With the recent announcement of our Intervals web-based mobile app for time tracking and task management we introduced a scaled down interface to our online project management software. Given the limited screen real estate available on most mobile phones, the more comprehensive Intervals online software has been reduced to only the essential features needed while on-the-go. Those of you with web-enabled smart phones will find it easy and convenient to start timers in the middle of meetings and assign tasks while waiting at the bus stop. But, what if you simply want to experience the scaled down version of Intervals without requiring a mobile phone?

The great thing about our new web-based mobile app is its versatility. Built to run on any web browser, you aren’t restricted to using it on a mobile phone. The slimmed down version of Intervals project management software is available on any web browser. We call it Intervals Mini. All you have to do is append a ‘m/’ to your Intervals URL (i.e. http://acme.projectaccount.com/m/). That’s it! Just remember, ‘m’ is for ‘mobile’, and ‘mini!’

Why would you want to run a simpler version of Intervals? There are lots of reasons:

• It’s a widget-like experience, ideal for netbooks and smaller laptops with lower screen resolution.
• Tracking time and managing tasks are the core strengths of Intervals. Use the mini version for these tasks and fire up the full version for more comprehensive project management.
• We’ll be adding basic project management features next. The scaled-down version of the Intervals trifecta — time tracking, task management and project management — will all be available via the new mini mode. Leave the heavy lifting to the full app.

Log in to your Intervals account, throw a ‘m/’ on the end of your URL, and take Intervals Mini for a spin. If you don’t have an Intervals account, go get one. Let us know what you think. We’re still looking for ideas on how to make the Mobile and Mini experience better, and how to best incorporate the upcoming project management features.

We’ve recently launched a new round of updates focused primarily on making Intervals run faster. Although Intervals was already plenty fast enough, we like to stay ahead of the curve, offering an online time tracking, task management and project management application that exceeds people’s expectations. Intervals is a comprehensive application that covers many aspects of small business productivity, especially those involved in web design, web development and creative services. Intervals helps small businesses with time tracking, task management, project management, invoicing, document sharing, reporting and many other aspects related to productivity. As such, it is our top priority to keep Intervals running quickly and smoothly. Nothing ruins an online application like slowness. So the next time you login to Intervals you will notice the application running faster in general, but especially in the following areas…

Time Tracking

We’ve improved how time data is stored and retrieved by Intervals, resulting in an overall faster time tracking experience. Actual time tracked, project estimates, timesheets, project dashboards and client dashboards are all noticeably faster as a result.

Task Management

Task management is one of Intervals core features. Both time tracking and project management features interact heavily with tasks. It’s important to keep tasks snappy and we’ve done even more of that with these improvements. Update tasks quickly while emailing alerts to everyone involved. And keep track of task comments and updates with contextual hover views.

Project Management

Everything you need to know about a project is contained within Intervals. Track time against project and task estimates while keeping an eye on project budget, without twiddling your thumbs waiting for numbers to crunch and gears to churn. Detailed project data is always available with just a few clicks of the mouse. Intervals keeps you up-to-date on all of your projects in real-time.

Reporting

Reports are running faster and leaner than ever. You’ll find no limitations on how far back you can go when running time tracking reports. And you’ll find incredibly detailed reports take very little time to generate, giving you the data you need when you need it. Need to know how much time has been tracked against a new client project? Or which web designer is putting in the most time on a creative project? The various reports will give you this information in real-time.

Invoicing

Generate invoices based on time tracking data and project expenses with increased speed. When the end of the month arrives and you are sending out all of your invoices, Intervals will generate each one quickly and accurately. Your clients will be happier to have the process more automated and you will get paid sooner. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Documents

Quickly search and download documents uploaded by your web designers, developers, staff and your clients. The Intervals documents tab allows you to quickly scan through lists of documents and whittle them down until you’ve found that one Photoshop file from a project completed last year.

Intervals is not just an online project management app for working in the present. It’s core features — time tracking, task management and project management — enable you to accurately plan and manage the future, and to dig back into the past. When managing a small business it’s important to not only know where you are going, but also where you have been.

