Hello ? Atlassian Team ? Are you hearing us ? No to the new Board switcher

[Michael Stephenson]

Hi folks ... just want to know if you are hearing us about RETAINING the Left Hand Board switching menu ? We seem to be getting silence over there.

The new board switcher is a PROCESS . The Left Hand Board Menu is a THOUGHT. Please do not remove access to the current board menu. I've no use for the INBOX or PLANNER ... but I do use the Board menu as it currently sits.

I tried integrating the new Pop Up Beta Switcher .... it is simply a terrible experience.

[Michel R R Kurokawa · Accepted solution]

This is the reason I'm not using the Beta.

[Michael Stephenson]

Yeah, I bailed on it after discovering the new board siwtcher debacle.

[Sam Szuchan]

Same here

[Alexandros Mathopoulos · Accepted solution]

Hi all! As promised, here are some more details on the upcoming board navigation changes we will be making based on all of your feedback! Let us know what you think!

[Michael Stephenson]

Thank you Trello dev team ! I am really glad common sense prevailed and we now have this option. Really appreciate you hearing us on this and implementing an almost exact fix instead of some 50% hack. Great work

[PJRanson · Accepted solution]

I agree - I feel the board switcher could be provided as an toggleable option - ditto with the default (non beta) view.

I really like the inbox FWIW - I had setup multiple inboxes on all my boards and emailed in to them  - so to have a dedicated inbox, for me, is a godsend.

But I do wholeheartedly agree, the beta board switcher needs work for it to be useful.

I've actually used the inbox as a means to hold all my boards (copy the urls for the boards into it) - it's not ideal, but it works in a pinch.

[Alexandros Mathopoulos]

👋🏻 Hi @Michael Stephenson

Lex here from the Trello Product Management team! First, I wanted to say thank you to you and others for all of the feedback! I can assure you that our entire Product and Engineering team is monitoring all feedback coming from our millions of users very closely to ensure we are building the best product we can for the vast majority of our users. With any major change to a product there are a lot of tradeoffs that we have to consider (for example, introducing Planner & Inbox in a side by side experience view which is being very well received by a large proportion of our beta users) while also making switching between boards not difficult. 

Is there anything we can do to make the new board switcher better? For example, we have heard from some users that one of the things the liked about the old left hand nav is being able to see a list of boards vs the tiles/boxes we currently have in the board switcher. 

I know the new board switcher has a learning curve and is very different than what we used to have. One tip (just in case you have not discovered it yet) is the ability to quickly find any board across all your workspaces with never even touching your mouse. For example, try hitting b on your keyboard from anywhere in Trello, immediately start typing the name of the board, and then hitting the enter key to open that board. 

[Sam Szuchan]

Did you know that Slack did the exact same thing Trello is doing with their side bar, faced a mass revolt, and was forced to change it back?

[Maula]

I like the new board switcher. I'm still getting used to it. I use it when I want to go to another board from a different workspace or search for a board within the same workspace. The core approach of the board switcher is to look up boards by typing.

However, the Left-Hand Board switching menu is still very useful for a key thing the new board switcher doesn’t replace:

It gives an instant overview of only the boards within the current workspace. In the new board switcher, if you type the name of the workspace to get all the boards from that workspace, it doesn’t search for it and for good reason. Searching both boards and workspaces through the same bar would probably get messy, I think. So, you have to click the little tab instead.

Why not keep both? And why not assign a hotkey to the Left-Hand Board overview, like the letter "V"?

That way, you’d have "V" for the Left-Hand Board overview of the current workspace, and "B" for the new board switcher, which I also really like.

[Michael Stephenson]

@Alexandros Mathopoulos 

Ironically, a lot of people seem to be essentially remaking the Left Hand Board Switcher in the new Inbox to restore the current functionailty.

Did anyone not consider simply adding the INBOX & PLANNER side by sides to the current layout? That would seem like a much better UI update.

[PJRanson]

Yeah... this makes the most sense to me - keeps the 'column' based gestalt and just feels like the right thing to do. Nice job. :)

[Alexandros Mathopoulos]

Hi @Michael Stephenson! Appreciate the continued feedback and creativity considering different solutions! 

Two major issues from my perspective that makes us hesitant to have the list of boards as another panel 1) 4 panels on a screen begin to make the UX unusable on many screens and begins to introduce so much information density that it can be very overwhelming for many users 2) Inbox & Planner are account level features and do not live within a particular workspace. In testing a workspace left hand navigation during user interviews, that mixing of account and workspace level content/features caused user confusion.   

[Michael Stephenson]

@Alexandros Mathopoulos  ... the new switcher makes it unusable on my screen. The left hand list does not.

And you do have the board list on another panel ... just in the middle of the screen that blanks out literally everything else while it's open, which means I can only use Trello and have no board list, or have a board list and no Trello

Unlike now where I can use Trello AND have the board list.

[Chris H]

> 1) 4 panels on a screen begin to make the UX unusable

That is a fair point, but, is not the whole idea of making these sliding drawers the intention that users will not leave them open all the time? I can't imagine I will be leaving either the inbox or planner open and consuming screen width when they are not needed.

> 2) Inbox & Planner are account level features and do not live within a particular workspace

The board itself is "workspace level" content, yet this is toggled by one of the three drawer controls?

If anything it is a bit confusing that you can go from Board -> Inbox + Board -> Inbox only. At this point you are still technically on a board but there is nothing to indicate that. Opening the board modal doesn't show the board you are on.

[Michael Stephenson]

@Alexandros Mathopoulos 

Obviously my mockup is pretty rough and quick. But ideally the new "floating menu" and its icons should just be stacked vertically and "floating" against the left side of the screen.

Clicking each corresponding button would pop out the associated menu(inbox, planner or board list) or pop them back in the the left of the screen. Thus allowing me to keep a neat board list on the left side on the screen at ALL times( or inbox or planner) ... and would allow me to have all of them open ... or one .... or none.

That seems like the really obvious frictionless, universally adaptable UI play here.

[Michael Stephenson]

@Alexandros Mathopoulos ... are we making an impression over there? Is there any discussion being had around the board switcher not be recieved as well as hoped ?

No-one seems to have any issues with planner or inbox, which is great. But it's obvious the board switcher is an issue. 

[Alexandros Mathopoulos]

👋🏻 Hi all! Lex here from the Product Management team. Just wanted to share an update that the team has been hard at work reviewing and coming up with potential solutions/improvements based on all the navigation feedback y’all have been sharing!

In the next week or so I will share a detailed walkthrough of the improvements we will be making based on all the navigation feedback we have been receiving. We believe many of these improvements will address the top pain points/issues many have shared about the current experience. 

Appreciate your honest feedback and patience! The team is on it and we will share more details soon. 

[Michael Stephenson]

@Alexandros Mathopoulos 

Thanks for the update mate. It is greatly appreciated. Look forward to seeing what you have come up with.