Preview new User Interface for Core UI

[Berto2002]

2 minutes ago, Estie said:

Currently we are having to scroll down the whole request to see any templates at the bottom of the list

There is a search function of course; just start typing. but it doesn't help people who don't know what they are looking for. There will also be (soon) the ability to limit which templates show here so all the back-end ones can be hidden from analysts). but that doesn't excuse all the unnecessary extra line gaps in a basic list

[Caroline]

I prefer the old Email view where you could see the date / time the email was received and the first two lines of the email in the Messages list. 

More space also now appears to have been given to the Folders view which, for those just using the default folders, means a lot of wasted space.

 

Request List looks great though, very much liking this.

[Berto2002]

Sorry but I really do not like the new email UI.

1) Our email header graphics are missing when viewing the emails in the new Email UI:

Old UI:

New UI:

2) In the above, the To is not showing. We have to click on the twistie to see who it went to which is no good:

3) you've spaced it all out too much again so the list of emails in any mailbox is now only showing a few so we have yet more scrolling and clicking to get the data! You've reduced the amount of usable data on the screen; reducing productivity of all HB users. I used to be able to see 12 emails in the list (including preview) before scrolling but I can now only see 6 (with the preview open which is essential to read what the email is about): a 50% reduction in the amount of usable data on the screen . And the list of emails is 50% narrower and cannot be resized.

[samwoo]

Service Portfolio - Available, Impacted, Unavailable

In the previous UI, you can easily tell if a Service is impacted by the colour that shows:

 

In the new UI, this colour does not show, forcing me to have to read the text to determine if its Status.

 

Suggestion for improvement:
Have the entire element show in Status colour. For example:

 

Thanks,

Samuel

 

[RRC]

Why are the 'To' & 'Cc' recipients hidden when viewing emails in the 'Inbox' & 'Sent Items' folders? Seems like an unneccesary additional click to see who the recipients are.

 

Email as it appears in 'Inbox' & 'Sent Items'. I have to click the drop down arrow to see the recipients:

 

Same email moved to the 'Deleted Items' folder. The recipients' email addresses are visible by default without needing to click the drop down arrow:

 

[Berto2002]

14 minutes ago, RRC said:

unneccesary additional click

Yes there's a few of these (see above for my post on the global search bar now being a magnifying glass icon you need to click to expand before entering the data). I'm overall impressed with the visuals but I think HB have not prioritised user productivity and usability; the amount of useable data on the screen throughout these updates has reduced and the number of clicks and scrolls is increasing. I really wanted to see more relevant information for analysts presented on page 1 of any required update, reducing clicks and scrolling. When opening a Request, the analyst needs to assess "what is the required outcome and what do I need to do next"; all that information should be cleverly displayed once the page loads and they should not need to hunt for it.

[Fizza]

Looks to be an issue with any drop down boxes via Darkmode where text isn't showing up unless highlighted.

[Claire Holtham]

We asked for feedback from our users. Can I pass on this particular feedback from one of our ICT staff members which has useful accessibility perspective: 

I would like to express concern regarding the new Hornbill UI from an accessibility point-of-view.

Hornbill's previous UI update in 2021 made accessibility substantially worse compared to the pre-2021 UI, so I was eager to try the new 2023 UI in the hope that this improved things. Unfortunately, this is not the case - in fact it is even worse.

I have bad vision, therefore I used larger text and DPI scaling. I acknowledge that this makes some applications display incorrectly, but generally speaking the vast majority of common applications are completely compatible with it (e.g. Outlook, Teams, Slack, GitLab, Azure, etc).

Below is a screenshot from a full-screen Microsoft Edge window running on my 1920x1080 screen:

As you can see, the interface is big, bloated, poorly scaled, and makes very inefficient use of screen space.

There are large left/right margins which cannot be removed, the call action buttons are wrapping onto two lines, the text sizes are seemingly random, and tab navigation is completely unintuitive.

Further to this, the dark mode does not seem to have been worked on, as the colour scheme is incredibly garish and inconsistent, with aggressively contrasting colours (e.g. jungle green buttons on a midnight blue background).

