Headquarters For iPhone; A Vastly Superior Basecamp App

by Craik Pyke on 16/03/10 at 5:00 am

Craik Pyke is telecommunications architect and software developer specializing in mobile applications and an editor for iPhoneCTO.

There are few applications I use as frequently as Basecamp. Being involved in several different ventures, it offers me the capability to collaborate with my different peer-groups on actions and milestones for all of those projects. It should be no surprise then that I’ve been using iPhone clients for Basecamp for quite a while; and the majority of that time I’ve been using Insight (Encamp) for reasons largely covered by Bill French in his review of Basecamp apps. However, when 37Signals changed their login methodology, Insight failed to adapt in a timely fashion leaving me frustrated.

Coincidently, I recently met Adam Mcnamara, the lead developer of a new Basecamp application called Headquarters

. He offered me a slot as a Beta tester for the application.

Headquarters is not only the best Basecamp application I’ve used, it is one of the best iPhone productivity applications I’ve used. It has replaced the vast majority of the native or web based Basecamp apps I use.

On initially starting Headquarters, the user is able add their accounts to the application (Headquarters of course supports multiple accounts). Unlike other applications, it will present all of your accounts on each screen, either intermingling the data or separating it with account headers.

It’s important to note that Headquarters supports the 37Signals ID for account management, not OpenID. This won’t present an issue to most Basecamp users, but it’s worth keeping in mind that should you be using OpenID, you’ll need to switch to a 37Signals ID to use Headquarters.

Once you’ve entered your account data and it’s been verified, you’ll default to the Dashboard view where you’re able IMG 0228 200x3001 Headquarters For iPhone; A Vastly Superior Basecamp App

IMG 0228 200x3001 Headquarters For iPhone; A Vastly Superior Basecamp App

to manage items due “Today”, “This week”, or view recent Updates across all of your projects. I found it very helpful to have the Dashboard bring together overdue and upcoming items for all different projects and accounts. My only wish is that in the “Updates” section, I’d like to be able to click on the individual updates to follow through to their data.

The dashboard is a great quick reference for my use, telling me not only what I have coming up, but what’s been completed recently by those who have access to the various projects. This also brings me to the point of why I actually prefer Headquarters over the native web interface. Both in the Dashboard view and in the more detailed projects view, I can now clearly see what’s upcoming and not have that view cluttered with dozen items that are crossed-off as completed. It drives me a little bit mad that there’s no easy way to filter active tasks from completed tasks in the native interface. Thankfully, Headquarters has taken care of that for me.

Of course, beyond the dashboard view, is a Project view which allows the user access to each project with the projects grouped under Account headings. Each project view contains its own Dashboard view, as well as the To-Do lists, Milestones, and Messages (all specific to that project). The project Dashboard functions the same as the overall Dashboard, so nothing more need to be said on that. The To-Do lists, Milestones, and Messages are all completely modifiable from within Headquarters. One can create, add comments, set due dates, mark complete tasks all via the Headquarters interface.

There’s clearly been a lot of thought put into the user experience of Headquarters, as everything is easily and quickly navigable. The user interface itself is also very consistent throughout the application (and as review from other applications show, UI consistency is a pet-peeve of mine).

Overall, I can’t cite any significant issues with Headquarters. It is highly usable – in fact better than the native web interface for me. I do have a few wish-list items for future versions, namely:

Ability to click through items in the “Updates” list, to get to the original item (be it a To-Do, MileStone, or Message)

Writeboard viewer/editor

File viewer

None of those three items have dissuaded me from my use of Headquarters. In point of fact, I’m more than willing to wait on these items in a future update, especially given that the application is so functional in its 1.0 form. If you’re a Basecamp user, I thoroughly recommend Headquarters as the means to access your accounts on the move; it is far above superior tothe other iPhone Basecamp applications I’ve used.