FacileThings Goals for 2018

This year, we haven’t done any survey among our users to define the priorities of our next developments. There are several reasons that justify this:

1. We have initiated a process of redesigning the entire application, section by section, that must be finished as soon as possible. This “redesign” implies a whole lot of work at all levels. It isn’t just meant for creating a more pleasant visual design, but it has the purpose of facilitating the work flow, simplifying processes, getting rid of friction, and adding a multitude of functional improvements. Ultimately, we seek to improve significantly the user experience and we think that needs to be our top priority.
2. We have reached a number of users and daily transactions that forces us to make structural improvements to be able to grow without reducing the performance of the application. Improving the speed of service response and solving potential problems that may lead to reducing the server performance has also become a high priority.
3. This year we need to update the technology we are using, the development environment, libraries, components, etc. It has been two years since the last big upgrade and it is really important to catch up so we can move forward without the pieces that make up FacileThings get obsolete and start generating problems.
4. Finally, we still have some things to do as a result of the last survey, and both the development of those projects and the order of priorities are still valid.

That said, I’m going to introduce you the projects that will form our roadmap for 2018, divided into two blocks: those we have planned to do in the first quarter, and those we want to do during the rest of the year (this division is due to the simple fact that we plan quarter to quarter).

There are no estimated dates because at any time it might be better to change the order and priority of a project, because some new projects might come up that need to be done immediately which would make us postpone the ones already planned, and because I believe that the pressure of deadlines usually lead up to producing mediocre results. Either way, the order that we expect to be carrying out is the following.

The First Quarter

• New design of the navigation system. The top bar menu will be completely reorganized, following the five steps of the GTD methodology (capture, clarify, organize, reflect, and engage). This bar will also contain two tools that must always be present and accessible: the search tool and the filter to focus on one goal or area of responsibility.
• Redesign of the Lists section. It also will include a new action editing window that will contain all the options you can do on a task in the same place, a graphical user interface to indicate starting dates, and a multitude of little details.
• Improvements in the use of the Calendar: Events grouped by date, events duration, customization of the first day of the week and the date and time formats, option to see the “hidden” events in the Ticker File, etc.
• Project management in mobile apps: New feature that will allow you to see your active projects (in progress and waiting), and organize their actions, both in sequential and kanban-style planning.
• Redesign of the Routines section: It will include improvements in the definition of frequencies, new types of frequencies (“every Tuesday and Thursday”, “first Monday of every month", etc.), the possibility of turning an existing task into a routine and to edit the routine from the task itself, UI for energy and expected time, attaching files, etc.
• Making the application thread-safe. This is a technical improvement that will allow us to run the application on a server with several concurrent threads, significantly reducing the response time for the user and the number of errors that occur due to unattended requests.
• Filters in mobile apps: Possibility of applying focus filters (goals and areas of responsibility) and filter to choose the next action (by context, time and energy).

The Rest of the Year

And this are the improvements planned for the rest of the year, in the expected order. They are not explained in detail because they haven’t been planned yet, but you can guess what they are by the name (we will be detailing them in the newsletters by email and, probably, also on the blog).

• Redesign of the Collect option
• Redesign of the Process option
• Global upgrade of the technical frameworks
• Mobile apps: Continuous improvement of features, performance, and ease of use
• Redesign the Review option
• New feature: Project Templates
• Improvements on the website blog
• New feature: Outlook calendar integration
• Redesign of the Perspective section
• Redesign of the Analytics section
• New FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section in the website
• New web app for mobile devices