I understand that this is a 'preview' of the new UI, therefore I want to raise these issues as soon as possible.

Please let me know ASAP that these issues are going to be resolved prior to the new UI going live.

I am keen to be involved in any feedback sessions/user testing.

[Blowerl]

How do you add emails to the calls, there was a button called apply to request.

[samwoo]

@Blowerl, it was mentioned earlier on in this topic by Hornbill that this will be fixed in the next update to the UI I believe.

[AlexOnTheHill]

First few hours of taking a look and there are some things I like and some things I really don't like.

Good things: love the consistent colour coding of the request type when opened

I also like that areas that should be in the background are pale blue, directing the eye toward the areas of importance.

Bad things: spacing, everywhere, the spacing:

• the massive blank horizontal left and right hand panels when viewing a request
• the double spacing between actions when viewing a request
• the double spacing between email templates
• the double spacing between snippets
• the double spacing between the from, to, cc and bcc

The actions in a request is now against a faded blue background with a red underline, it is no longer white so feels part of the background.

Change post visibility not working

Closure category is now in black not blue, making it appear that it cannot be clicked.

Customer name seems faint compared to the word customer

My largest concern is that the formatting of the page in service manager hasn't been executed well.

Almost the entire user base will be in landscape mode on a 16:9 /4:3 screen ratio so I see no reason to revise the layout without that in mind. It's not even taking the same horizontal space that it did before, it's using less. The culmination of the changes seems to be to squeeze the part of the screen where most users will be concentrating on, forcing it to extend vertically.

Those are my initial thoughts anyway and I'm sure plenty of people are making many of the same observations.

 

[AlexOnTheHill]

Creating a new user in the preview now has a preview of the user as you create them and this too messes up the horizontal spacing.

I create users in a portrait view monitor and the user preview takes priority for horizontal space so I am left entering details in a fifth of the left hand side of the screen.

I can't even minimise the preview.

[Berto2002]

1 hour ago, AlexOnTheHill said:

Almost the entire user base will be in landscape mode on a 16:9 /4:3 screen ratio so I see no reason to revise the layout without that in mind. It's not even taking the same horizontal space that it did before, it's using less. The culmination of the changes seems to be to squeeze the part of the screen where most users will be concentrating on, forcing it to extend vertically.

@AlexOnTheHill 100% with you here. This UI update is a backwards step in terms of useability and agent productivity with overall reduction of useful information on screen at any time, additional unnecessary clicks and wasted screen real estate.

[Estie]

On 9/19/2023 at 10:02 AM, Daniel Dekel said:

The change applies only to Core-UI, not to Basic Users, and not to any other client (only on live.hornbill.com)

Hi @Daniel Dekel Can I just clarify who will see this preview? 

My understanding is that all account types of 'User' will see the preview - is this correct? 
Or is it just those with a Service Manager licence?

Thank you

[Samuel]

20 hours ago, Claire Holtham said:

We asked for feedback from our users. Can I pass on this particular feedback from one of our ICT staff members which has useful accessibility perspective: 

I would like to express concern regarding the new Hornbill UI from an accessibility point-of-view.

Hornbill's previous UI update in 2021 made accessibility substantially worse compared to the pre-2021 UI, so I was eager to try the new 2023 UI in the hope that this improved things. Unfortunately, this is not the case - in fact it is even worse.

I have bad vision, therefore I used larger text and DPI scaling. I acknowledge that this makes some applications display incorrectly, but generally speaking the vast majority of common applications are completely compatible with it (e.g. Outlook, Teams, Slack, GitLab, Azure, etc).

Below is a screenshot from a full-screen Microsoft Edge window running on my 1920x1080 screen:

As you can see, the interface is big, bloated, poorly scaled, and makes very inefficient use of screen space.

There are large left/right margins which cannot be removed, the call action buttons are wrapping onto two lines, the text sizes are seemingly random, and tab navigation is completely unintuitive.