If you don’t already have an Intervals account, sign up for one today and try it free for 30 days. It might just be the time tracking and project management app you’ve been looking for.

To help out small businesses wanting to know how to best spend the limited time resources they have, evancarmichael.com has posted its list of the Top 50 Productivity Blogs to Watch in 2010. The list includes links to blogs for getting things done, increasing productivity at work, getting organized, personal productivity, and our favorite, lifestyle design. Click through to the blog post to view all of the top productivity blogs, including our very own Intervals time, task and project management blog.

The list of top 50 productivity blogs represents a collection of blogs dedicated to increasing productivity without sacrificing lifestyle:

We all have the same 24 hours in every day. So how come some people seem to do so much more with their time than others? The answer comes down to productivity. Making the most with what you have, whether that be time, energy or resources, is one of the keys to business success.

Thank you, Evan Carmichael, for including the Intervals project management blog on your list!

Say hello to the new Intervals web-based mobile app, debuting in all its Beta glory on your smart phone’s web browser. Simply open your phone’s web browser and load your Intervals account, Intervals will take it from there. Whether at a meeting, in the field, or wherever your business may take you, easily track time and update tasks when your desktop or laptop is out of reach. The web-based mobile app is a stripped down and simplified version of Intervals perfectly suited for the small screen.

• What does it do?
• How does it work?
• What’s next?
• What do you think?

What does it do? 

The Intervals web-based mobile app gives you full control of your timers and tasks from the palm of your hand. Start, stop and apply timers while in meetings, on the road, or out in the field. Create, assign, and edit tasks at your convenience, without having to wait until you are in front of a desktop with an internet connection. More than just another excuse to work, increase productivity by keeping your Intervals data at your fingertips.

How does it work? 

The Intervals web-based mobile app will work on most smart phones with a current web browser. The app takes advantage of the latest Javascript, AJAX, and HTML5 technologies to create a fast and seamless experience. Load your Intervals URL into your phone’s web browser to get started.

The following phone OS and browser combinations will work with Intervals:

• iPhone + Safari
• Android + Native browser
• Blackberry + Native browser
• Windows Mobile + Opera

Please note, some browsers may have Javascript disabled by default and will need to have it enabled to work. A note on Opera Mini: Intervals will not work with the Opera Mini browser due to its limited support for Javascript.

What’s next? 

Distilling a comprehensive app like Intervals down into a core set of mobile features is no easy feat. We’ve begun with the ability to access time and tasks, but we’re not stopping there. Future releases of the Intervals web-based mobile app are scheduled to include scaled down versions of clients, projects, milestones and people. With these upcoming additions you will be able to contact clients and team members, and update project and milestone deadlines directly from your phone.

What do you think? 

Get out your phone and give the Intervals web-based mobile app a whirl. Let us know what you think, especially what how you’d like to see Intervals evolve on your smart phone. We want to keep our you in the loop while we build out more features for the web-based mobile app. Post your comments and let us know what you think!

Back in March I was sitting in Ballroom C at the Austin Convention Center watching Scott Dadich, Creative Director at WIRED Magazine, demonstrate the rebirth of WIRED’s digital magazine — a Flash-based facsimile of the print magazine designed to run on the Apple iPad. Before I go any further, let me disclaim that, first, I love the design of WIRED magazine, and second, I love the design and development put into the WIRED web site. They have both addressed their respective mediums with intuitive and well-designed content. As Scott began flipping through the pages of the interactive magazine on the giant tablet projected onto the screen behind him, I was equally impressed… for the first five minutes.

The digital rebirth of WIREDs interactive magazine on the iPad was fine and pretty, but something about it didn’t feel right. The emphasis was being placed on the bells and whistles used to deliver the content, and not the content itself. Zoom this, pinch that, spin, expand, contract. Then I realized, we’ve been here before. When the web made its big debut in the mid to late 90s graphic designers reacted to it with disdain, cleverly disguised by embracing the web with image heavy web sites. Various Adobe products would allow any designer to chop Photoshop design into a million tiny pieces and reconstruct it on the web, giving them pixel precision control over a medium that wasn’t intended to permit pixel precision control. Communication Arts jumped into the fray and began awarding its coveted spots in the Interactive Annual to web sites with the most “interactivity,” which translated roughly to a clickable screenshot. And now here was Adobe, teaming up with WIRED magazine, trying to do it all over again by using Adobe InDesign, Air, and Flash to wrangle in the web. Not content with the web being the web, the interactive WIRED magazine felt like a throwback to the 90s.

