New Home Experience Discussion

[mattfuller1]

I was reviewing the upcoming 23.3 release and saw that they dropped in a New Home Experience update (link). I find this new layout very promising, but after playing around in preview still very much in the camp of, this is not ready to be a default option. The widgets are inconsistent, we're losing functional features of the My Work list, and overall a bit confusing at this point. I was surprised with such a major feature announcement there was nothing out here in the community yet. What are other's thoughts on this new feature and how are they approaching any change management.

[MarlaDr]

I totally agree. Now some of my users have contacted me because it won't let them add something to the "to-do" widget. I checked and none of my worker license people can do it. In the release notes it does say some widgets are only available to certain license types, but it doesn't say which one and which licenses.

Why a worker license can't add something to a to-do list is beyond me. In addition, I do not like the fact that these show up on the timesheet. We do not want our user to log time to a 'to-do' item. We want them to log to a specific task, project, or even general hour category. 

I wish we would have opted everyone out of this, but we already sent a communication to our users. 

[Heather_Kulbacki]

Ugh, I participated in some of the demos of the Home widget while it was still in planning and repeated multiple times that To-Do items can't have time logged to them. As with the personal tasks from the current Home, they are technically connected to a project, but that project doesn't get created until someone creates their first personal task - and I, as an Admin, can't spend time constantly looking for these new projects in order to place the correct custom form on them for our billing process.

[RandyRoberts]

I created an idea where users could opt to have specific To-Dos show in Balancer, or not.

https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/workfront-ideas/choice-to-show-specific-personal-ta...

[KAM30]

Disappointed they took away functionality of the to-do list. People on my team add notes within their personal tasks and now they just see the name of the personal task, with no way of seeing the notes they made. 

[FrancesDurhamEvans]

Does anyone else find that the new Home blue banner instantly triggers the jarring thought that you are in a lower environment instead of Production? Poor color choice on Adobe Workfront's part for this banner as it is almost the exact same lower-environment blue and, as others have stated in this thread, it's not possible to make the banner go away even after clicking the X.  

 

[Christina_Jarosz]

This deployed while I was on vacation...ouch.

[catherineh70969]

I agree with the sentiment that this is not yet ready for prime time. 

I've noticed that some users can log their time from the My Work module in the new home, but the time logging feature does not appear for everyone. Our normal process, across teams is for users to rely on their Home Worklist to manage work and log hours, so this inconsistancy is throwing a wrench in the works.  Has anyone else seen this or have suggesions on how to correct?

I also wish sort and grouping selections were retained.  Its' a hassle to have to reset them every time 

[MCriscella23]

I've experienced the same inconsistencies you laid out, as well as slower functionality of the page than the legacy Home screen.

I also find it to be a huge miss that no where on the New Home page (at least that I have seen) is a place for users to delegate their tasks/ approvals/ etc. This is a really big issue for us, and has already caused a bit of a headache. I would say this feature is definitely not ready for wide-spread use. 

[Sheri_Whitten]

I keep trying to use the new Home (so the annoying banner is doing something), but I still see problems that cause me to distrust it. So, I'm either annoyed with new Home inconsistencies, or frustrated with the blue banner that keeps reappearing in the old Home. I'm trying to be positive about this change, but it's becoming a challenge to do so. I was so excited during the initial user feedback Mazes and the beta, but I think that beta was way too short and not enough fixes were instituted before this was rolled out at large.

[RandyRoberts]

You only get one chance at a first impression and they totally blew it. This was a rush job that suffers from the same thing all rush jobs suffer from; poor quality. And the banner will be forever known as that "annoying banner", just like those annoying surveys and that annoying blueprints icon in the waffle menu. These are things that cost us actual money and time. Will they never learn?

[mattfuller1]

---

@Sheri_Whitten wrote:

I keep trying to use the new Home (so the annoying banner is doing something)

---

Same here I keep going back expecting my experience to be different, only to be more frustrated. At least if we could hide the banner, we could forget about it for a bit and come back in the coming months to hopefully be surprised with improvements....

[Kiersten_K]

From the Q4 Product Release Page:

Try New Home button removed for accounts that have disabled New Home

The Try New Home button is no longer present for accounts where New Home has been disabled. New Home must be re-enabled by the system administrator before individual users can use the button to try New Home.

Available on these dates:

• Preview release: August 17, 2023

• Production for fast release: With the 23.8 release

• Production for quarterly release: With the 23.10 release

[RandyRoberts]

Thanks Kiersten, good to know they're backtracking on their mistake.

I opted in for fast release just to get rid of that eyesore. I'll opt out right afterward to prevent another half-done rush job pushed into our instance.