Further to this, the dark mode does not seem to have been worked on, as the colour scheme is incredibly garish and inconsistent, with aggressively contrasting colours (e.g. jungle green buttons on a midnight blue background).

I understand that this is a 'preview' of the new UI, therefore I want to raise these issues as soon as possible.

Please let me know ASAP that these issues are going to be resolved prior to the new UI going live.

I am keen to be involved in any feedback sessions/user testing.

Fully agree with all of these points. In addition, I've been collating feedback from my IT colleagues and, even for those of us with normal vision, there are text elements that are now very hard to read in light mode (e.g. section headers in Service Manager) and dark mode (e.g. any link text on an unviewed ticket that's highlighted blue), as well as any of the text that appears on the light-blue-grey background in the request list being generally more difficult to read than it was before.

For colleagues who use a screen tint to make it easier to read text, the change from a white to an off-white background means they're left looking at a muddy mess. Dark and high contrast modes don't help here as the tint isn't effective on a dark background either. 

[Fizza]

Minor gripe but it looks like on the new UI, the 'Raised By' seems to be square instead of circle, looks a little odd.

[AlexOnTheHill]

22 hours ago, AlexOnTheHill said:

First few hours of taking a look and there are some things I like and some things I really don't like.

Good things: love the consistent colour coding of the request type when opened

I also like that areas that should be in the background are pale blue, directing the eye toward the areas of importance.

Bad things: spacing, everywhere, the spacing:

• the massive blank horizontal left and right hand panels when viewing a request
• the double spacing between actions when viewing a request
• the double spacing between email templates
• the double spacing between snippets
• the double spacing between the from, to, cc and bcc

The actions in a request is now against a faded blue background with a red underline, it is no longer white so feels part of the background.

Change post visibility not working

Closure category is now in black not blue, making it appear that it cannot be clicked.

Customer name seems faint compared to the word customer

My largest concern is that the formatting of the page in service manager hasn't been executed well.

Almost the entire user base will be in landscape mode on a 16:9 /4:3 screen ratio so I see no reason to revise the layout without that in mind. It's not even taking the same horizontal space that it did before, it's using less. The culmination of the changes seems to be to squeeze the part of the screen where most users will be concentrating on, forcing it to extend vertically.

Those are my initial thoughts anyway and I'm sure plenty of people are making many of the same observations.

 

I noticed that the right hand column in a request showing the request type, service, activities and members has also been squeezed horizontally, causing SLAs to now show on two lines instead of one:

now

now 

[AlexOnTheHill]

50 minutes ago, AlexOnTheHill said:

I noticed that the right hand column in a request showing the request type, service, activities and members has also been squeezed horizontally, causing SLAs to now show on two lines instead of one:

now

now 

I'm just taking a look at reporting also and the same horizontal spacing issues are evident there too. Here's the date selector:

now 

[Daniel Dekel]

Hello All, thank you very much for your feedback. Since most comments were done in this same post, I'll try to answer the ones that were not answered yet.
Overall I can see that most of the issues are related to extra spacing, in regards to that we are already working on resolving. Some of the spacing issues are generic and will be fixed in the next few Core-UI builds and some are specific to the pages like the Request View, that will be shipped as part of the Service Manager build.

The answers:

@samwoo - On the Profiles screen in Platform Configuration, there are no tree-view style indents to show the hierarchy within the Request or Closure Categories.
[Daniel D] We'll look at this (Don't have a date yet)

@Ruben - The contrast between text and background makes it quite hard to read when the tickets are unread. Emails sent to Hornbill are also completely unreadable.
[Daniel D] Contrast in Service Manager - Requests List will be fixed in the Service Manager App (Don't have a date yet)
The Email Contrast was fixed and will be released in our next Core-UI build.

@Estie - ...in the preview the actions toolbar at the top of a request is now overlapping onto two lines - previously it was only one line
[Daniel D] Yes, will be back to one line. Will be fixed in the Service Manager App (Don't have a date yet)

@Sam P - ...in dark mode when selecting the customer during request logging, the text colour is the same as the background
[Daniel D] Some areas in the selection were fixed in our latest build of Core-UI but there is still more work to be done in dark mode.

