Aga Artka Interior Design, LLC

Project management

September 22nd, 2009 10:11 pm

In any creative field, the key to a successful project, besides great design, is timely and quality execution. Whether you design websites or interiors, it is crucial to be able to map out the process, track the progress and stay on top of each phase of the project. Many web-based as well as hard-drive downloaded software are available to help us, designers to perform our work even better.

I have asked for recommendations, researched the web and tried a few different applications. I think I found a product that fits my needs. I want to take this opportunity and share some of my finding with you, in case you run into the same issue in your business.

WEB-BASED APPLICATION

I had an opportunity to use Basecamp Project Management Software on one of my projects. It’d been recommended by a friend/graphic designer. I was eager to give it a try as I heard a lot good things about it. If you know anything about Basecamp, and other business management applications by 37 Signals, I’m sure you are thinking how effective, productive, easy-to-use and intuitive this application is. That is all true. The online Basecamp account allows you to communicate easily with your clients and coworkers, set tasks and milestones for the project, attach files and share links, assign people to various tasks and more. What it does not offer is a visual representation of a project time line, which in my industry is crucial to communicate the process to not only the client, but also to all the vendors and contractors involved in the project. 37 Signals is most likely not going to implement any sort of Gantt chart option, which to me, makes it ineffective. The monthly cost is also hard to justify especially since most of my clients are not very computer-savvy.

INSTALLED SOFTWARE

This pretty cool looking software by The Omni Group has impressed me from the get-go. I liked the simplicity of OmniPlan, but was a bit concerned with the demo version and the cost associated with it. In addition, a lot of reviews mentioned major crushing and overwrite issues which I wasn’t going to experience on my own. I downloaded a trial version and liked the visual aspect of the application. However, I did not find it as intuitive as it is advertised and was hesitant to invest the time into learning a software that, who knows, may never make it to a full-version. The cost, compared to the most popular project management software on the market, is fair, but is not enough to get me to buy it.

MY CHOICE

After endless researching and exploring, I decided on Projector. It is an affordable, well-designed and well-supported application, which keeps track of tasks, but also monitors cost of the project. I like the Gantt chart capability as well as the ability to add resources from Address Book, sync tasks and milestones with  iCal. There is also an option to export the files directly to a website, MobilMe, or a pdf. Version 2.0 is set to release in mid-October, and the developers are already promoting a free upgrade. I am very excited to start using this tool on my future interior design projects.