The New Trello

[Kelly Parks]

Love the new layout of the comments and description being side by side - but would love the option to thread comments!

[Brian Fedor]

I enabled the Beta features yesterday and immediately noticed that it made Trello perform poorly in the web browser experience (MacOS / Chrome). It became so sluggish that I chose to opt out of the Beta experience, but found that the lagginess persisted, which wasn't there before I had enabled Beta. I had even rebooted my computer, disabled all browser extensions, cleared cache, etc - both before and after switching to/from Beta. The poor responsiveness I now experience when using Trello is not present for any other website that I access.

It's a mistake to introduce wide-sweeping changes like this without taking into account the performance impact. The snappiness and swiftness of using Trello that users need in order for it to be a "productivity" tool is paramount. Please have your team carefully evaluate the performance of the app with these new capabilities enabled and disabled before officially making them part of the Trello experience.

[ACE]

The Truth
We all have a truth, and this is mine.
Yes, this seems like a rather dramatic headline. But it's no wonder.

Perhaps I shouldn't feel sad, but I can't help it. Although I've been using Trello for a relatively short time, I spent many hours deciding which application was the most suitable for us. Once I chose, configuring it to be truly useful for the company also took a lot of time (and still does). The initiative was mine; no one asked me to. But it was having good results, so I was excited.

Now, after the changes, the information, and the responses I'm reading from the Trello team, I realize that the decision was wrong. Not because it's not the tool I was looking for, but because the direction Trello is going is very different from what it once was and what I would like. At least that's my current feeling. Trello won't be a powerful team project management tool (in fact, it isn't anymore). The changes are going in almost the opposite direction. But I read comments that, if I'm being dramatic, I might consider misleading. I apologize if anyone is offended by this opinion.

The new interface seems clearly designed to be less productive, yes, that's exactly it. Buttons farther apart, a step backward in usability, more clicks to do the same thing, kicking Fitts's law. Why?
Because they want us not to use Trello for business, only for our personal things. They could have added tools for personal use without undermining business use, but that hasn't been the case, and they won't do so in the future. That's what Jira is for, I imagine, because I haven't used it yet.

I can't blame a company for a decision like this. They're within their rights. They'll have their reasons and a specific strategy. A direction that will harm many and benefit a few, I think.
For now, I'll take the time to share my views on some aspects, like the new back of the cards, and I don't know about any others. I'll see...
Regards

[Rasmus Wulff Jensen]

Could not agree more with @ACE here. The new changes granted 'pretty' but they are so anti-productive that it hurts to my very core as a usability, automation and productivity practitioner.

Last week a had enough of these "improvements" (the new card back was the final straw) and opted out of the Beta... What bliss it was to get rid of silly floating menu bars, having my powerup buttons back for one-click access and most importantly the left sidebar was... But alas, it will not last forever... 😢

Hope Trello survive the massive uproar that will happen once this go live (look how much negative feedback a little thing like the Due Complete checkbox got, and then image when the common user see this new usability mess)...

[Brinley Janusz]

It looks like we just got a whole new layout update. It's way less user friendly than it was before, where everything you could want to add/change on your card was in line on the right side. Now, options are less visible, in different places on the card, and it's just harder to navigate. Hoping they will revert it back, or at least offer us the option to revert back to the older layout. 

[Martin Fau]

Please allow users to switch to the old Trello layout. Thank you.

[Alexandros Mathopoulos]

👋🏻 Hi all! Lex here from the Product Management team. Just wanted to share an update that the team has been hard at work reviewing and coming up with potential solutions/improvements based on all the navigation feedback y’all have been sharing!

In the next week or so I will share a detailed walkthrough of the improvements we will be making based on all the navigation feedback we have been receiving. We believe many of these improvements will address the top pain points/issues many have shared about the current experience. 

Appreciate your honest feedback and patience! The team is on it and we will share more details soon. 

[Susana Holguin-Veras]

@Alexandros Mathopoulos 

Other Atlassian staff in other threads have mentioned that the direction of Trello is shifting and that that shift is driving these unpopular UI changes. See here one example, of several I came across: 

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Trello-articles/The-new-Trello-is-coming-soon-to-everyone/ba-p/3015921

Could you be clear about what direction Trello is going towards? Best to cut speculation and hear straight from your team in plain terms what your goals are. Will Trello move away from team collaboration? A definitive answer to this question will help teams determine next steps quickly. This is, after all, a productivity tool and far too much of everyone's time has been spent debating and navigating these changes, when we could just move to another tool that does what we need. 

Please advise. 

[Alexandros Mathopoulos]

Hi all! As promised, here are some more details on the upcoming board navigation changes we will be making based on all of your feedback!