My name is Peter Brosey. I’m a carpenter in Maine. When it comes to developing Grainchek, I basically try to stay out of the way. In spite of trying NOT to get in the way though, Grainchek has ended up being a little awkward to operate. I can assure you that all the awkward, “why did they do it that way”, parts of Grainchek are my parts! I teamed up with an excellent team at Bacancy Technologies that built all the amazingly smooth experiences.
NO COMMENTING OR LIKING: that is me, I enjoy the quietness of knowing that when I post an event, my friends, family and co-workers can view it if they want to, when they want to. No voting. No commenting. The amazing chat interface in Grainchek that includes sharing feeds and events within the chat thread is my team. They built a fantastic communication platform within the app!
SUBFEED SETTINGS COLLECT EVENTS: this is from me again. I enjoy building and assembling. I enjoy the process of taking a pile of lumber delivered to a job site and building something that people will occupy, use or operate. In Grainchek I have lots of levers and buttons to generate time tracking content. Then build feeds that report to other feeds and collect only certain types of content from a specific time period… Public feeds that can be viewed in your bio: this is the careful, considerate work of my team.
NEW TASKS NOT SHARED: this is also my design. When I add a new task to a project it is, by default, not included in any of the existing feeds. If I want to include it in a feed, I go to that feed and check the box. I recognize that this seems cumbersome and awkward when we are accustomed to sharing everything and need to specifically request the do-not-share option. The answer is to include a general feed in every project. The general feed includes all time frames and tasks, even new tasks: My team did a great job putting this together and fitting it into the different scenarios where feeds are handled in the app.
It seems likely that over time these strategies that were important at the beginning may change as Grainchek grows and shapes to fit the needs we’re working to satisfy. For now though, in addition to the fantastic work that Bacancy has done, Grainchek has some unique quirks based on my perspective!
I will be working on a remote job site in northern Maine and can now track my time in Grainchek even when I don’t have internet access.
In the past few days we completed the offline module so that critical components of Grainchek like posting time tracking events and viewing those events in a feed, can be done even when we don’t have internet access. Part of the experience that I want to provide through Grainchek is the ability to share events with others. When I am on a job site I can share every event posted about that project with the manager of the work, or the home owner. In order to accomplish this each event post is stored on a database that Grainchek accesses using an internet connection. For me it is still amazing to see an event that someone else posts pop up on the feed I built to collect their events! Now, with the offline module, even when we don’t have internet access, Grainchek will store the events we generate until we do have access. Then Grainchek will access the database and update it with everything that has happened.
After carefully tracking billable days for month, it’s time to detail a daily report. In this demonstration I explain the quick component intended for setting a feed’s start date/time and end date/time. Then shifting if forward and backward a day at a time. In this way the feed becomes a detailed report of each day. The strategy behind the design of Grainchek is to provide tools that can be used to assemble a time tracking platform that works for the unique circumstance of different users as well as different projects.
Grainchek is a mobile application platform for tracking time. Each time tracking event can be assembled into feed. These feeds can then be shared with other Grainchek users. In this demonstration I use a sub feed to collect the events of a feed that has been shared with me.
Grainchek is a designed to be platform where each user can assemble the tools, levers, buttons and gadgets to perform in a way that works for each intended use. In this demonstration I show how I assemble a unique sub feed for each billable task in a project for the purpose of reporting how much time was spent on each task.
This is an important screen in the Grainchek app. As Grainchek users, we spend our day on this screen generating content by posting events to projects.
Example: Carpentry project
For my carpentry projects I select the first project I’ll be working on and tap the Start button as I walk out the door of my home. After I have started my car the mileage shows up so I open a note on the Travel task and enter “Odometer: 127245” and press the paper airplane button to generate the event. The event card at the top of the screen updates and shows the Travel event including the odometer reading. When I arrive, as I walk on the job site I take a picture under the Travel task again. This means the last three events combine to document that I started my day and traveled to work.
As I step on to the job site I don’t know exactly what task I’ll be performing first but I’m on site and tracking billable time. As I check in with the different crews and superintendents I learn that we need additional flashing tape so I set up in the office to generate a PO for the materials. I send out the PO to the vendor and with Grainchek take a picture of my lap top screen under the Material Management task. This documents that from the time I posted the Travel task as I entered the job site until this moment, I am tracking this time toward Material Management. The card updates at the top of the Task screen.
