ok before this gets out of control… Everyone’s suggestions and ideas are welcome here. No personal jabs or inflammatory posts —they will be deleted.

lol Sounds like the British parliament. I’m not exactly sure how it normally works but when I saw it on TV on day, it was someone standing up, yelling for 5-10 minutes and sitting down… and someone else got up and repeated the actions… and again… and again. I wondered how they got anything done.

As for the Blog view + Forum view, Google’s New Reader calls it “Expanded View” & “List View”. Not sure if that helps. I don’t think its that important. People will figure it out. Just have it set to Blog view as default so if they don’t figure it out, they get the better view by default.

I figure that if 37s didn’t want our opinions beforehand, they wouldn’t post the preview.

I like this view, a lot. Will there be any way to default new users/new projects to it so clients will see it right away?

Thanks,

-Matt

Great idea! It will help us keep better track of who posted comments. I love the fact that you can choose the view by user. Looks like a great addition to Basecamp.

Melvin: “Expanded View” and “List View” sounds right to us. We’ll probably go with that.

Thanks for everyone’s feedback. We hope to push this this weekend or early next week. Stay tuned.

Correction:

“Just have it set to Blog view as default so if they don’t figure it out, they get the better view by default.”

Should have read:

“Just have it set to Forum view as default so if they don’t figure it out, they get the better view by default.”

Brain fart I guess

Thanks for the forum view! :D

Thanks for the “List View” and “Detail View”.

<thumbsup.gif>

:)