Wunderkit is here! Well, at least it is for the first round of beta testers. I had been thinking about the release strategy for Wunderkit for a while. In any case, I was fortunate enough to be granted a beta invitation a few days ago and am loving it! From the user interface, the experience and the exactly-what-you-need/none-of-the-fluff kind of functionality that we’ve come to love 6Wunderkinder for.
A few days ago I was sitting at my desk, smashing away at the keyboard when I see my Gmail notifier pop up with an email from 6Wunderkinder. I love getting emails from these guys – they’re always so well designed. Instinctively I opened my email tab and see the subject line. A few words instantly jump out at me: “Wunderkit”, “beta”, “approved”. I don’t think I could open the email quick enough. I, like a gajillion other people, had been waiting months for the chance to see Wunderkit in action and without any word on their website they had begun sending out beta access information. I clicked the link in the emai and logged in to Wunderkit through Twitter. I was then asked to confirm my details and create a password. The password simply allows you to log in using the traditional method as well as through newer social methods.
Wow. Thats all I could think when the main dashboard loaded for me. Wow.
In true 6Wunderkinder fashion the design is amazing. Down the left I see my Twitter profile picture and an option to add something else. It turns out to be Workspaces, but more on that later. In the middle I see an empty slate, a status message stream. Immediately I test it out with a public “Checking out Wunderkit” update. On the right is a message from 6Wunderkinder welcoming me to the program. And below that it gets really crazy – public recommended and featured workspaces and people!
But wait a second, isn’t this suppose to be a productivity application? What kind of productivity application goes social, or even public with your task list? The Wunderkit kind, that’s what.
Workspaces
When i first logged in i had one workspace, my personal one. However, I discovered that you can have what looks like any number of workspaces that you want. Simple moving my mouse to the workspace area made an “add” button appear. A workspace is a bit like a project. if you’re familiar with Wunderlist, consider a workspace to be a collection of lists, or, think about your Wunderlist account as one workspace. When setting up my new workspace I found that There are two types of workspaces in Wunderkit world: Public and Private. To be honest, it did take me a little while to fully understand and appreciate the potential of a Public workspace, but of course it’s awesome.
Private Workspaces
Private workspaces are your more traditional task list approach. They allow you and your team to collaborate on tasks without the prying eyes of the public. You can maintain your members (the people who should have access to the workspace), tasks, due dates and notes, all from the one workspace.
Public Workspaces
These workspaces can be looked at by anyone. That includes the message stream, tasks and notes. But why would you want anyone else looking at these things? Imagine the hype and anticipation should 6Wunderkinder develop another application. They could use a public workspaces to keep the public updated on their progress, respond to questions and generate even more hype! I would expect that they would also maintain a Private workspace, for those notes and tasks that may not be suited to the public eye, but hey, the public wouldn’t need to know that, nor would they care.
It’s Still Beta
After I’d logged in and poked around for a while I did notice a few things that didn’t seem quite right. But it’s beta after all and that’s what a beta is all about – having the public provide another level of quality assurance testing. Some things, like the number of open tasks in a list not appearing consistently, we’re resolved the next day, showing that the platform is still being actively developed. The speed of the system overall is a little sluggish at the moment, but it turns out that is to be expected – the team is putting the platform through stress tests. A couple of other things like subtasks, are still yet to appear, while features such as repeating tasks are there and ready. The only other thing that a lot of us are still hanging out for is a mobile application for iPhone, iPad Android and Windows, and rest assured, 6Wunderkinder have one (or probably many) in the works.
After a few days of using Wunderkit I have to say that it is shaping up to be a world-class group task management tool. It’s not a project management system, nor was it ever designed or intended to be. It will help you keep your team, and the teams around you focused on yours, or your customer’s objectives. One task list; one set of notes; one source of truth, and it’s damn sexy!
If you haven’t already signed up for the beta I strongly recommend you do. It really won’t be long now before you too can become more productive, the 6Wunderkinder way. Sign up for the beta here: http://www.wunderkit.com/8Sc8TR
If you do have access, what are your thoughts on Wunderkit? Leave your comments below – it’s a social thing.
Tags: wunderkit
