Previously, when a task card was moved to the Done or Trash columns on a Kerika Task Board, it was frozen: no changes of any kind were possible.
We have loosened this restriction a little: now you can add chat to these cards. We found there were situations where someone needed to add a comment on a card after it had been moved to Done or Trash, so we are being flexible!
When working on our Task Boards, users will now find it even easier than before to see exactly what changed inside a task (card): new attachments, for example, are flagged like this:
And that’s true for new chat:
And for checklist items:
We know Kerika is used for some really large projects with thousands of cards, so we are always looking to see how we can make it super easy for distributed and global teams to keep up with what their colleagues are doing.
We have added a new Undo feature that you can use to correct any mistaken drag-and-drop actions, or mistaken Move to Trash and Move to Done actions.
When you have moved a card, an Undo button will appear on the top-right of the app (along with a new Zoom button):
Undo works just like you would expect it to. The Undo button shows for 2 minutes after a task (card) has been moved. (Keeping it there longer would actually be confusing for users who might not remember what exactly will be undone if they click on it.)
Along with the new Undo feature we have added a Zoom button that appears on the top-right of the app, on laptops, desktops and tablets:
When zoomed out, the board shows all tasks (cards) as a single line, and this is handy if you are dealing with a large board. Here’s what a zoomed-out view looks like:
This feature has existed for a while in our mobile apps; now you can use it on your desktop as well.
We have also improved this feature on mobile to make it possible for you to add new tasks while you are zoomed-out.
The transition to remote work has been swift, and digital tools have become the backbone of modern workplaces. However, the landscape of remote work is still fairly new and many teams are still far from their greatest potential. Still, if they polish their processes, remote teams can be as productive as they would on-site, and even more. This article will present digital tools essential to optimize digital workplace workflows and productivity.
Project management tools are the backbone of any team’s workflow. Project management tools centralize your team’s tasks and projects, enabling employees to manage tasks, deadlines, and resources.
Use a project manager to track progress and identify any bottlenecks. Likewise, logging tasks and project information adds a layer of transparency and accountability to project management tools.
In any case, your workflow can only be as good as the project management software you use allows you to. Some of the most popular project management tools available include Asana, Trello, and Basecamp. However, Kerika stands out from the rest by its own merits.
Kerika is a powerful project management tool that helps teams work efficiently and collaboratively. It offers a variety of features to meet the requirements of the most demanding users. Here are some of the features that make Kerika a must-have tool for any digital workplace:
File-sharing software enables employees to store and work with files no matter where they are located and from multiple devices. Such flexibility reduces the time and effort needed to search for documents or to track down the latest version of a file, something methodic and disorganized employees enjoy alike.
File-sharing tools such as Google Drive also enable multiple people to collaborate on the same document simultaneously, opening the possibility of real-time feedback and faster completion of tasks. In like manner, users can easily leave comments and make suggestions.
Administrators can easily control who has access to specific files or folders, ensuring that confidential information is kept secure. Permissions can be set to allow different levels of access to different users, making it easy to share files with only those who need to see them.
Effective communication is key to a successful digital workplace. With communication platforms such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom, team members can stay connected and work together seamlessly through video and audio calls, and screen and file sharing.
On the other hand, video conferencing tools with virtual reality (VR) technology are a more cutting-edge option. VRth finds industrial applications in industries such as architecture and engineering by allowing teams to visualize and interact with 3D models Yet, VR can also work as a space for brainstorming, meetings, and events. To know more about VR meeting platforms, check Virbela and NextMeet.
Cybersecurity tools such as firewalls, and intrusion detection systems help businesses to protect their data from cyber threats. On the other hand, these tools also help businesses to comply with data protection regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
Additionally, virtual private networks (VPNs) are essential for any business that values data privacy and security. VPNs create a secure and encrypted connection between a business’s network and the internet, preventing unauthorized access to sensitive information. VPNs are especially important for remote workers who need to access company resources from outside the office. Here is a list of some of the cheapest VPNs.
Business process management software can help businesses streamline their operations by automating repetitive tasks and workflows, including data entry, invoice processing, and customer service.
Besides, artificial intelligence (AI) technology is increasingly being used to improve productivity in the digital workplace, taking care of complex tasks and clearing humans from them. AI-powered productivity tools can help automate tasks, provide personalized insights and recommendations, and analyze data to identify opportunities for improvement. Tools of this kind include beautiful.ai, for coming up with presentations, and Mem made to organize information.
Mind mapping software can help teams visualize and organize complex ideas and concepts through brainstorming, planning, and collaborating. Among popular mind-mapping tools, we find MindMeister, MindManager, and XMind.