@BobbyB - Noticed on the timesheet input, it shows this error before you've actually entered anything
[Daniel D] This will be looked at by the Timesheet Manager Team - I'll let them know

@Sam P - Stars are missing on feedback until you hover or click them and then they appear like magic
[Daniel D] We'll look at this (Don't have a date yet)

@Adith - In the Request List page, the selection is no longer underlined to show what tickets I'm looking at
[Daniel D] This will require an answer from the Service Manager Team - I'll let them know

@Alisha - We noticed that we can't always see the body of an email.
[Daniel D] This was fixed in our latest build of Core-UI

@Sam P - Some issues with not being able to change post visibility, old vs new
[Daniel D] We'll review this bit

@Berto2002 - I don't like the fact that the new UI has a collapsible search area. We use the search ALL THE TIME but this change has just given us all an additional click every time we want to search for something. This is a productivity loss for all HB customers. There is no gain to hiding the search because there is nothing else on that layer of the UI to clear space for. I request reverting this to permanently displayed search bar
[Daniel D] Thanks for your feedback - The new UI for the Global Search did not change the number of clicks. When you search you need to click on the search button and then the text input gets focused automatically, so no aditional click is needed. You can also use the shortcut Alt+X (in windows) to get there faster. Once you open the search it remains open unless you close it.

@Berto2002 - The Request main view has been made yet narrower when it was already too narrow in my opinion...
[Daniel D] I agree with you. The Service Manager team is working to improve this view (Don't have a date yet)

@Berto2002 - Not a fan of all this unnecessary spacing in the new email view and drop-down for email templates, Just more scrolling for everyone. I am not sure HB have really thought about the amount of scrolling necessary over-all to manage tickets. The mission should be more usable information per page not less?
[Daniel D] I agree with you. The Service Manager team is working to improve this view (Don't have a date yet)

@Caroline - I prefer the old Email view where you could see the date / time the email was received and the first two lines of the email in the Messages list. 
More space also now appears to have been given to the Folders view which, for those just using the default folders, means a lot of wasted space.
[Daniel D] We made improvements to the Messages View. You can click on the extended view (top right arrows icon in the emails list) to see more lines and the full date.
Regarding the space between the folders list, we are using the same spacing as before. Still, unlike before, you can extend/contract the divider between the mailboxes and the folders list by dragging it. It will be saved against your user settings for the next time you access it

@Berto2002 - 
1) Our email header graphics are missing when viewing the emails in the new Email UI
2) In the above, the To is not showing. We have to click on the twistie to see who it went to which is no good:
3) you've spaced it all out too much again so the list of emails in any mailbox is now only showing a few so we have yet more scrolling and clicking to get the data
[Daniel D] 
1) I need to be able to replicate this. Images are not automatically downloaded for security reasons (as before) and you need to click on the banner that says "Click here to download pictures...". Please let me know if you still having issues with this
2) This issue was fixed and will be shipped in our next Core-UI build (if it wasn't already)
3) I've answered @Caroline in the previous message. Please see the "You can click on the extended view" part.

@samwoo - Service Portfolio - Available, Impacted, Unavailable
[Daniel D] This will require an answer from the Service Manager Team - I'll let them know

@RRC - Why are the 'To' & 'Cc' recipients hidden when viewing emails in the 'Inbox' & 'Sent Items' folders...
[Daniel D] This issue was fixed and will be shipped in our next Core-UI build (if it wasn't already)

@Fizza - Looks to be an issue with any drop down boxes via Darkmode where text isn't showing up unless highlighted.
[Daniel D] Some areas in the selection were fixed in our latest build of Core-UI but there is still more work to be done in dark mode.