On this particular project I pre-fabricate the overhangs whenever I have free time. Before I can get started on this task today, I get a response email from the vendor explaining that we can expect the extruded aluminum profiles today and the flashing tape will arrive on the same truck. I head back to the office to order rivets and stainless screws for assembling the aluminum window trim. When the PO has been sent, I take another Grainchek photo of the laptop and another event is generated tracking time toward Material Management. This second event accumulates time starting the first time I posted to Material Management ending the second time.
After sending the second PO I am able to begin framing the overhangs. At break time, I use Grainchek to take a picture with the “Framing” task. I take a photo of the framing I’m working on then begin my break. During my 15 minute break I’m going to sort through my Grainchek feeds. When it’s time to go back to work, I tap the “Break” task without a photo or a note. This generates a simple Break event with a duration of about 15 minutes.
I continue framing the overhangs but soon get a phone call request to review a Cabinet Vision issue at a local cabinet shop that hires me to operate their production software. I post another photo using the Framing task. The cabinet shop is a different customer and a different Grainchek project. I need to decide which Grainchek project I want to use to track the travel time I’m about to do. For my purposes it makes the most sense to track it to the cabinet shop so I select the Cabinet shop project. In Grainchek this brings me to the list of tasks with a card at the top detailing the last event I posted to this project 2 days ago. If I tap the travel task, Grainchek will calculate back to the last event until this moment and report that I have been traveling for 2 days. If this happens I can edit the event but instead I am going to press the Start button to reset tracking of time for the Cabinet Shop project.
I arrive at the cabinet shop. Using the Travel task in the Cabinet Shop project I take a Grainchek photo of the shop floor full of cabinets as I enter. This documents a Travel event and technically begins tracking billable time to the Cabinet Shop. I operate the Cabinet Vision software to reflect changes the customer has requested. As I wrap up my work and generate the production documents the shop manager asks me to track this time separately from the other work I do for them because it is a CR to the customer. In Grainchek I make a new task in the Cabinet Shop project called “Kitchen CR”. To complete my billable time I take a Grainchek photo of the work station using the Kitchen CR task.
I return to the framing job and press the travel task to complete my Cabinet Shop time. As I walk back onto the framing job site I switch Grainchek projects back to the framing project and press the Break task to track the time I spent traveling and at the Cabinet Shop as non billable time for the framing project.
I continue tracking my day always using the task that best describes what I am in the progress of performing or done performing before starting a new task. I finish the day out trying to find an efficient sequence for fabricating the extruded aluminum window trim. As I walk off the site I take a Grainchek photo of the sample window trim assemblies completing my billable time to the framing project.
As I am driving home I get a call from the architect on the framing project. I have shared a Grainchek feed with him and he noticed the photo of the extruded aluminum trim assembly. We discuss the challenges and options and he agrees to supply a detail. He posts an event to a Grainchek feed that he has shared with me for the purpose of unofficial dialogue. This event has a photo of the pre-proposed sketch and brief description. He uses the “Window” task so that both he and I can sort discussion based on the task name.
As I arrive home I make note of the odometer reading with my final travel task event of the day. During the evening I can review the feed that includes all the events of the day. Those with whom I have shared feeds of my projects can check in anytime to see the progress I have recorded.
Sub feeds are important tools Grainchek uses to collect events from other feeds. One way a Grainchek user can organize a day into an itemized bill starts with building a feed that contains all events with no start and end date possible called a General Feed. Then a separate feed, maybe called Billable, will not include any tasks. The Billable Feed will only contain sub feeds: one for every billable category. When setting up each new sub feed the user will select the user’s own profile, the project and the General Feed. Then only the tasks for this billable category will be selected. Each sub feed will accumulate the time spent on only the billable tasks it is setup to collect. The Billable Feed will accumulate the time from all sub feeds. In order to itemize a single day the General Feed start and end dates are set to the day to be itemized. In the Billable feed, each sub feed will accumulate the events for that billable item for the one day that the General Feed is set to include.
The Grainchek mobile app is a platform for sharing the details of life.
