Behance, makers of great creative-minded products like Action Pad, as well as the social network Behance Creative Network, both of which I use, have announced a new product online called Action Method, which I played around with for a few minutes this afternoon.
At first blush it looks to be a competitor to online project management tools like Basecamp and ActiveCollab, but targeted to the Mac-toting, Google Chrome testing crowd. But, after a bit of playing around, it seems to be much more, and in some cases, a lot less.
It’s certainly slick, pretty, and streamlined. I venture I would work more efficiently, and possibly even collaborate better using this tool than some of its competitors. However, the lack of domain options and customization leave a lot to be desired, as well as the lack of ability to segregate clients from collaborators. I’m not a huge fan of sending my client to a corporately labeled website, and asking them to sign up to collaborate.
I’m sure that problem will be resolved in the future, but for now it’s a blaring hole in the concept.
Some of the terminology they’ve adopted is cute, but might give them that differentiation they need to draw the creatives. Additionally, an Adobe Air application is available as a download so you can run this tool on your desktop. Very slick idea, and a great way to spread the news via the Adobe Air network.
In any case, after playing around with it for a bit, it’s got tons of potential to be a strong competitor to the current kings. I’m certainly keeping my eye on it, and hey, i’ll even use the free account for a few side projects, and see how it pans out to Basecamp, which we use at Ariamedia, and ActiveCollab, which one of our clients, Fish, uses.