Print Design vs. Web Design

Graphic designers, especially those from a more traditional print design background, have been trying to manacle the web since the beginning. HTML and CSS seem too limiting for designers who are used to having complete control over their medium. As the demonstration of the WIRED magazine app continued, my hunches were confirmed by several points being made (and some not being made).

Scott defended the interactive app, stating “design matters as much as content. Better design results in a better reading experience, deeper engagement, and a more connected consumer.” Yes, but WIRED has put design before the content, as evidenced by their dependency on Adobe products to publish the app.

WIRED commissioned a typeface, called Exchange. Why? Because the closest thing to what they wanted was Georgia, and that wasn’t good enough. Scott pointed out that kerning pairs, especially those present in Georgia, are lost on the web. The typeface they commissioned has over 10,000 kerning pairs. I had been dumbfounded before by print designers who wanted complete control over the widows and orphans on their web site. But kerning pairs on the web? Is that level of control really necessary?

Where are all the web designers at?

I noticed there were no web designers or developers on the panel, nor were they mentioned in the process of designing and developing the interactive app. Nope, that was all done by the WIRED print team and the Adobe development team. I sensed there was, and is, a rift between the WIRED print designers and web designers. The visual discrepancies between the magazine and the web site make this point evident, however, Scott clinched it when he said that he is not happy with type on the web, and that the tablet finally “gives them back control.” He also told us how, at WIRED, the print design and web design and development teams are split, physically separated by a hallway referred to as “The Great Hall of China.”

I am not the only one who’s noticed. A recent blog post from INTERFACELAB entitled Is This Really The Future of Magazines or Why Didn’t They Just Use HTML 5? points out:

…there is a massive opportunity to reinvent the concept of a magazine — yet we end up with something akin to what the web was like in the mid to late 90’s. This basically boils down to a print designer’s vision of what the web should be like — but in this case it’s a print magazine person’s vision of what an interactive magazine should be like.

Can’t we all just get along?

I have a degree in graphic design and was educated entirely from the perspective of print design. I first started designing and developing for the web in 1994, while I was in school. I’m glad I did because it was a good supplement to my education and training as a print designer. I watched my fellow students try to force their creative ideas from Photoshop onto the web, only to be defeated by smaller monitor resolutions and slow downloads. I’ve watched Communication Arts award magazine pages to web sites devoid of HTML and CSS year after year. And I’ve watched many print designers struggle with the web, refusing to secede control to the medium.

The web is not a medium that will afford print designers the control they’ve grown accustomed to. So what can print designers do to embrace the web? I’ve got a few tips for print designers who want to become better web designers:

1. Learn the basics of HTML and CSS
   The more you understand the medium the better a designer you will become. An understanding of the printing process can help a print designer when budget limits them to a two-color design. They can use contrast, overlays, and paper color, to creatively exploit their limitations. Knowing how the web works is a lot like that.
2. Don’t put design before content
   It’s a battle you will never win. Your readers are interested in the content first. Design is a distant second. If you don’t believe me, go to your local newsstand and try to pick up a copy of Ray Gun. What’s that? It’s out of print? As long as you are there, pick me up a copy of Popular Science, would you?
3. Give up control
   Print designers and web designers, myself included, are some of the most egotistical and stubborn people to work with. It’s necessary at times to produce good work, but it can get in the way. On the web, it gets in the way. The sooner you are able to give up control and come to terms with the fact that the web site you designed and developed isn’t going to look exactly the same on everyone else’s monitors, the sooner you will get past the blockages that are holding you up from becoming a great web designer.

Photo credit: Tunruh