On the other hand, digital whiteboards can help teams collaborate and brainstorm more effectively, especially in remote settings: Visualize ideas by drawing or writing them, or share them with others and receive feedback. Popular digital whiteboard tools include Miro, Google Jamboard, and Microsoft Whiteboard.
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With our latest update we have made it easy for you to ensure that someone on a board team always sees your chat message, even if they are not assigned to that card.
The old rule was that everyone who is currently assigned to a card would get new chat pushed to them as emails. Now, you can make sure someone gets that email notification right away, even if they aren’t assigned to a particular card:
Using this feature is simple: just type the letter “@” anywhere in your chat message and Kerika offers all the matching suggestions:
“@All” lets you push your chat to every Board Admin and Team Member — something you should do only rarely to avoid annoying people!
Try this feature and let us know if we can improve it.
We got feedback from some users after our last big release on how we could improve the user experience for folks who like to use the auto-numbering feature for Task Boards, and we have made these changes:
When you open a task, it’s number is shown (but can’t, of course, be edited)
You can now search for a numbered task simply by typing “#number” in the Search box
We have done a bunch of things to help folks who need to work with multiple Kerika accounts: a common situation with consulting, outsourcing, or other professional services who need to work with clients who all have their own Kerika accounts.
It starts at the Home page, where we made it easier to filter you view of Boards and Templates to a subset of all the Kerika accounts you can access:
You can use the check boxes in the left navigation area to temporarily hide some accounts, if you want to narrow your view of boards and templates.
More importantly, you can now access boards from different Kerika accounts in the same session: you don’t need to log out of one account and log into another, to be able to quickly switch between boards from different accounts.
The Board Switcher, which shows all the boards you currently have open, across accounts:
It’s also easy to set your preferences on a per-account basis:
The Dashboard (previously labeled “Views”) has new capabilities so you can get a great overview of all your projects, across all your accounts:
This makes it as easy to filter your Views on desktop as we had previously done for mobile users.
We have redesigned the Task/Card details dialog to provide a more space-efficient layout, so you can see more of what you need without having to scroll:
What used to be vertical tabs for Details, Chat, etc., is now a compact horizontal tab; this frees up a lot of space to see the details of the tags.
The other big change we made is to make the Priority setting separate from other Tags:
Clicking on the star will bring up your task priority options:
We are transitioning our Scrum Board users to Task Boards: the Scrum Boards are used only by a tiny portion of our user base, who overwhelmingly prefer using Task Boards and Whiteboards.
For many years now we have offered both Task Boards and Scrum Boards, but the relative popularity (and implied usefulness) of these two are lopsidedly in favor of Task Boards.
The main difference between Task Boards and Scrum Boards has been the use of a shared Backlog: a column of cards that can be shared by several Scrum Boards at the same time.
In Scrum Boards, the Backlog appeared fixed in the leftmost column of the board, and like Done and Trash, it couldn’t be be moved, renamed or deleted.
The Backlog was “live” all the time in the sense that any change made by one attached Scrum Board to the Backlog was immediately reflected in every other Scrum Board that was attached to the same Backlog. If Scrum Board A added a card to a shared Backlog, it immediately showed up in the Backlog column when viewed by Scrum Board B and Scrum Board C.
This wasn’t a good way to implement Scrum Boards, as we found out ourselves during our internal use of these boards. It’s principle weakness was it led to a proliferation of Scrum Boards, since each Sprint required a new Backlog. (Our own development team is currently on Sprint 180 so we experienced this proliferation early on.)
We though the general feature in Kerika that lets accounts archive old boards would help, but this just pushed the proliferation problem to another area; it didn’t really fix it.
We are just going to have Task Boards (and Whiteboards) from now on. At some point in the future we may completely rethink, redesign, and rebuild a new kind of scrum boards, but it doesn’t make sense for us to continue offering the current version.
As a consequence, all existing Scrum Boards will be converted into Task Boards. Here’s how that would work:
Consider an existing set of boards that all use the same shared Backlog: Board A, Board B, and Board C.
Right now all three boards see the same Backlog, at the same time: if cards are added or moved away from the shared Backlog by any board, this view is immediately updated for all three boards.
When we transform Scrum Boards to Task Boards, each of Boards A, B, and C will have its own local copy of the Backlog.
From this point on, any changes made by any of these boards to their local copies of the Backlog will not affect the copies that were made for the other boards. Each board, then, becomes independent and can proceed on its own path, without affecting any other board since there is no longer a shared column of cards.
We have already been in touch with active users of Scrum Boards and have not heard any concerns from them about this proposed change, so we are confident that we are making the right decision. If you do have any questions, please contact us at support@kerika.com.