How to use Kanban Zone

Once you’re logged in to Kanban Zone, you’ll see your first board. It will look like the picture below. (In this demonstration, we’re using the Basic template.)

Let’s see how you can navigate around Kanban Zone. In less than five minutes, you’ll be ready to visualize your work!

Kanban Board

We’ll start with the most important area on the screen. Right below the toolbars, you’ll see the Kanban board area. This is where you’ll work, mostly.

If Kanban is a river, the Kanban board is the river bed. The cards are the boats, and the tasks inside the cards are the manifests. When you’re doing your work, you will move the cards from one column to the next, until you reach the Done column.

Every board will include a Backlog column on the left and an Archive column on the right. The columns in between can be customized by the Administrator (read more about user roles and access levels and how to edit your board).

Columns

Boards are composed of multiple columns to hold the cards. At the top/left of each column is an option to collapse or expand and the number of cards in the column. In the picture above, there are five columns: Backlog, To Do, In Progress, Done, and Archive.

If you’re the administrator of your board, you can customize the columns on your board.

Cards

Every card you see on the board can be opened to edit the card by clicking on the card. Cards are displayed on the board using color labels, set by the board Administrator.

Tasks

You can create tasks under a card to provide clear instruction to complete the card. If there is a task on a card, a progress bar will appear on the card when viewing the board.

Navigation

Next, there’s a navigation panel at the top of your Kanban board. This is where you access all of the settings and navigate through Kanban Zone. Let’s start with the first row of the panel.

Global Navigation

Left Side – Zones

On this side, you can switch from one view (we call them zone) to the other. To see what each zone looks like, click on the links below.

1. Kanban Zone logo – A quick way to go to KanbanZone.com.
2. My Zone – Click to change to My Zone.
3. Kanban – Click to change the view (we call them zone) to Kanban board.
4. List – Click to change to List zone.
5. Summary – Click to change to Summary zone.
6. Table – Click to change to Table zone.
7. Calendar – Click to change to Calendar zone.

Right Side

While on this side, you can access your accounts and notifications.

8. Add Card – Click to add a new card to the board.
9. Your Avatar / Account – You can access your organization settings and personal settings, and also log out from your account.
10. Help – Need help? Access the knowledge base to read articles like this one, or submit your feedback to the Kanban Zone team.
11. Search – Search for boards, cards, or tasks using this search button.
12. Alerts – This is where you’ll find your notifications and reminders.

Right below the Global Navigation, you’ll find the Local Navigation. Here, you can find all of the settings for your board.

Local Navigation

Based on the zone you select, the local navigation will be specific to that zone.

Left Side

1. Board Selector – Use this to switch between organizations and boards.

For single board zones like Kanban and List, you will only be able to select a single board. For multiple board zones like Summary, Table and Calendar you will see check boxes next to each board, so that you can select one or more boards.

Right Side

2. Zoom – Click to change the appearance of the cards.
   • 1x – only shows the color of the label.
     
   •  2x – only shows the color of the label and the title of the card.
     
   • 3x – shows the color of the label, the title, and additional, visible fields.
     
3. Settings – Click to access all of the settings related to the current board, like adding a new member to the card or editing the board.
4. Options – Manage all the visual options of the board. These settings will only affect how you view the board, not the content of the board.
5. Metrics – Access the metrics of your board, like Allocation Report and Cycle Time Report.
6. Filter – Filter the cards on your current board.

Now that you know how to navigate around the board, read more about users and access levels.