@Claire Holtham - We asked for feedback from our users...
[Daniel D] Thank you for your detailed feedback. First I would like to let you know that we take very seriously any type of accessibility issues and definitely things should improve.
I made a test and already solved several issues I found when scaling to 200% using your screen resolution. Empty spaces were reduced and overall things will look much better in our next build of Core-UI (overall UI). Also, the Service Manager team is working on improving this view, and in their next build you will see improvements. Please do report any further issues you find regarding accessibility (or others).

@AlexOnTheHill - Bad things: spacing, everywhere, the spacing...
[Daniel D] Thanks for your detailed feedback. I think many of the issues in the request view were answered. Basically, the team is still working on this. But I'll send your feedback to the Service Manager team also.

@AlexOnTheHill - Creating a new user in the preview now has a preview of the user as you create them and this too messes up the horizontal spacing...
[Daniel D] Are you talking about creating a new user as an administrator? Configuration >  User & Guest Access  > Users > Create New User ? Can you please give more details because that view did not change at all from what I've seen? Thanks

@Estie - Can I just clarify who will see this preview? 
[Daniel D] Only paying users will see the preview. Not Basic Users. Guest users are not affected at all as it uses a different portal and that was not changed. Hope is clear.

@Samuel - For colleagues who use a screen tint to make it easier to read text, the change from a white to an off-white background means they're left looking at a muddy mess. Dark and high contrast modes don't help here as the tint isn't effective on a dark background either. 
[Daniel D] First, I've already answered to @Claire, and this will definitely be improved. Regarding "high contrast modes don't help here as the tint isn't effective on a dark background either". Did you know that users can actually change each one of the colours of the high contrast view? They can make it dark on white or white on dark. In the Configuration > My Personal Settings > Other > Show High Contrast Options

@Fizza - Minor gripe but it looks like on the new UI, the 'Raised By' seems to be square instead of circle
[Daniel D] Will be fixed as part of the Service Manager > Request View improvements

@AlexOnTheHill - I noticed that the right hand column in a request showing the request type, service, activities and members has also been squeezed horizontally, causing SLAs to now show on two lines instead of one
[Daniel D] Will be fixed as part of the Service Manager > Request View improvements

@AlexOnTheHill - I'm just taking a look at reporting also and the same horizontal spacing issues are evident there too. Here's the date selector
[Daniel D] We'll look at this

I tried answering all the comments, if I missed one please let me know.

Thank you again for your feedback!

[AlexOnTheHill]

@Daniel Dekel Thank you. Yes, this is how I am creating new users.

New users are created with a combination of the email address and employee number.

When I create a new user manually I paste the user ID into the logon ID, employee ID, first name, last name, handle and email.

I then trim out the information I do not need from each of the respective fields.

This may seem counter intuitive but it's a fast and accurate way to manually create users compared with typing each field manually.

The result of doing this is as I described, the preview squeezes all the fields to roughly 1/5th the screen on the left with the preview taking all the rest of the space.

If anything should be squeezed, it is the preview.

 

[Daniel Dekel]

OK, I understand now, thank you @AlexOnTheHill
We'll look at this.

Daniel

[Adrian Simpkins]

Hi Daniel 

One thing i have had fed back is the copy request window doesn't show the whole name of the users found - sorry not sure if this has been highlighted as yet, but couldn't see anything in this post as yet

 

Many thanks
Adrian

 

[AlexOnTheHill]

I've noticed that emails in the sent items now take up roughly twice the vertical space too:

 now 

Another example of being squeezed horizontally and expanded vertically.

I checked I can see 14 emails per screen currently and 8 in the new layout.

 

 

[Estie]

I have noticed that in our custom forms the static radio set buttons for choosing options are misaligned to the text (for both analyst side and Home Portal:
I have tried in Chrome and MS Edge.

New UI:

 

Before:

 

Thanks

[Estie]

5 hours ago, Daniel Dekel said:

@Estie - Can I just clarify who will see this preview? 
[Daniel D] Only paying users will see the preview. Not Basic Users. Guest users are not affected at all as it uses a different portal and that was not changed. Hope is clear.

Hi @Daniel Dekel Thank you for all the above responses.

I don't quite understand what you mean by 'paying users'?