Last week we rolled out a long awaited and highly anticipated update to our project management system, Basecamp, by 37signals. For those who have worked with Basecamp previously you’ll notice an immediate difference when logging into the new Basecamp for the first time, if you haven’t already. Modern and clean the new layout is reminiscent of Pinterest with board like organization of projects with a dash of Facebook like timelime, time stamp, and social features.

So what’s new you ask? A lot! We’re going to briefly touch on the major changes in this brief with plans to re-release our Getting Acquainted with Basecamp guide, revised to reflect working with the new Basecamp.

Gone are the multiple navigation tabs which have made way for a simple primary text based navigation consisting of “projects”, “calendar”, “daily progress”, “everyone”, and “me”. Basecamp single page projects keep everything together with secondary categories divided into areas comprised of “discussions”, “to-dos”, “files”, “events”, and “text documents”.  Top primary and secondary navigation make it easy to jump to the area you are looking for – think table of contents.

Your “me” page shows you every to-do that’s assigned to you, as well as all the to-dos that you’ve completed. You can also view everything assigned to others in your project, by person, via the “everyone” page allowing you to see what’s getting done, and who’s getting it done.

The “catch up” link found in the upper right hand corner of each project allows you to page through a project – or all your projects – one day at a time. It’s never been simpler to catch up on what you missed. The “upcoming events” area located to the right of your project details contains a listing of your upcoming events allowing you to view important project details at a glance.

Utilize the calendar page to view a timeline of your project deliverables once scheduled by our production team. This is one of the most widely used features of our project management system and a key component to understanding your project’s timeline and delivery expectations.

Check on the “daily progress” of your project for a timeline like view of your project happenings. As you scroll down the daily progress timeline you move back in time allowing you to see exactly what happened in the order it happened. Large circles denote dates and every event is time stamped down to the minute.

Take advantage of the search box located in the upper right corner (Basecamp wide) to search across all projects for the information you’re looking for. Quickly and easily search discussions, to-dos, and files for key details.

Ultimately we hope you’ll find the new streamlined Basecamp easier to navigate with an emphasis on key project information and collaboration between our team members and yours.