Visual Space manual, Goals, Board And Workflow

The Goals board keeps a community's active work visible without turning participation into a heavy project-management process. It gives members one place to see what is waiting, what is underway, and what has been finished, while leaving future work in the [backlog](backlog.md).

A Familiar Workflow That Can Grow With The Space

Every board begins with To Do, In Progress, and Done. These defaults make a new board immediately understandable and keep the basic workflow familiar when members move between spaces.

As the community's process develops, space owners and goal managers can create and rename columns. A board might add Review between active work and completion, for example, without losing the shared meaning behind the workflow. Each custom column still belongs to one of three stable categories:

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To Do represents work that has not started.

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In Progress represents active work.

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Done represents completed work and enables completion actions.

The column name is the community's language, while the category tells Visual Space how that stage behaves. This lets a space adopt a workflow that feels natural without breaking completion views or other category-based behavior.

Keep Current Work Easy To Read

Each column brings together goals at the same stage. Its header shows the column name and the number of goals currently visible in that view. The starting column has its own marker, and Done-category columns show their completion meaning clearly.

Empty columns remain on the board instead of disappearing. They show that a workflow stage exists even when it has no goals, which is useful when a team has cleared a review stage or is waiting for new work to begin.

Counts and category cues sit directly in the column headers, while activity labels and compact goal details keep the wider board scannable.

Goal cards carry enough context for quick scanning, including the goal title and compact reference, plus available activity, assignee, color, contributor, and engagement details. The card is still only the doorway. Selecting it opens the goal's article detail while preserving the board's position, active search, filters, and backlog state. Members can inspect the richer context, continue to the full article when needed, then return to the same planning view.

This continuity matters on a busy board: reading a goal should not make someone reconstruct where they were. See Goals for the wider relationship between cards, articles, discussion, and participation.

Opening a card reveals its full goal article without replacing the board or losing the surrounding workflow position.

Choose Where New Work Begins

One column is the board's initial column. Goals created from the main Goal action use this destination, giving the space a predictable entry point for new active work. A goal created directly inside a particular column starts there instead.

Space owners and goal managers can choose a different initial column as the workflow changes. Reordering the columns does not silently change that choice. The visible order and the starting destination are separate decisions, so a space can rearrange its board without redirecting future goals by accident.

The backlog also remembers the status a goal should use when it returns to active work. For the full boundary between visible work and retained future work, read Backlog.

Shape Columns Without Losing Goals

Workflow management is intentionally space-scoped. Space owners and goal managers can:

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Create a column with a name up to 80 characters.

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Rename a column without changing its category.

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Change whether a column represents To Do, In Progress, or Done.

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Select the initial column for default goal creation.

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Reorder columns on the desktop board.

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Delete a column after choosing a remaining destination for its goals.

At least one active column must remain. Removing a column therefore changes the board structure but does not discard the goals it contained. If the deleted column was initial, that setting also moves to a remaining column.

Done-category columns have an additional clear action. Clearing one removes its finished goals from the active board without deleting their articles or history. Those goals move to the read-only view described in Completed Goals.

Move Goals And Preserve Intentional Order

A permitted goal editor can move a card within its current column, move it into another column, or transfer it between the board and backlog. Dropping a card at a particular position changes both its workflow stage when necessary and its place among the surrounding goals.

Movement is available in more than one form:

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On desktop, direct dragging supports precise placement within and between columns.

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On smaller touch layouts, a dedicated long-press drag handle is available where precise movement is supported.

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A goal's menu or status picker provides a reliable alternative when dragging is inconvenient.

If a drag is cancelled with Escape or released outside a valid destination, the goal returns to its original place. The board also keeps a visible landing position during a valid drag so the intended result is clear before the card is released.

Precise ordering pauses whenever the view is partial. Search, assignee filters, and color-tag filters can hide goals that still occupy positions in the complete board order. Drag sorting and inline placement are therefore unavailable while those controls are active. Status and menu-based movement remain available, so a goal can still advance without pretending that the filtered view contains the whole order.

Clear the search and filters before arranging exact card positions. The Organizing Goals overview explains how assignees, tags, and filters work together across the board and backlog.

A Board That Fits The Screen

On desktop, columns sit side by side. Their headers and card lanes move together horizontally, so names, counts, and goals remain aligned. When a workflow is wider than the window, a compact board preview shows which portion is visible and lets members reach distant columns without losing orientation.

On narrow screens, the same workflow becomes one continuous vertical document. Columns stack in their configured order, followed by the backlog. This avoids squeezing several card lanes into a touch-sized viewport and keeps the board readable with ordinary vertical scrolling.

Large columns still present accurate counts and preserve the full scrollable shape of the board. Members can understand the amount of work in each stage even when only the nearby cards need to be visible on screen.

Who Can Change What

Board access follows the current space, subspace, or activity. Members must be signed in, belong to the space, and have access to the current private area when one is involved.

That viewing access does not automatically grant editing access:

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Space owners and goal managers can create goals and manage columns, their categories, the initial column, assignments, and other board-wide organization.

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Goal reporters can edit and move the goals they introduced without gaining control over the workflow itself.

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Direct assignees and current members of an assigned space role can edit and move that assigned goal, but cannot rename, create, reorder, recategorize, or delete columns.

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Other permitted members can read the board and open goal details, but cannot start moving cards or reshape the workflow.

These boundaries keep contribution flexible while protecting the shared board from accidental structural changes. Creation can also depend on coordinator access, even when someone has goal-management permission.

Common Questions

Can we rename To Do, In Progress, and Done?

Yes. A manager can use any suitable column names. Each column still needs one of the three underlying categories so completion and other workflow behavior remain consistent.

Does moving a column change where new goals appear?

No. The initial column is selected separately and does not change merely because the columns are reordered.

Why can I change a goal's status but not reorder it precisely?

Search or a filter may be showing only part of the board. Visual Space pauses precise ordering in that state to avoid changing the position of hidden goals. Clear the active search and filters to restore ordering.

Why can I move one card but not edit the columns?

You may be the goal's reporter or assignee. That gives you responsibility for the individual goal, not permission to redesign the space's workflow.

What happens to goals when a column is deleted?

They move to a remaining fallback column. The board must always retain at least one column, and deleting a column does not delete its goals.

Do empty columns disappear?

No. They remain visible so members can still understand the complete workflow and move work into that stage.

Continue With A Practical Workflow

Use Organize The Board And Backlog for the connected journey of shaping columns, choosing the starting point, arranging active goals, and keeping later work out of the way.