Much like financial software on the web, task management is an area where it has to be done extremely well, otherwise we won’t use it at all. We create form, we create spreadsheets, we take photos, we share information, but when it comes to personal management we need tools that gets us to start doing instead of bring what we already do to the web. Gubb believes they have a product that will make task management and list ordering second nature, and I’m demoing it to find out.

1. From the homepage I see that Gubb manages lists and helps create new ones. What they don’t advertise is some of the better features that help with task management such as sending lists to mobile devices. This information is contained in the pages of “Learn more about Gubb” and “How people are using Gubb” but I think with proper design all of this information could be streamlined into a homepage that creates a successful overview of the site. Also some pictures would help the viewer see what Gubb is about (this site is validation for the need for screenshots of a service).

2. Sign up is simple with nice long terms of service that I read every word of making notes and annotations. When I properly feel that I’m prepared to undergo the task of list creation I accept.

3. The actual login page is next and that actually has more of the information that I would rather have seen on the frontpage. The layout and icons are really nice and the whole design reinforces the strengths of Gubb, but all I got on the homepage was testimonials that no one would read anyway.

4. Gubb starts us off with a few examples (and by a few I mean a ton) to choose from. This is great since going into the service I had no idea what I would make a list of and after viewing this screen I found at least 4 lists in different categories that would help me manage aspects of my life. Kudos to Gubb for providing visual cues on what to use their service for.

5. Once we’ve chosen what lists to use we get to the main interface. Task sections are broken up by color, which can be changed in the options as you’ll later see.

6. Let’s add our first item by clicking the “add item” button. I almost wish this button was a bit more prominent or positioned somewhere to better differentiate it from other choices. The screens are all showing up in realtime with AJAX which makes use of the service quite seamless and simple to use. One thing that’s not immediately obvious is that although I have the choice of rating the task by priority (1, 2, or 3 stars) and giving a due date, I don’t actually have to use those things.

7. I spend a bit of time filling out the different sections. As you can see I added ratings and due dates to everything because it was not apparent to me that it was optional.

8. Users also have the option of choosing a layout via the tiny icons at the bottom of the screen. This allows you to choose whether to go with one column or have multiple columns. The task groups can be dragged to any column.

9. An expanded list gives you the option of archiving completed items, sharing the list with others (team management perhaps?), and an email address to add items via email. That features is definitely helpful as an option for people who don’t want to manually enter in items using the website.

10. Creating a new list uses a popup menu and you can choose from a few options including what color you want the category to be.

11. Gubb has a lot of options built in for each list you create and those can be accessed via the Options link on each task group. You can email, sort, archive, and share from the menu items. Right now the option to get text messages sent to me is disabled since I haven’t adjusted the preferences with my cell phone provider.

12. I access the preferences link at the bottom of the page to check out what I can change. I would like to have seen the options on the bottom of the page like the layout views and preferences link put near the top of the page where they’re more accessible. On the preferences screen you can adjust how the interface creates lists and add in a mobile carrier for text-messaging support.

13. Taking a look at the last tab, Sharing, we can see who has shared lists with us and who we are sharing lists with. I could see this being used in its basic form as a Task Management tool for small organizations that need to keep track of who is doing what and where they are in a project. Pretty handy.

Gubb offers quite a few features and the interface makes it quite simple to add new lists and items. The ability to e-mail new items to a list and receive text-messages with upcoming items that are set to expire are both nice additional features. Sharing could be really handy in small groups. However, there still exist a few usability concerns in placement of items and what menu options receive priority in screen real estate. There is also the elephant in the room of how much Gubb actually differentiates itself from the competition. In order to compete with other services they need to bring features that are not offered by other services and right now in its basic form there is nothing here that I can’t do with Remember the Milk. That being said it’s a solid product that has a lot to offer users and makes the task of list creation a simple process.