Feature request - Visual organization of tasks / Kanban view of tasks and subtasks within a queue

[Antonio]

Greetings, we've been using GQueues for about a year and a half and have found it very useful for our work.

However, as the number and complexity of our projects and tasks have been growing I have received requests from my staff about tools with a more visual way of organizing tasks and activities.  Because of your tight integration with Google Apps I would prefer to stay with GQueues but have found that other tools (Flow, Podio, etc) currently offer other ways of viewing task information that may be more user-friendly for my staff and improve their ability to track and complete tasks.  I have found Flow's Kanban view (https://www.getflow.com/features/kanban/) to be potentially very helpful (for my staff and for myself as well).

Please let me know if you are working on a more intuitive / more visual organization of tasks, equivalent to Flow's Kanban view. If not currently on your list of development priorities, please receive this as my request to consider it - it is a feature that would be highly beneficial for us, and I imagine would be for other current and potential customers as well.  Thank you.

Best regards,

Antonio

[Cameron (GQueues Team)]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions, Antonio. 

A few others have requested a Kanban type visualization as well.  It's certainly an interesting idea.  I've considered the idea of being able to open multiple queues at a time, which would appear side-by-side, which is pretty much Kanban at that point.  This would facilitate easier drag and drop of tasks between queues.  It's on my list of features I would eventually like to build out (no ETA at this point though).

Thanks again for the input.

Cheers,

Cameron

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Cameron Henneke

Founder, GQueues

"The leading Google-integrated task management service for people and teams."

[Antonio]

Thanks Cameron, I am glad you are thinking about this improvement, I think it could help expand the user-friendliness of GQueues and make it more useful to even more people.

For us, one of the ways in which a kanban view would be helpful is actually not for moving tasks between projects (which we organize as individual queues) but for getting a fuller view of project activities within a project (single queue) and the primary tasks and multiple levels of subtasks they contain.

Many of our projects are multi-year (18 to 36 months), and we often build a project framework right from project start and populate with activities and subactivities, which in turn include multiple steps.  We often end up with a five-screen (or more) queue, which makes it very difficult to move tasks and shift activities (with corresponding subactivities) as needed as the schedule and needs of a project evolve.

Given the way screen space is used within the current views provided in GQueues, most of the space is empty, being used (through a task's horizontal position) to denote hierarchy of the task within parent activities.

What could make a kanban view really helpful is that it could help us see a five-screen queue in a single screen, to quickly understand project progress, re-prioritize activities, and potentially move tasks (with their associated subtasks) from one primary activity to another, or to change their order within an activity - doing this within the current view structure of GQueues is very cumbersome, and has resulted in items being moved to places (activity locations) where they didn't belong.

I remember the first time I saw Flow's Kanban view (only a few weeks ago) - I thought: "this is exactly what we need for our projects" - which really was "I wish GQueues could do this."  We just finished our re-evaluation of GQueues and Flow, and for us (even without Kanban) there is no better tool yet (because of the depth of your integration with Google Apps / calendar, and because of the features you keep rolling out (the "Create a task from Gmail" addition is wonderfully helpful)).  Having said all that, I do hope you are able to move this feature up in your queue.  I would be very happy to talk with you more about what we are looking for in the view, I think it could be something very helpful for many current and future customers.

Best regards,

Antonio

612-234-7078

[Cameron (GQueues Team)]

Thanks for all the additional info, Antonio.  This will definitely help as I think about how to implement this feature and better utilize the screen real-estate.

I'm glad to hear you guys are sticking with GQueues for the time being.  Here's one idea that may help in your situation with the current functionality in GQueues:

You could open multiple queues in multiple browser windows.  GQueues has a full-screen mode which removes the extra stuff around the tasks, which might be useful too.  You won't be able to drag and drop tasks between browser windows, but this could possibly make it easier to see tasks in various activities or stages.

​

Also, later this week new functionality will be launching that makes it easy to open queues in new browser windows.

-Cameron

[Alex]

Hi Cameron,

Currently I'm using OpenERP's kanban task management. It's great but overly complex to deploy to my entire company so I'm checking out GQueues...

Having a kanban view would be brilliant! I tried using a Smart Queue as a temporary work-around but oddly it scrambles the order of subtasks & doesn't allow me to reorder them :-O

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[Ben Edmonds]

+1 for Column Views. This would literally give another dimension to how tasks are viewed. 

Taking it further though, one would ideally be able to configure the columns as Smart Queues can be already. One could then use tags to move tasks through a process or adjust the categorisation of tags. I'd see this as being very useful for product development (scrum & agile lite), or CRM (prospective, warm, hot, live, former). 

[Steve Korecki]

I would just like to add my support for a Kanban view in GQueues.

I am a big fan of GQueues and have been using it with the Getting Things Done (GTD) method for about a year now.  They work well together, but it is a little difficult to view and manage priorities and status of tasks, particularly when you utilize the indented hierarchy.  The concept of status on a Kanban board would be a huge leap forward and take GQueues to the next level.  I believe this will be even more valuable as collaborative features from the roadmap are implemented.  More collaboration means more tasks to sift through, so views that are quick to scan and organize will be needed.

[Chris Graham]

This could be generalized to a columnar grouping by membership in a defined set of tag values.

This supporting different Kanban workflows (custom states),
as well as other visualizations (eg. importance/urgency quadrants).

...as long as moving tasks through the states didn't suffer too much from the genericity.
A drag/keystroke could remove one tag and add the next.

[RGP]

Hi,

I think generalized columnar grouping proposed by Chris is quite a good idea.

