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Here to Help: New Researcher at Workfront

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Level 2
Hello everyone, I'm Trae. I just joined the Workfront team as their UX Researcher. This means I'll own making sure all of our products that you and your end users interact with are simple and intuitive without decreasing any of the functionality and power that you've come to love. If you find yourself having a hard time with any of our products, I want to hear about it. If you love something we offer and want to let us know we can never change it, I want to hear about it. I work directly with our Designers and Software Engineers and will advocate for you at that level. Here is a link that anyone should feel free to use at any time.
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Level 10
Welcome! We will definitely be interested in scheduling some time with you in the near future. Thanks again for the opportunity and good luck in your new role! :slightly_smiling_face: Admin Kelly-Wehrmann SSFCU

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Level 3
Welcome to the family. UX Researcher sounds like an interesting thing to do. I welcome the chance to chat about how the clients I have worked with over the years have reacted to changes, actual and proposed, within the Workfront environment. You may ring me here on community. Doug Williams

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Level 2
Hi Kelly! Thank you for such a warm welcome. I'm sure I'll enjoy our future chats and will keep an eye out for you on my calendar. Trae Winterton Workfront

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Level 2
Hi Doug, one of my favorite words people have used to describe me in the past is "interesting," so I'm glad I've found a role that is equally as interesting. I'd love to hear about your experience with clients. Since you'd like to chat here feel free to reply to this, start a whole new discussion, or send me a private message. I'd be most interested to hear about unique use cases vs common use cases, but this is not about me. The floor is yours! Trae Trae Winterton Workfront

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Level 10
Hi Trae - thanks for the intro, and welcome! There's lots of passionate and experienced users on the Community. If I can dive right in, the #1 UI issue which affects many users is the inability to paste in a list of tasks. This idea on the Idea Exchange received 52 votes but was marked by product management as NOT PLANNED! Not being able to do this adds to users' perceptions of Workfront being clunky and too hard to use, and interferes with adoption. "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115006121427-Copy-Paste-a-draft-list-of-tasks-from-Excel-and-or-Word-into-a-Project">https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115006121427-Copy-Paste-a-draft-list-of-tasks-from-Excel-and-or-Word-into-a-Project Another forehead-slapping issue is this one (fortunately it is categorised as in planning): "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115004033493-Expand-the-hot-zone-around-check-boxes?flash_digest=86aab42ff5e90ddb479834ce8ead53a2b88bb775">https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115004033493-Expand-the-hot-zone-around-check... A minor grievance I've had for a while is that the task indent/outdent buttons are reversed. i.e. In Workfront currently, you have to click the button on the left to make the task move to the right or click the button on the right to make the task go to the left. Please position the buttons like MS Project where the left button makes the task go left etc. Am sure you'll get a few more personal requests! Cheers, David

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Level 3
Hi Trae :slightly_smiling_face: I'll follow David's lead and just jump right in...! One thing I would love to see improved from a UX perspective is the Requests page - currently it's just a pretty unpleasant and hard to navigate list of items. Would be great to have some options here for views, filters, groupings - I know you could create this as a standalone report, but most of our users don't venture as far as reporting, and would be helpful for them to be able to see a better breakdown of where their current requests are. It's also not immediately clear whether requests have been turned into tasks or projects from this screen, which makes it hard to find the ones that haven't been addressed yet. Would be interested if anyone else has feedback on the Requests page - or if there are any examples of dashboards/reports you're using to manage requests and queues? Stephanie Mulrooney Tomorrow People

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Level 10
Yeah we would also like to see improvements in the Request pages. Better way to allow sub groups on the menus I know we can use Queue Topics, but we don't have the ability to change the Selected fields at the top (i.e. Description, Primary Contact, etc.) It's set at the Queue level. So they all show the same for each group. We also can't adjust the access (Sharing). It's controlled at the Queue Level. So every sub group has the same people that can see/access it. Better way to display the fields (i.e. shorten or lengthen the field boxes, let us decide which fields go on which line (as opposed to wrapping when we group fields). That's off the top of my head. Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT | Sr. Technical Project Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

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Level 2
David, I hear exactly what you're saying. One by one was how we as a species did it when we paper was our only option. If it was something simple for our developers to add in I'm sure it would have been done in a weekend. My guess, and it is a guess since I'm not intimately familiar with our technical structure, is making a change like that will affect many peripheral parts of the product that lists touch. Breaking other features is almost never a cost that is acceptable when planning our product roadmap. I'm sure their perspective is not doing it at all is better than doing it poorly and causing other damage. All of that said, it doesn't change the fact that you can't paste in a whole list. Would you be willing to do a video call with the designer(s) who work with lists to demonstrate this to them? Send me a message if you are up for it. Stephanie and Vic, It sounds like what you want from requests aligns with what I want from requests in a project I'm working on myself. Yes, I use our own product to do my work here and yes I have things I wish were easier. I'd love to have you explain these pain points to the people who work with our request queue. Likely in a format where you're explaining or demonstrating it to me with them listening in. The thing that is lost in digital communication is the context and feeling your tone of voice provides. When I read what you write I read it the tone that's my best guess of how you meant it. When you say it over a call there is no mistaking the intent of your statements and the feelings of frustration, irritation, fatigue, etc. that fuel them. I see the best results changing the minds of team members when they interact with our customers directly rather than me working as middle man. If you're open minded to something like that send me a message. We can get something set up, and I promise it will be very casual and non-intimidating. It's great hearing from everyone! Keep it coming. Trae Winterton Workfront

