The new Smartsheet experience

LanceAlbanese · 04/16/21

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/287870#Comment_287870

Brendan, I agree with Dan here. While the workaround is appreciated it does not solve our problem. I hope we can come to some sort of resolution in a timely manner.

Thank you for responding to our feedback.

andri witana · 04/17/21

Using smartsheet for less than 5 months, i think there is about 3 major update.

but i really love the last update. feel light, cheerful feel colours, really kick air****e out of my options.

i hope u put more feature to forms so that i don't need to update sheets with other apps.

GREAT JOB smartsheet team.

Ashley Ryder · 04/17/21

Agree with Susans response and await the opportunity to provide additional feedback. surely there is an obvious answer to this make the system user configurable so you have the option to have what you want or dont want on the screen in your workspace a bit like you do with a internet browser.

I think as soon as a provider starts to dicate what the customer can or cant do in terms of usability with a piece of software they are straying into dangerous territory, leading to customers exercising their option to walkaway!

Srinivasan Sankaran · 04/19/21

@Robin Summers Thanks for the feedback. We will look into this issue.

Susan Peck · 04/19/21

@Ashley Ryder - Amen!

Sean Stran · 04/19/21

The new UI has the same issues that are fortunately plaguing "modern" UIX across most platforms:

MASSIVE UI elements - Take up too much space and are designed (apparently) for Mobile/Touch users
MASSIVE dead space - Wasted and un adjustable columns/rows with huge spacing that cannot be collapsed or reduced in any way. This in turn leaves less space for actual work or useful information to be shown
White on White on White with no borders - Where does a column end and another begin? I have no idea because its all white on white.
Emoji/Children's Graphic Design - The only thing missing is the font to be comic sans.
Hiding Functions behind menus - Despite plenty of space on a given menu bar, options are hidden behind layers of menus, even if that sub-menu only has ONE choice! If there is space on a bar, the function should be there. I shouldn't have to click three dots, or "more", or "advanced" or anything like that; just show the functions right up front in the huge wasted space you're already taking!

TLDR for Smartsheet UI Team - If you're showing less information in a view than previously, you're doing something wrong.

Edit:

>lays the foundation for a series of powerful enhancements to the product that will roll out over the next year.

This is always the case and a huge fault of the "agile" SDLC. Go to new platform/codebase with "minimum viable product" -> Get backlash for all the basic functions/behaviors being lost that massively affect productivity -> Slowly add them back as "features" but also somehow make them worse -> Finally get product to a useable state after a year -> Cease all updates even if some of the old functionality is still missing -> Start programming new platform/codebase and start it all over again.

This is what has made MS Office a bloated mess that takes hours of customizing to make useable. (And the online version is just not even worth mentioning).

Susan Peck · 04/19/21

@Sean Stran - you've analyzed the issues perfectly.

Here is a screenshot showing how much workspace is lost with the new design. New is on the left; old is on the right. At least two rows of content are lost with the new, inflexible design. In the old one, adjusting column widths would have solved some of the problem. Not so, now.

In both of these versions, the header rows could be reduced to give us more working space. Content is king. The UI is an assistant.

Stefan · 04/19/21

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/287978#Comment_287978

Well, add my 2.000 cents to this analysis.

One of the big shortcomings of modern agile software development. Too short cycles mostly driven by wanting/hating and not by a clear concept of what a 21century UI can do better than older incarnations.

Ok, beam up to Star Trek and see how different things can be done ;-)

That said, I am well aware of the need to look beyond my own horizon and to challenge old habits. So I'll see how I and my customers get along and hope for quick obvious improvements.

Have great week everyone!

Stefan

ker9 · 04/19/21

In addition to everything else, the collaborators list box on Sharing screen is much too small - can only see 1 line at a time.

Susan Peck · 04/19/21

@ker9 - Wow, hadn't noticed that. I'm guessing it's a bug?

Ashley Ryder · 04/19/21

Prior to this awful new "user experience" that has been thrust upon us I used to be able to see which if my colleuges was online and viewing the same sheet as I am, now that has vanished into the abyss or am i missing something?

Yechiel Binet · 04/19/21

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/287860#Comment_287860

@Brendan Reed I agree with all the comments & VS give us an option of going back to the old version until this version is fixed up. all these extra space, narrowing the view from side & top is just a waste, the option to click on the left menu panel on top was better then good, looking forward to the Old Version.

Thanks in advance!

Nathan Gonzalez · 04/20/21

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/287876#Comment_287876

Thanks for the heads up!

Nathan Gonzalez · 04/20/21

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/287860#Comment_287860

Appreciate the response - I mostly have no issues with UI upgrade, and find it pleasant, some of it is learning curve, and maybe some over-padding. I was after #3 on your list, I do hope the column headers reduce dramatically in size.

Ryan W · 04/20/21

I do a lot of vertical split screen when working with two sheets and trying to navigate sheets is impossible this way. Nothing is adjustable and it's making navigation/work more difficult.

The new Smartsheet experience

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