I am currently leading a team at my workplace that’s evaluating our use of the project management software Quickbase. Quickbase is essentially an online database that manages data points such as (in our case) people, courses, programs and tasks. The tool was originally intended to facilitate collaboration and project management, enabling the use of templates to generate task lists and notifications for courses running on a repeat basis. It was also intended as a platform for designers to manage the development of new courses; pulling all their team members and resources together on one timeline. Managers have a stake too; using Quickbase they are able to easily assess at any time the status of courses or programs.
Our Quickbase use has fizzled a bit (or a lot).
One reason for this is likely due to the interface: It’s very database-y:
Our workplace consists of instructional designers and assistants who may not be accustomed to a database interface, and honestly are not expected to be power database users as part of their skill set.
My charge, along with the team joining me in this journey, is to find what might actually work to achieve our ends. We know that the software is very good at managing data, tables and relationships. We also know that our users are drawing a blank when attempting to use it. So the question is: how do we build an interface that our users instinctively know how to use and serves the purpose of keeping team members honest and on track? There is yet another layer of complication here. The team interacts on a nearly daily basis with various data housing systems outside of Quickbase – systems that store more detailed course information, manage time tracking, store course multimedia, etc. Here in fact is a snapshot of the whiteboard from our last meeting where we were discussing all these systems:
You can see how tangled this problem is. Many of the systems are out of our control and will probably still have to be interfaced with manually, but for the in-house solutions, there is great potential for integration, saving time and duplication of effort for everyone who uses them.
Luckily, we have Jeanette Condo on our team, a programmer with database and API experience. (yay for us!) With her help, we may come up with a win-win solution that puts Quickbase in the background while fully taking advantage of its powerful database capabilities.
Our next team meeting is next Monday. We are still in the discussion and exploration stage and have not begun any nitty-gritty development or testing yet, so the question I think I want to ask is, if we were to design a system for managing our work from the ground up, without consideration for existing systems, what would it look like?
Thanks much for your detailed feedback, Penny. Personalization built in to a solution was something I hadn’t considered much till now, but it makes perfect sense. I look forward to our meeting.
Here’s another piece of the workflow puzzle: time tracking. I currently use a third-party utility (BK Task Timer) to track my time spent on projects and courses. It’s a very simple application; literally it’s a timer that runs on my desktop. Would be really neat if this pulled data from courses/programs or special projects and pushed to Myrtle. Maybe an Adobe Air app that would literally run in the background and be separate from the browser? Wow, there’s a lot we could be achieving here.
Hmmm… What would it look like?
First, nothing I needed would be more than a click away. I could easily switch between detailed and summary views. It would have lots of search options, by course, by semester, by faculty, by designer, by team, etc.
Data entry would happen on as few screens / systems as possible – for example, I could upload my short status notes, time spent, and design tasks completed for several courses all on the same screen.
The system would pull data from other sources so that I don’t need to spend time tracking things down.
When I login as me, I wouldn’t have to look at or sort through other people’s stuff – unless I wanted to. The system would know who I am and customize my views, the courses, and programs I see accordingly.
And my supervisors wouldn’t need to ask me for anything. The system would be so easy to use – I would actually use it. And it would be easy for those folks who seek data and status reports to use.
And maybe something in a nice calming blue…
Hmmm… What would it look like?
First, nothing I needed would be more than a click away. I could easily switch between detailed and summary views. It would have lots of search options, by course, by semester, by faculty, by designer, by team, etc.
Data entry would happen on as few screens / systems as possible – for example, I could upload my short status notes, time spent, and design tasks completed for several courses all on the same screen.
The system would pull data from other sources so that I don’t need to spend time tracking things down.
When I login as me, I wouldn’t have to look at or sort through other people’s stuff – unless I wanted to. The system would know who I am and customize my views, the courses, and programs I see accordingly.
And my supervisors wouldn’t need to ask me for anything. The system would be so easy to use – I would actually use it. And it would be easy for those folks who seek data and status reports to use.
And maybe something in a nice calming blue…
Hmmm… What would it look like?
First, nothing I needed would be more than a click away. I could easily switch between detailed and summary views. It would have lots of search options, by course, by semester, by faculty, by designer, by team, etc.
Data entry would happen on as few screens / systems as possible – for example, I could upload my short status notes, time spent, and design tasks completed for several courses all on the same screen.
The system would pull data from other sources so that I don’t need to spend time tracking things down.
When I login as me, I wouldn’t have to look at or sort through other people’s stuff – unless I wanted to. The system would know who I am and customize my views, the courses, and programs I see accordingly.
And my supervisors wouldn’t need to ask me for anything. The system would be so easy to use – I would actually use it. And it would be easy for those folks who seek data and status reports to use.
And maybe something in a nice calming blue…