QG Software & 5pm Blog

Our 5pm project management service, while designed to fit into most popular screen sizes, still takes full advantage of bigger screens and higher resolutions. It also works great with the new and popular widescreen format. There are a couple of things that make it possible:

1. Dual-panel layout takes the maximum advantage of the horizontal space, especially in combination with (2)…

2. Customizable interface - you can resize the panels and even show/hide/resize columns inside those panels, creating your own layouts. Here is an example of two different 5pm layouts:

Check more on interface customization in our short video tutorial “Customizing the Interface”.

3. Timeline view is a natural fit for widescreens due to its horizontal layout.

Almost 40% of our 5pm users have widescreens.

Do you have a widescreen monitor? If not, there is a big chance that you own a widescreen TV. Nearly 30% of all LCDs are widescreens.

Websites are traditionally developed with a vertical layout in mind. The majority use fixed width designs, that fit into smaller resolution screens - the most common ones (800×600 used to be the standard, now it’s 1024×768). The rest of us, with newer and bigger screens, are a minority. Our higher-then-average resolution usually comes with empty space around web pages. While you are reading this blog, you are most likely enjoying the nice blank space on both sides of this article. Join the club.

With widescreens things became even worse. Once again, those who have bigger screens and higher resolution, and now, a widescreen format, don’t gain much from this extra horizontal space. Because of that, it became a common practice to open the browser in a smaller window on the side, and use the rest of the screen space for other applications.

Sure, there are websites with “liquid” layout (full screen width), but those come with the long-text-lines problem, and, once again, widescreens are the ones that suffer the most.

With widescreens gaining more popularity, the UI layouts will adjust too, especially for web applications, favoring customizable horizontal designs. It will be interesting to watch this trend evolving.

Meanwhile, check 5pm demo - widescreens are welcome.

Today I was just drafting a post in my Blogger. I decided to print it out and go over it later before publishing it. I pressed Ctrl+P and… Instead of sending it to the printer, it sent it to the Whole Wide Web?

Apparently, Google decided to make the shortcuts “more sane”. What used to be “Print” in desktop world (for Windows), became “Publish” in, no not the web, just this particular web application.

I guess, Google is big and they know what they are doing - “pushing envelopes”, “reinventing” and so on. “Publish” is a function that is used much more often than “Print” when it comes to blog posts, so I see where they are coming from. But that’s not the point.

Web and desktop applications are getting mixed up on our computers. We can use Gmail and Word, or Outlook and Google Docs at the same time. And, while the desktop world is pretty standardized, web is still a Wild West. Sometimes those two worlds clash, like they did for me today, when I pressed Ctrl+P.

Why is this happening? I think, all those “web2.0″ applications are written, for the most part, by a younger crowd. They don’t have strong ties to desktop “legacy” standards and don’t hesitate to replace them. At the same time casual users still double click now and again on web links. So, next time, when you hit a key combination that did the same thing for past decades in most of your applications, and instead of that it submits your taxes to IRS, don’t be surprised. The Wild Web is still being settled.

The interview lasts for an hour, but it’s worth it. Joel and his partner, Michael Pryor, share their thoughts and plans on Fog Creek Software.

Those who have read “Joel on Software” and “Founders at Work” will be familiar with most of the things discussed. Joel also covered some new topics like the next release of FogBugz. The most interesting detail is the plan for offering the hosted version of Fog Bugz – a very common trend in web2.0 world.

Joel nicely blends the old traditional practices and the new trends. He got some years under his belt working on software development, and it gives him a certain perspective on things.

Definitely worth listening to. Don’t mind the random people walking casually behind the scene.

Check the interview here.

- Sergei

If you have anything to do with software development and didn’t read “Joel on Software” by Joel Spolsky yet, you should.

Joel is a software developer who lives in NY city. Before starting his own company, Fog Creek Software, he worked for big players like Microsoft and Juno. Joel shares his thoughts on his blog from 2000, and this book is a compilation of posts from it.

The book is entertaining, informative and easy to follow. You can read it on and off without going through each paragraph a dozen of times. I actually took it on the flight to Europe and was reading it through that long journey - in the bar, in the airport, on the plane. I finished reading it somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic ocean and almost felt sorry getting to the last page. Coincidently, the purpose of my trip was to conduct a bunch of interviews and the book had a great chapter on this subject.

A lot of startups bloomed lately, and new software spawns every day. Novel approaches to development are evolving (check “Get Real” by 37Signals). With all that web2.0 buzz going on, Joel takes a more “traditional” approach on developing software. He keeps it up to date but relies on experience accumulated over the years. Here is an interesting quote from his book:

“A lot of software developers are seduced by the old ‘80/20′ rule. It seems to make a lot of sense: 80% of the people use 20% of the features. So you convince yourself that you only need to implement 20% of the features, and you can still sell 80% as many copies. Unfortunately, it’s never the same 20%.”

The book is mostly about desktop software development, but a lot still applies to the web development world. He writes about planning, putting together specs (the Achille’s Heel of many failed projects), assembling teams, testing, selling, support and many more business related issues.
When it comes to scheduling and tracking tasks, he recommends keeping it simple - just use lists in Excel. I would go even a lower tech route and use good old paper and pencil. Nothing feels as rewarding as crossing out the completed tasks at the end of the day. However, what works well for one person may not work as well for a group. Especially when people working on the same project live in different places and even different time zone. Having a central location, where everybody can see what needs to be done and what has been done, is essential. A piece of paper can not send email notifications or have files attached to it. Eventually you may need something more.

In case you are looking for a solution to synchronize your team efforts and keep track of your daily tasks, give a try to Project and Team Manager. It’s a web-based application and can be accessed from anywhere, making it easy to maintain virtual teams. You can check the online demo here.

- Sergei