Does this kanban iOS/web app exist?

February 5, 2013 1:28 PM

I'm enjoying KanbanFlow, but I need something where I can enter stuff into my iPod Touch offline and have that go to a web-based Kanban board next time my iPod has a wireless signal. (Something like syncing in Remember The Milk. In fact, if you can write a Kanban app/extension for RTM or even just tell me of an existing one, I will spouse you.) Does an app with my desired characteristics exist?

The metaphor of to-do items as persistent things that travel through a system resonates strongly with me.

I'm loving KanbanFlow for the following reasons:

• Vertical columns. I've seen apps where you move the tasks through a series of lists arranged one after another in one long column, and this for some reason does not take me to my happy place.
• Ability to collapse/hide columns. I get overwhelmed easily by to-do lists. I have an absurd number of columns set up in KanbanFlow, just so that each list stays short and attainable, and I can collapse all the lists except the one or two I am working on.
• Color coding. Because color coding makes everything better.
• The Pomodoro timer. This is very nicely implemented in KanbanFlow. In addition to counting of 25 minute work periods and 5 minute breaks, it keeps track of how long you spend on each project. I don't expect many other apps to have this, sadly.

What I need in addition:

• Some way to get stuff onto the board when I am offline with my iPod. I don't have a smartphone. I sometimes don't have wireless. I need ubiquitous capture.
• Web syncing. My wee iPod screen is not big enough to contain the splendor of any to-do system. I've tried. It just isn't. I also work in 2 different offices and home and a number of third spaces, so I need to be able to log into a website or something and see my Kanban board on my laptop. (If I could have a huge pinboard in my One Place of Work and carry a stack of index cards in my pocket for ubiquitous capture, man, that'd be ideal, but that's not my lifestyle.)

Things I don't need at all:

• The ability to share my board with any other human being.
• Any sort of deadline-handling.
• The ability to manipulate the board or do anything other than dump in new tasks on my iPod. Though if there's an app that handles this nicely, okay.

It might seem silly to require syncing... I could just dump new tasks into an inbox on RTM, but having to look at two webpages is just too big a barrier for me. (Yeah, first wold problems. But I know my productivity weaknesses.)

I'm willing to drop some money on this, though cheap or free is good.

I'm also willing to entertain creative solutions—a web and iOS app where you can move stickies around on a "whiteboard" background that you can modify, perhaps?

posted by BrashTech to Technology (7 answers total)

That screenshot looks a lot like trello, which has an iOS client and I'm pretty sure does offline adding.
posted by jacalata at 2:18 PM on February 5, 2013

Oh, I don't think that'll do any pomodoro for you, but I think it has the other features.
posted by jacalata at 2:20 PM on February 5, 2013

The Kanban page claims it has offline support - presumably using HTML5 storage - in what way is it currently not meeting your needs?
posted by phearlez at 3:00 PM on February 5, 2013

Response by poster: phearlez, I'm not seeing that anywhere at the website? And I just tried it with Chrome on iOS and just got a big fat plate of "Cannot connect to the Internet."

jacalata, Trello looks super fancy but as far as I can tell it doesn't do offline (though everybody's asking for the feature in their forums.)
posted by BrashTech at 4:26 PM on February 5, 2013

Wow, I'm sorry. I totally remembered it being offline, but it only does offline viewing, not editing.

Having poked around a little, there are a couple of third parties that will create new trello cards from an email?
posted by jacalata at 4:59 PM on February 5, 2013

Best answer: Kanbanery is a web-based kanban tool which also works with an app. There is a free version of the site, and from a brief test in Airplane mode, the iPhone/iPod Touch app works while offline, and will then sync back to the web the next time that you open it while online.

As far as I know, it doesn't support the Pomodoro Timer, but it's something that the developers seem to be aware of.
posted by andrewraff at 10:19 AM on February 6, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks, andrewraff, Kanbanery is working fine. It isn't nearly as pretty as KanbanFlow, but it's doing the trick.
posted by BrashTech at 2:36 PM on February 11, 2013