Comparing GQueues naming to other tools out there with this kind of capabilities it will be to organize cards (tasks) in a board (queue) over a set of different lists (columns) , here the columns could be based on specifically formatted tags applied to the tasks (cards).
As it is based on tags, the indenting (task/subtask) structure wouldn't be affected when moving tasks between columns, and the base functionality of GQueues does not need to be changed, just the columnar visualization part needs to be developed. With a public API this could be provided by an additional, separated module.

An additional idea to have other tags displayed in columnar view, without column-related tag occupying real state: if the tags are specifically formatted following a simple rule like prepending it with a specific prefix (e.g. "." or "column") or enclosing them in paired brackets like <>, {}, or (), in a way it can be combined with quick add syntax for tags. E.g.: "review new report [Project A] #<ToDo> #urgent" would add a new task (card) on queue (board) "Project A" , and shown in column (list) "<ToDo>" with an additional tag of "urgent".
Moving the task from <ToDo> column to <Doing> would delete the tag <ToDo> and add the <Doing> tag, but nothing else would change in normal GQueues behaviour.

I hope this helps making columnar view implementation easier.

Best regards,
Rafa.

[Chris Graham]

If columns are based on tags, the existing quick-add functionality should be sufficient (at least as long as it allows more than one tag to be set).

The trick is being able to configure which tags correspond to columns, and in what order.

If the user can do that, they wouldn't need special punctuation (though the user could include it in their tag names if desired).

Then, grouping by columns is almost just a vertical version of grouping by tags.

With the added function of dragging to remove/add the appropriate tag.

[Ben Edmonds]

I want to reiterate my desire to see a Kanban / column view in GQs.

Just this week I've been dragged into using Trello with a colleague. Strangely, they also use GQs already (and have for a number of years) but use Trello for organising project information because of the visual organisation. 

@Cameron: Do you have an update on where this sits in your priorities?

Thanks.

[RGP]

Hi,

after trying different alternatives, I've found something that works for me (mostly) for a columnar view in Gqueues.

Using Tab Tiles Firefox extension , combined with full screen view per queue/task on each tiled tab, and some zooming out, I can have a somewhat working columnar view:

Pros:
- you can have a single view over up to 4 columns at once in a 1920x1080 monitor (it could be more, depending on screen resolution and your eyes dot pitch :) )
- using smart queues each column can be actually assigned to specific tags or combined searches
- with custom tile tabs configurations you can have multiple views over different groups of columns, easily switching between them with mouse or key shortcuts.

Cons:
- it lacks drag and drop feature between columns (as each column is actually a separated tab in Firefox, and GQueues does not support drag and drop between different windows/tabs)
-- to change a task between column it has to be edited, or its tags changed
- real state is limited per column given current screen elements location design
-- e.g. date change calendar popup may be partially hidden
-- fix: easy to go in and out of columnar view using one keystroke (F9)

@Cameron : if you could provide drag & drop feature between GQueues view on different tabs/windows of Firefox, that would be sufficient for an almost full featured columnar view!

I've attached a screenshot that shows my current setup.

I hope this helps.

Thanks,
Rafa.

[Adam Bowers]

Came to the forum specifically to request this! Would love a kanban view mode. Something similar to saved Smart Searches where you can specify how many columns and what goes in each. Would be great to allow my queues, smart queues, and smart searches into these columns!

Drag and drop between my queues in columns would be amazing.

This setup would be great for those that love Trello for its visual layout. The GQueues layout is perfect for many people, but some really prefer a visual layout for certain projects. Asana added a board/kanban view mode to their system and I would love for GQueues to do the same!

This would also be great for power users who don't need the visual layout or drag and drop but simply want more info on the screen at once. Off by default, of course, but available to add just like a smart search for power users. 

I think GQueues is the best solution out there. Incredibly flexible and powerful but very simple to use. I love all the added features over the years - many I have requested along the way. But I also hope that GQueues never loses its simplicity even as more features are added. 

[X Y]

Me too!

[Edouard Shamis]

I join for the request. 

[Darren Wigfield]

I'd love to see a way to put smart queues in columns. It would make it easy to build Kanban boards, or many other use cases.

[Adam Bowers]

Just want to see if there is any update on a multi-queue view for GQueues?

This is the key feature missing compared to other systems like Trello and Asana. Many of our team members really prefer and need the visual multi-column layout. We're using multiple systems right now to accommodate this and I would love to go all-in on GQueues!

The ability to save different groupings of queues in a column layout would be amazing. Smart Queues too, although, I understand this probably would not include drag and drop. But drag and drop between My Queues in multi-column would solve a lot of usability and workflow issues. 2-6 columns as a setting would be helpful too.

Any chance this could be in the works now that Team Queues (which are awesome!) are implemented?

Thanks for the amazing software!

Adam

[Jonathan Snyder]

+1 on this feature. I am starting to build a new business and have been using GQueues for years, but really would like some sort of multi-column or Kanban means to manage my tasks.

I am considering Jira / Trello - but would hate to abandon my long time favorite GQueues.

[Linda Voss]

I have to pipe in here. I HATE Kanban. I understand wanting columns so you can see multiple queues at once - that would be good. However, don't convert to the Kanban system. This is why I selected GQueues over something like Trello. Kanban systems are so click intensive to get anything done and waste so much space with each task. 

Columns yes. Kanban no.

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[Adam Bowers]

Just to be clear, we're not talking about conversion to a kanban-only system. We're talking about the option for an alternate view that could be used in a kanban style. In true GQueues fashion, it would be very customizable to fit the needs of the end-user. 

I'm not sure what kanban system you are used to using, but our staff finds it easier and faster than what GQueues can currently do for certain workflows. What you can accomplish with kanban currently takes more clicks in GQueues. More columns visible on the screen at once mean instead of clicking repeatedly to change a task's queue and view the new queue, you simply click and drag a task to a different column already visible on the screen.

Adding columns literally means enabling a kanban workflow.