Projects vary in complexity, so it’s great to enjoy complete visibility over actions, deadlines, and other crucial details. That’s why we offer six different layout views in Hive, so that you can view each project in the way that works best for you. At any given time, one project can be viewed in different ways by each team member, and you can even switch between views whenever you’d like. In Hive there’s a layout to best fit every project structure, so let’s look at each of those six views and learn more.

The basics of a project

Your project is a secure, self-contained space that can only be viewed by those who have been given permission. This is where you’ll collaborate with your team, and benefit from full visibility of who owns which actions and the status of those actions against set deadlines. 

To start a project, simply select ‘Projects’ from the left-hand navigation bar. This will open the Project Navigator, where you will click the  ‘+New Project’ button to create a new project. Customize your project with a name, color, and due date, and add team members who you want to collaborate with. If this is a project you will be working on frequently, you can check the ‘pin to navigation panel’ box to place it directly in your left navigation bar for quick access. Now you’re off to the races!

Choosing the right project view

Once you’ve completed the project details, you will be prompted to select a project layout. This will determine how you view your project as it progresses, and there are six options available to you. Keep in mind that this isn’t a permanent decision. You can toggle between views at any point, and different team members can even access the same project working from a different layout. Flexibility is the name of the game, here! 

Note that everyone will still see information updated in real-time, however they are viewing the project. No matter what view you choose, all project collaborators can easily create actions, drag and drop them, change timelines, and much more. 

So how do you know which project layout is best for you? Each of the six views has benefits and ideal use cases, so here is an overview of each one to consider before you choose.

1. Status View

If you prefer a visual workflow to see the status of actions at each stage toward completion, then Status View offers just that. Status View provides a catch-all overview of a project from left to right from ‘unstarted’ via ‘in progress’ to ‘completed’. You can customize the stages according to your project needs, adding and subtracting and renaming as required.

2. Team View

With Team View, you can see actions organized in columns according to each team member that they are assigned to. This is a great way to see who is working on what. Does one team member have way too much on their plate while another colleague has capacity? You can simply drag and drop a task over to share the workload!

Team View is great when you’re managing multiple people, so if you’re working on a solo project, you probably won’t benefit from this view.

3. Label View

With Label View, you can see actions listed according to the labels you’ve given them. Labels are tags that you can add to action cards in Hive to distinguish between different actions in a project.

Label view is really handy if you prefer a visual workflow and are using several different labels across your project. You can drag and drop and add new labels as you require.

4. Calendar View

Calendar View is perfect for complex, multi-member projects where you really need to keep on top of who’s delivering what by when. 

5. Gantt View

With Gantt View, you can see all your actions laid out in a series of horizontal lines. This will quickly show you the status of an action in relation to its deadline. You can drag and expand to change the timeline of actions and add new actions.

Gantt View is the perfect way to assess how long a project will take and visualize the steps it will take to achieve it. You can also share your Gantt plan with people outside your team, as you can export to PDF, PNG or Excel file. There is also an option to share a public link to your Gantt charts in Hive, which lets external parties view the project, without having access to editing or viewing any comments.

6. Table View

Finally, Table View acts like a spreadsheet. You can organize all your actions into columns and sort according to your needs and preferences. For visual workers, you can highlight actions green when they are completed. You can also rearrange, rename, and add new actions into columns as your project progresses. To sort actions and view tasks based on different parameters, Table View has many different filters you can use. For example, you can discover which actions are overdue per team member.

Table View is perfect for complex projects when you’re ready to explore Hive beyond its basic fundamentals.

To see all six Hive project layout views in action, check out our helpful video:

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