How to Improve the New Design (New Experience): Part One
Recently Wrike redesigned their UI and UX,
Some parts are definitely prettier, but the usability (IMHO) is worse.
I'm writing this because I got off an interview with the Wrike team, and one of the designers was trying to sell me on "Why the new redesign is better", which it's not currently, and I don't want a great product to become bad and have to move to one of their competitors (like ClickUp for example).
I'm writing this both for the current users of Wrike and their Design Team
I'll ask some questions on the way down for anyone who ends up reading this to answer, so be prepared to give Wrike some product feedback :)
Now, here's why I think it's worse and how I think can be improved:
First thing to note, this is what the old and new design look like right next to each other:
Old Design
New Design
Not so different right?
Question 1: At first glance, which one do you think is better?
Let me show you what I immediately noticed about the redesign:
- They hid being able to view all of the different views / spaces in one screen (which with good folder structure is almost never a problem).
- They added A 2nd, not needed space title (it used to be self-descriptive which folders you were in because IT EASILY SHOWED THE SPACES WITHOUT INTERUPTING THE WORKFLOW)
- They move the action button from the Left side (you know, where most of the work gets done and created) conveniently next to the Account & Help where the mouse doesn't really go except for account stuff and occasionally searching)
- Where did the most useful part of Wrike (the "My Work" section) go.
Let's see how the old design did these things:
Let's point out some wins about the old version:
- You can see EVERY relevant space on the left side of the screen, AND EASILY SWITCH BETWEEN THEM. You can go as complex or simple of a view as you need, and it's on a person to person basis.
- There's no question where to make a new task / space / folder / project. Eventually you're going to click the plus button. That's just going to happen. Plus = Create, bright green + = I want to make one of the things I need to make.
- The important My Todo section is available right next to the green plus (also is available in the Personal space folder). This is key because no matter what folders your in, you can click the "My to-do" and clearly see the tasks that are RELEVANT TO YOU (assigned to you). You can always access your Wrike "safe space".
- There's a hamburger menu to close the left folders in case you want to focus.
Question 2: Which version (new or old) do you think is more intuitive?
Question 3: Do you think Wrike really needed a "Redesign" or just better features?
Part 1 Conclusion:
I'm not done, but there's a lot to type here lol.
My answer to Q3: Personally, I don't think Wrike needed a redesign, because a lot of the filtering options and permissions allows people to clear up excessive folders & spaces themselves. But there are plenty of features to add (Like Kanban view containing projects AND tasks, instead of only tasks and not projects)
Since the Wrike team made it very clear on our interview that the new design will eventually be implemented on everyones device (whether we like it or not), the only thing to do would be to improve the new design.
So, for the designers:
- Please (at a minimum) add the easy navigation where the My to-do section is on top.
- Put the Plus Icon back on the left side
- Either get rid of the second title that's connected to nothing (right next to the Email icon) or make it useful (like a dropdown list of the spaces), after adding back the My to-do section of course.
What I didn't cover:
- The new home section
- The replacement for the My to-do and other section navigation (the dots icon on the right that complicates things further)
- How to actually navigate spaces now (it's not intuitive, and is quite painful to use, just like the dots and home menus).
Thank you so much for taking the time and letting us know your feedback regarding the New Wrike Experience, Zack Plauche! I'm passing it on to the team now! By the way, does the recent addition of "Show spaces" at the bottom of the screen help switching between spaces easier? Thank you!
Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Torne-se um especialista em Wrike com o Wrike Discover
Lisa Wrike Team member Torne-se um especialista em Wrike com o Wrike Discover
Hey Lisa, thanks for checking this out!
The Show Spaces button is actually really not convenient, and I've found it to take a lot of effort to switch spaces when I tried it.
Here's why:
1. It's not in a convenient spot: Everything I actually use towards the top of the screen, and the show spaces button is way at the bottom (not close to the workflow area). This isn't really a killer, but it's not immediately noticeable. I didn't find it until the Wrike Interviewers told me about it.
2. You can't just click a space to go inside of it's content currently. You have to click the little "Open" button on the far right of the space button to open it normally, instead of just clicking on it in the whole space button (area with the text, hover effect, etc.) to be shown the same thing.
It makes the process of switching to different folders more complicated.
How you used to be able to do it:
1. See the appropriate space you want to
2. Click on it (or click the drop down to see all the folders)
3. Click on the folder in the same area (assuming it's not nested) now you're there
Now:
1. Look for spaces in either the Home, the Google App section (I mean the one currently on the new version of Wrike that hides the things that used to be easily accessible), and finally realize the show spaces button at the bottom to find your spaces
2. See the space you want to go into
3. Click on it and ask why doesn't this just bring me to the space I want
4. Watch as the second folder pane shrouds your tasks in darkness
5. See the folders on the second pane and and click on those to open it, then close the pain (which, why is the second pane there if you can just open a new space and see the same thing and NOT cover up the tasks area?) ALSO, IF THE FOLDER IS NESTED, YOU NOW HAVE TO SNIPE WITH YOUR MOUSE THE **itty bitty** DROPDOWN ARROW BUTTONS TO OPEN THE NEXTED PARTS. Before on the old version, you could just click behind the folder arrow (anywhere in the space behind them) and the whole thing would open. It's not a fun mini game.
6. Try to find a faster way
7. See the "Open" button that's really small and doesn't show itself until after you hover over it and does what you actually want it to do (THAT STILL ENDS UP SHOWING ALL THE FOLDERS ANYWAYS ONCE YOU'RE IN THE SPACE)
The positives of the show spaces section:
1. It hides the "Explore Spaces", "Shared with me", and "Recycle Bin" sections.
That's it.
