5/7/13

KanbanFlow

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KanbanFlow is a task and project management web application based on (well, you guessed that right) the Kanban workflow and scheduling system in which, you have a stack of cards containing your projects or tasks and you move them around a board.

The board metaphor is a really strong one, allows users to quickly decide on what to do next and have a wide view of the pending items.

The KanbanFlow application is simply designed, containing just the essentials to get your things done. It is fast and it has a quick registration system followed by a brief tutorial showing you all there is to know in less than a minute.

I was really able to start adding my tasks right away, since there are a few controls which are self explanatory like clicking on the green cross icon at the top of each section and add your next card.

Each card can contain a good deal of information, like notes, labels, time estimates, due dates, subtasks and comments.
I loved the multiple due dates ability for each card, enabling you to define a date when a card should be moved to a specific section (like in progress) and also a later date to move it into the done section. That way it’s easy to have a semi automated in progress section without the need to move all cards manually. Cards can be also copied making it easy to have templates of often used information.

Of course there is multiuser support, and each card can be assigned to another user, cards can have different colors and there is no need to archive them since the done section always show the last 20 cards moved there.

The sections can be customized and each user can create more boards for different uses. There is a customization screen which is great in terms of functionality, letting you change lots of options for a specific board, but it is a bit hidden and displayed as a bullet-list of options, something that the developers should consider making more prominent to the users.

A good touch is the pomodoro timer which is embedded into the system and can be easily used providing you with useful statistics about your habits (pomodoro technique).
As for other functions, there is support for printing and the ability for desktop notifications for the free version of KanbanFlow which also gives you unlimited boards and users.

Users of the premium plan ($5/user monthly) can take advantage of extended functionality, including filters & searches, file attachments, user roles, time management, analytics and API access. In my opinion a basic search function should be available to free users as well.

There are no apps for mobile devices but their mobile site https://kanbanflow.com/m is supported on most smartphones.

In conclusion, KanbanFlow is a good application following the under-implemented Kanban scheduling system, it is easy to work with and provides great functionality, especially for premium users. The only thing I would recommend would be a more focused and unified design effort for the GUI.

https://kanbanflow.com