To manage all the different Work Industries projects I use a web-based project management tool called Basecamp from design firm 37 Signals. 37 Signals are widely known as proponents of simple, clean software. In fact, they say as much on their front page:

We believe software is too complex. Too many features, too many buttons, too much to learn. We build web-based products that do less, work smarter, feel better, and are easier to use. We pay enormous attention to the details, interface, and overall customer experience of our products.

I’ve appreciated their simple approach to software with Basecamp, but one thing kept coming up for me. There is no way to see in one view all of the contributions of a person on a project. I found I remembered who had done something but not exactly when they had done it or how they had titled it. I wanted to be able to trace back their contributions.

Here’s my note to 37 Signals requesting they consider creating a way to see contibutions to a project by person.

Hi 37 Signalers,

I’m really enjoying using Basecamp and I have one thing that I’d love to be able to do – see the contents of a project by the contributor.

So the files, comments, messages – everything, really – viewed by who did it. I find I’m often (a couple of times a day) looking through messages or files for a particular contributed item that I know who contributed it but don’t know it’s title or when it was contributed. And I can’t always rely on others or myself to categorize things properly. So I’d love to be able to see the project by person.

That’s all. Keep up the excellent work!

~James

I’ll be interested to see what happens. I saw Jason Fried, 37 Signals’ founder, speak at the Web 2.0 conference back in 2004 and his plea for simpler, clearer software really struck a chord with me.

I tried to implement a similar philosophy in my web product management position at the time, but over time realized that the throughput of features was the core way a product manager was evaluated, as if we were in a manufacturing industry shipping widgets to stores instead of designing an interaction environment where each new feature had to be measured against the existing ones. I won’t go into detail about the type of innovations invented to keep the assembly line humming.

Has anyone else found they wanted to see their Basecamp project by person? Or, has anyone found a better way to do this already that I haven’t discovered?