[ElissaLauber]

Hi Everyone, 

I'm Elissa, a UX Researcher. I wasn't on the new Home launch, but I wanted to ask this thread for specific functionality you're missing. I can surface the issues to the Design, Product Management, and Engineering teams. 

From what I've read of the replies below it sounds like: 

1. Not enough filters, views, and groupings

2. Sort/Grouping selections aren't saved and have to be reset each time

3. Can't click on Tasks to see what they are

4. Didn't see a big announcement/documentation like you've gotten before for a big rollout

5. Worker license can't add something to the To-Do list

6. Issue with To-Do list items and time-tracking (some want it to be available in resourcing and some don't)

7. Time logging doesn't show up for everyone

8. Nowhere to delegate Tasks, Approvals, etc. to others

9. Can't see To-Do list (i.e., personal task) notes any more

Did I miss anything? 

[RandyRoberts]

Yes, you missed the one thing that we currently have that all of us rely on. If there were a widget that looked like this:

you'd have a LOT more happy customers.
You see, when you take away a perfectly working tool and replace it with a hodge-podge of "widgets" that that require time, effort and knowlege (which regular users do not have) to configure, and you STILL lose functionality, it's not a good look for you.

[ElissaLauber]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll add that you want this calendar widget. 

[RandyRoberts]

Thanks Elissa, it isn't just the calendar though. The left bar of the current home area is a staple for seeing all your work in one single column that is "foldable". You see users don't care so much about the origin of the work (task, issue, etc.). To a worker, it doesn't matter that one thing I have to do is a request and the other is a task and another is a team task… they're all just "stuff I need to get done", period. I need to see ALL "stuff I need to get done" together in one list so I can prioritise and organise. How can I realistically prioritise 2 things from this list and one thing from this other list and another three things from some other lists? And maybe some other thing from a widget at the bottom of my page and maybe another thing from a widget I don't even have on my page?

I think the Product managers need to realise that not everyone is a product manager and may use Workfront differently then they do.

[-Jaye]

Hi Elissa, thanks for posting here. I'd like to add a few things:

• "My Day/Week/Month" filter affects only some widgets and not others, and isn't able to be turned off for cases when you DON'T want to apply a time filter.
• To-Do list items disappear if dated in the future outside of My Day/Week/Month filter - have to find them in Timesheet, open the task, and edit the dates to be within scope of My Day/Week/Month filter to show up again. If no date selected, item stays on To Do list, but then you're not able to track time to it (doesn't appear in Timesheet). This may be related to your #9.
• "Mentions" widget shows more than just @ mentions - also shows updates on any task or issue where you've ever made an assignment on. Very unhelpful for sysadmins/coordinator roles who may be helping out in projects at a specific point in time, but then never need to hear about it again. A setting to toggle between "all updates" or "only @ mention updates" would be ideal.
• Performance issues - magnifying browser causes long wait times for widgets to figure out resizing requirements. With new work from home age, I find myself having to zoom in and out a lot while screensharing, depending on the viewer's own monitor resolution
• No ability for System Administrators to set up New Home layout/widget selection via layout templates for their users
• This is a bit nitpicky and certainly includes user error, but the colour for the "Please try out the new home page and explore its updated features" banner is the same as the banner for the Preview environment. This has led to a few accidents when working quickly, thinking changes were being made to the Preview environment but they were actually done in Production. I've seen other comments noticing the same, so I think it's worth mentioning here for future updates requiring a banner. 

I've submitted tickets as well as feedback through the button on the New Home for all of these. Our users, as well as my operations team, are all quite frustrated with these changes and would love to see the next iteration resolve these issues.

Thanks!

[RandyRoberts]

"so I think it's worth mentioning here for future updates requiring a banner. "

Nothing "requires" a banner.

[ElissaLauber]

Thanks for all of this detail! I downloaded all of the Home feedback today and have been going through it. There are 1700 submissions, so I really appreciate this quick summary. I will add these to the list! 

[mattfuller1]

• Overall performance of the page is really slow.
  • Loading the page takes several seconds and then is buggy when trying to interact with the widgets.
  • Non-responsive buttons
  • Delayed click-actions.
• The elements on the page and iconography are disconnected from widget to widget.
  • Things don't behave the same way 
  • Icons do not match (e.g., why do Filter and Group have different icons from other places in the application)
  • User experience when clicking links behave differently
• Inability to use custom fields and layout templates that we have used for Home for years.
• Page-level filters are just confusing
  • The only apply to certain widgets
  • No options to just leave off a date ranges.
  • Only mentioned Tasks and not requests or todos.
• I am still in search of a single list of all of all my work. I need it piece together items across multiple widgets. My Work, Approvals, To Dos