Suggestions:
Actually, I have the new version up as I type this (purely for this post) and I notice that on the Personal folder the "My to-do", "Created by me", and "Starred tasks" (which, the Starred tasks I use less because the tasks don't dissappear after completion currently, but could be super useful if that was fixed). If these folders didn't disappear I could appreciate the UI more.
So here are my suggested improvements for navigating here in general:
1. Remove the Folder pane all together in the "Show Spaces" button (which isn't a "Show folders" button) OR read the part after #3 below
2. Either remove the Open button that only appears on hover OR make it to where when you click on a Space the default action is just to open it so you can see the folders. This is the only way I'd be fine with keeping the folders section. That way it's a smooth slide-in / slide-out experience that doesn't keep the second pane in the way of everything.
3. Keep the EXTREMELY USEFUL My to-do folder, created by me, and starred tasks above the "Projects and folders" section in every space.
AND possibly an even better idea to add to #3, make it to where the Pinned folders appear where the "My to-do", etc. folders appear in Personal space.
That way you don't even have to go to the home space to hunt for your currently most used folders.
BUT, if you do this, please make the My to-do, etc. folders also pinnable so they can also stay above the "Projects & folders" section in every space.
This would really clear up a lot of frustration here.
The new smooth animations and click effects are really nice (that's why in this post I said it is prettier and feels better), just really some basic minor adjustments to fix the whole thing.
Thanks so much for more feedback on the topic, Zack Plauche 🙂 We really appreciate you describing the things you'd like to be improved in detail! I'm now passing it all to the team 👍
Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Torne-se um especialista em Wrike com o Wrike Discover
Lisa Wrike Team member Torne-se um especialista em Wrike com o Wrike Discover
Zack Plauche I agree with you in several points, but I believe is impossible to please all people and use cases. Many of the things you point are important/needed to users/companies who have hundreds of projects and thousands of tasks to manage.
I couldn't get used to the new experience in the beginning as well and keep activating and de-activating it in a few days every time. But when the dev team released a lot of improvements users suggested here, it became so much better to use the new experience that I never de-activated again.
The thing I wish was changed is the "Show Spaces" link. I used a 4k monitor and have to go all the way down to click it. So 99% of the times I just go back to the home page (since now it loads super fast), to change between spaces.
I'm brand new to Wrike but I 100% agree with Zach's points. I found this thread doing a search first for "How to add Spaces to left nav in Wrike," which brought up an article about a "New User Experience" that had a "Show Spaces" button. I of course don't have the "Show Spaces" button (WHY NOT?!?) and searching for the show spaces button specifically brought me here.
Not sure this will ever be seen, but does anyone have an idea why I wouldn't have that button? Going to the home screen to switch spaces constantly is tedious. Thanks!
Hi Teddy, welcome to the forums 👋
This is now called the hamburger icon:
Could you please let me know if you can see it?
Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Torne-se um especialista em Wrike com o Wrike Discover
Lisa Wrike Team member Torne-se um especialista em Wrike com o Wrike Discover
I see it! *phew* That's going to save me a lot of time.
I must say, however - for someone who is in software and apps all day every day, that wasn't intuitive for whatever reason. 🤷♂️
Thank you!!!
I'll pass on your feedback to the team Teddy, thank you for sharing your thoughts👍🏼
I doubt these will be addressed, since our entire team has submitted feedback for years now (which our Wrike rep "assured" us would be addressed in the update, and none of it was). But I may as well add my two cents.
Sorry for my tone, but these are ridiculously simple fixes that continue to annoy many times a day, which inexplicably remain unaddressed. My guess is engineers are running the show who have no use for UX. Whatever the case, maybe this will get somewhere finally.
1. When I add reviewers to an uploaded file...
a) Why is the pop-up list filled with the same random people who have never once reviewed a file?
Why is it so hard list people who I have actually added as reviewers in the past?
b) Why doesn't the field auto-populate once I start typing a name?
2. When I start a guest review, why does the pop-up page completely obscure the window?
It's useful to see the information in Wrike that I need to type in. My work around is to copy-paste that info into a text document before starting the guest review... In order to make your app work, I need to use another app.
3. Please add universal 'Approve-All' or 'Change-All' for proofs.
When I simply need to make a universal approval, it’s tedious to have to click through and select ‘approve’ for each and every image.
4. Expandable comment boxes in reviews.
Right now when I’m typing a longer comment on a proof, I only see three lines of type. If I need to edit a previous paragraph, it’s impossible to get to it using the scroll bar—it’s so sensitive (especially with longer comments) it shoots you straight to the top or bottom of the comment. Making the box expandable would fix this.
5. Indicate accurate proof status next to the file being proofed.
Currently it says ‘Changes Required’, whether the proof is finished or not. It creates the impression that everyone has weighed in even when they haven’t.
This has caused confusion several times, with designers starting edits only to find later edits were added.
Simply showing ‘Done’ or ‘In Progress’ (or something similar) would fix that.
Thank you very much for your detailed feedback, Robert Carroll 👍 Please rest assured that I've passed all your concerns and suggestions on to our Product Development Team.
We will keep you updated on any additions that might be implemented to this feature. Thank you once again for taking the time to share your sincere comments with us; your feedback is indeed essential for our team to continue improving our platform.
If there's anything else we can help you with, please let us know.