For anyone whose ever worked a day in their life, you know that getting the right feedback and approval from the right people can be an enourmous pain. This pain is then worsened when revision after revision has to be made by multiple people, and often revisions are revisions of someone elses revisions and so forth.
Backboard essentially solves this problem, or at least, will cause a few less headaches. A "backboard" is a landing page, a unique URL (with optional password protection), that displays a graphic, website, or block of text, and allows for people to leave and track comments as well as "approve" of whatever the backboard is centered around.
It's as simple as that really. The only thing you get for having a paid account is the ability to have a backboard be "invite only", using email as a way of verifying whether or not a user can leave feedback. Feature comparison here.
Have a look at the walkthrough:
Does the app fulfill its intended purpose?
9
How clean and simplistic is the UI?
10
Is the app forward thinking and innovative?
9
How re-usable is the app?
10
Overall
9.5
I think Backboard does a good job of solving a big problem that many teams have, and this app almost makes the Perfect 10 cut. However, I just feel like the commenting system could have been a little more feature rich. Perhaps throw in a tagging system similar to Flickr that allows for specific areas of an image/site to be mapped out and commented.
But I think repeat use is very high for this app, and I myself will be back to use this again for sure. Check out the backboards I created here, and leave a comment to try it out if you'd like.
RememberTheMilk.com is an online based task management utility. Sign up, create different to-do lists, and mark them as complete when you're done. More or less, it's that simple. However, you've probably seen (or heard) of apps like Basecamp that are simple project management utilities, but Remember The Milk is a bit different. It's not so much project oriented as it's just task oriented. But, the team who developed RTM truly did push the limits of what it means to manage a to-do list.
Features like task tagging, which is similar to tagging on del.icio.us or a blog post, enables easy sorting of tasks. Users can also separate out their to-do lists into different lists, such as Work and Personal. In addition, tasks can be assigned due dates, designated as repeating tasks, given time estimates, locations and even be associated with a URL.
What makes the application great though is it's ability to be accessible from the iPhone. At its heart, a to-do list is something that needs to be portable, and go everywhere you go. Granted, some people may work at a laptop all day, but regardless, everyone has to leave their screens and take a break at some point or another and it's often during those hiatuses (bathroom, eating, etc...) that the mind is allowed to wonder and think about all things non-computer related. It's during those moments of mental sauntering that one remembers other things that perhaps they hadn't whilst their hands were glued to their keyboard. But, upon returning to their work, their mind shifts back to what they were doing, leaving that wonderful nugget that they had remembered on the side of the curb, depressed and alone, as you drive off without it.
RTM can link up with your Google Calendar (and iCal as well), providing a much needed tasking function that gCalendar lacks. An additional function I would like to see is the "Quick Add" function that is similar to the one in Google Calendar. So for instance if I typed "Mail letter to Rachel at 10am tomorrow", it should add a task called "Mail Letter to Rachel" and the due date as 10am tomorrow. iPhone functionality is available, but you have to pay. It's only $25 for the year, so that's not too bad. But if you're like me, and even your electronic bank accounts have moth's in them, then it's hard to beat free.
Does the app fulfill its intended purpose?
8
How clean and simplistic is the UI?
8
Is the app forward thinking and innovative?
9
How re-usable is the app?
6
Overall
7.75
Personally, for to-do lists, I use the "Hipster PDA": a stack of 3x5 index cards and a binder clip. I carry it around everywhere and schedule my day based on whatever's on that card. I go through a card a day, and carry over incomplete tasks to the next card. I also designed a snazzy PDF that prints out a template onto the back of the cards. But because I like to hold a physical and portable object that displays my to-do's, the fact that I couldn't have this to-do list on my iPod Touch, but on my computer only, was what made me stop using this app.
However, a stack of index cards is about $4, and I go through a stack a month. So, overtime, I'll end up spending more on cards than I would have on a RTM subscription... so maybe I will buy it. Overall, the verdict on Remember The Milk is this: it's the most in depth to-do list app I've seen to date. But until I pony up the cash for the Pro version, I'm sticking with my index cards.
Keane hails from the interactive department at a full-service advertising agency based out of Connecticut. He's also a part-time explorer of the graphic arts.
