New UX, 2 thumbs down

jb@59069

I've been using this new UX since Friday, with quite a few hours over the weekend, due to trying to get ahead of the curve so we can take a few days off for Christmas next week. I use a Dell Latitude E6540, 16GB RAM, 1TB HD, Win 7 Pro x64, dual 24" monitors. I have been using business software and CAD/CAM suites since 1986, way back in the DOS days.

I have to say, this is one of the worst changes I've ever experienced to a software package.

Before this "update", I was already having 2-3 browsers open with 3-10 tabs open in each. Now I have to have another browser open, dedicated only to Smartsheet, with 3-10 tabs open at one time. That's not even counting Outlook, Excel, Adobe Acrobat, which I use constantly all day long. Opening Word and/or PowerPoint and the situation goes downhill rapidly. I'm sure those who use Windows know that it is not the most efficient OS, especially when releasing memory back to the system when an app is closed. This results in the necessity to reboot on a regular basis. On a slow streak, I can go 2 days without rebooting.

With Smartsheet's new UX, the need to reboot has grown to multiple times EVERY DAY! Out of memory messages are popping up like rabbits birthing.

Add to this the additional frustration of having to click more often to do what used to take 1 click, and this "update" is garbage.

While I had some serious frustration with Smartsheet and the years of "I've logged your vote", yet nothing being done for 2, 3, 4 or more years on REAL, FUNCTIONAL user requests, this new UX has me questioning if maybe Smartsheet developers are spending too much time in Colorado, on the pipe or in the edibles.

I also 'attended' the new UX webinar this morning, hoping for some information that I had not already stumbled on over the weekend.

Very disappointing, not very well presented. They even admitted to knowing this was going to place more of a drain on system resources.

It's now almost 2pm here, been working/fighting with Smartsheet since 5am minus 45 minute trip to FedEx. Already rebooted 3 times today due to Out of memory messages and apps locking up. Will likely rebot 2 or more times before days end.

I cannot express enough my disappointment, frustration and disgust at what the brain trust at Smartsheet has done to what was a very good, easy, useful tool.

Jim Hook

Fortunately I use Smartsheet on Chrome on a Mac with 8GB of RAM so I'm not running into the problem you mention but I don't like the new UX at all either. From my perspective it added no new capability, made things easier to do or fixed any problems. Instead it made it more difficult, or required more clicks, to do what I used to do. I used to keep a dozen Smartsheet tabs in view that I use everyday and it was very easy to change their order, or add a new tab, if I wanted to and changing to a different tab was one click. Now if I want to pin a new sheet between some other pinned sheets you have to unpin everything down to where you want to put the new one and then repin the others in reverse order above it! That's just laughable if it wasn't so sad! Unfortunately, with a two years into developing our Smartsheet app I can't do anything but live with it.

I don't like the idea of keeping multiple browser tabs open each with its own Smartsheet either. With a dozen tabs used for Smartsheet that makes the Chrome tab bar too busy and each tab too small. Also, a few years ago I ran into problems inadvertently by editing the same sheet in two different tabs resulting in screwing the sheet up.

LanceAlbanese

I agree completely with this post.  Here are my 2 cents...

I am absolutely frustrated that the built-in tabs were removed from within the SmartSheet interface.

In my humble opinion this was an integral feature and I relied on it heavily for my daily interaction with several sheets that I always had open. I cannot stress just how upset I am that the tabs are now opened via the browser.

As a result I have to open all of my sheets, one at a time, using several browser tabs every single day. I used to be able to simply log in to SmartSheet and all of my tabs/sheets were all there and in the order that I have been used to for over a year now. I have developed muscle memory in association with that layout and now I often find myself stuck, staring at the screen for 10-20 seconds as I look around for the tabs that aren't there before I realize that I must open the navigation and remember to select open in a new tab when selecting a different sheet. If you don't tell it to open in a new tab then you are directed away from the sheet that you were currently working on. This makes absolutely no sense to me as well as my co-workers and we may reconsider SmartSheet if things keep moving in this direction.

We have accepted and learned to adjust to every single other change/update that has been implemented with SmartSheet but this one we cannot live with and will not go quietly.

Please either revert back to the built-in tabs or build in an option that would allow the user to choose how tabs are handled in SmartSheet. I could live with that.

I hope SmartSheet values our feedback and takes these posts into consideration.

Bruce Bigg

Unfortunately, SmartSheet seems determined to go down with the ship on this one. I reached out to them weeks ago when they started sending out e-mails about the change, and they've been pretty much giving the same canned answers the whole time. They don't actually address your valid issues and concerns. They just want to talk about the added efficiency and space saved with the update. Thing is, neither of those is true. This update has made using SmartSheet extremely inefficient and does not save space at all. In fact, it takes up more, especially the huge gaping space around the sheet title...you know...where the tabs should be. Great use of space, guys.

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Jim Hook

Lance, I sent an email to Smartsheet support yesterday asking how I could pin a new sheet in the middle of the dozen of sheets that used to be tabs across the top. They replied that there was no built-in way to do that. As a seasoned Smartsheet user I knew how to do it and replied with the following:

I know how to do what I asked you about. As a longtime user of Smartsheet I used to have about a dozen Smartsheet tabs across the top that I could instantly click on and in two or three seconds I was in the new sheet. Those dozen sheets were the ones I went back and forth to many times a day so having them in a particular order was important. If I wanted to put a new sheet somewhere in the middle of the group of tabs all I had to do was to open it and drag the tab and drop it where I wanted it. Now I have to open it, unpin all the existing pinned sheets down to where I want the new one to go, pin the new one and then repin the old ones in reverse order. There, something that used to take two seconds now takes half a minute or more. That's really user friendly, not!

I can't for the life of me understand why the UX people at Smartsheet thought that changing the navigation method, without good reason, was a good idea when millions of people use it daily. A lot of people in the Smartsheet community are having major problems with the change. Doesn't Smartsheet realize that millions of people now have to get used to doing things differently? Many admins document their Smartsheet app for others to use and now it has to be revised. From my perspective the new navigation didn't fix any problem, speed things up or introduce a new capability.  It's the first time I've heard people call it "Stupidsheet". I hope Google doesn't follow Smartsheet and revise how the Chrome bookmark bar works since 60% of internet users (billions of people) use Chrome and it works just like the Smartsheet tabs used to work (being sarcastic now).

I would appreciate it if you would forward this to the Smartsheet CEO. I hope he/she understands what's going on way down in the company. Smartsheet changed the way row comments worked in August 2016 and I am annoyingly reminded of it every time I spend a couple of minutes to delete all comments in a row that gets reused for the next project and has dozens of links so I can't simply delete the row. I could once delete all of the comments in two seconds.

 

Richard Rymill SBP

We hope the right people are listening? 

RichardR

Lead consultant @ Smarter Business Processes

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Karl_In_Oz

jb@59069 Maybe once you find a good alternative you could post back here and let others know too. I suspect a lot of users are currently looking for an alternative solution.

J. Craig Williams

re (OP): "this new UX has me questioning if maybe Smartsheet developers are spending too much time in Colorado, on the pipe or in the edibles."

Washington state has also legalized marijuana. Not judging, just putting it out there.

re (Jim Hook): "Unfortunately, with a two years into developing our Smartsheet app I can't do anything but live with it."

Jim, look up "Sunk Cost Fallacy"

re (Karl_In_Oz): "... once you find a good alternative you could post back here and let others know too."

I doubt Smartsheet (or any other SaaS) would allow such a post to remain on their forum for long. 

Craig