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Level 9
Level 9
Hi Trae, welcome to the Community and I'm sure many of the members are happy to see you opening a dialogue to solicit input. I wasn't going to start compiling my wishlist on this thread, but since the topic of Requests were brought up, I'll throw in my two cents: Cent #1: The ability to place custom form fields above the system fields like Subject and Add Documents. We use descriptive text fields to instruct users how to complete the request, and it's unfortunate that we have to tell them to "go back to the top of this form and name your Subject in this or that way." The same applies when we want to instruct the user which documents they should upload - we use form logic to determine which kind of document should be attached, and tell the user to go to the top of the request and upload Document "C," when they may have already uploaded Document "A" before seeing any kind of instructions. In an ideal state, we could place these system fields anywhere throughout the form. Cent #2: The ability to place other system fields in a custom form would be useful. The most basic example would be to add a "User" field that validates against the user table. Ditto for teams, groups, projects, programs, etc. At the moment, we have to choose between defining the options for the user (which can be a lot of effort and values are quickly out of date); or use open text fields which yields some interesting results... You will never have a lack of input from the Community. That will likely be both a blessing and a curse as you start to get feedback from everyone about "I wish Workfront would ___________." So, welcome and good luck to you!! William English

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Level 9
Level 9
Hi Stephanie, You can do this for your users today in Workfront by updating their layout template. It takes a few steps on part of the admin, but it's better than waiting for development activity to occur. First, create a request report for them that basically replicates "Requests I've Submitted." You can add columns to communicate details around resolving objects here. Create a new dashboard, and add the request report you just made to the new dashboard. Add the dashboard to their Requests landing page. Setup >> Interface >> Layout Templates >> Choose a layout Customize Tabs >> When a person with this layout looks at Global Areas : Requests Remove the system default "Requests I've Submitted" More tab >> +Add Custom Tab Label it and find the dashboard you just made. Save Layout Template This will effectively replace the system default "Requests I've Submitted" with the one you designed. As opposed to the system default, users can make their own changes to the filters, view, and grouping by clicking on the downward arrow that is on the right hand side of the report name. Here's an example of what it should look like: Hope this helps! William English

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Level 10
I'll second William's suggestions. :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes: Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT Program Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

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Level 2
William , Interestingly enough, this last Friday I started building my very first custom form in Workfront! All I can say is, preach. There were a few moments when thoughts like "Do we really not have that functionality?" crossed my mind. I'll tell you what I'm trying to do. I will be having my team come in and add tasks to a project for something very specific. I want to have my custom form be the only fields available when adding a new task to a project. Since I was informed we don't do that, I wanted it to be the default form selected for any tasks added to that project. I was again informed that it was not possible. Basically, I want that form filled out EVERY SINGLE TIME someone adds a new task. The problem is I can't quite figure out how to make it easy to find and do for my team. The irony to be had from that last statement isn't lost on me. Long story short, I personally use Workfront to solve my own work issues. Because of that, I am personally aware familiar a few of it's current short comings. Custom forms is on my radar and I've already brought it up with some of the product managers in my office. I can't make you any promises, but I can tell you it's being talked about :slightly_smiling_face: Trae Everyone , Thanks for the feedback as always! I love seeing the passion to make our product better that I get out of this community. Don't ever hesitate to tag me in a post, send me a direct message, schedule my time, etc. I want to hear from you! Trae Winterton Workfront

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Level 10
Hello Trae and welcome! Please be the miracle advocate we all need. We're counting on you. Ok, I need and I am counting on you. My productivity and popularity at work will increase 100 fold if you can get me what I need to shine. 1) We do not use the calendar - due to it's design of which date it only use. We need to have flexibility to use what ever date we want to use. 2) Provide a customize-able out of the box supplied system field/API for popular items, like getting the difference between two dates or inserting a column into a report. There is no API class so just give the users the most popular items. Provide a few system reports that already have these popular functions in it. Thus users can just copy and tailor. Simple! 3) Allow us to be able to query the automatic system updates (like a change in status) that is displayed in the update stream. 4) Allow for the sharing of document directly. If I share it - the person should be able to immediately see it in their document area - without a URL or a direct comment or email etc .... It should appear in the document area of anyone that have permission to view it. The workaround for this is just too cumbersome and complicated. I need Workfront to be much more simple to use. Thank you for asking for the community input. Benetta Perry APS Workfront System Admin

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Level 2
@Benetta Perry Here's to hoping I can help you rank up your popularity! 1) I'd love to hear more about what you're needing out of the calendar that it is not providing right now. If you can carve out some time let's set up a conference call using the link in the original message. I'll paste it at the bottom for convenience aka UX. 2) Would you like an API class? I can't promise I'll get one made for you tomorrow but I can ask to get that curriculum addressed. Until then I'll pass this comment over to the API team :slightly_smiling_face: 3) Same as 1. I'd love to get a deeper understanding of the functionality you're looking for. 4) Same as 1. I think I understand what you're asking. When I go in to set up a smart folder that shows only documents shared with me, I can't find anything that looks like it will do that. If we set up a call to chat I'd like to see the workaround that you do not like, just for context. I'll be able to articulate this to the team better if I understand it better myself. Thank you for taking the time to write that all out! Trae Trae Winterton Workfront

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Level 2
Here is that link I mentioned in the above post. Anyone should feel free to use it to book my time. "https://calendly.com/traewinterton/feedback-session/">Schedule Time with Trae Trae Winterton Workfront