Trello dreams coming true today… more label colors available!

[Michelle Murphy]

Please provide the option to revert to the "classic version" with the bold colors. I just don't "see" these washed out/muted labels now and I rely heavily upon them all day long. It would have been nice to have a voice in the change as opposed to having to rant after the fact.

[User]

Atlassian:  We want to make the labels more accessible!

Also Atlassian: [makes labels transparent and indistinguishable]

[xmontero]

It's SO simple to make this change non-breaking...

Trello team, you must do this:

• Immediately roll-back to DISPLAY the "old colors" no matter when the labels were created. Ideally not later than 48h, (max this tuesday 20th/sep). Name this rollback "day R" (from Rollback).
• Immediately after APOLOGIZE to all the user-base for having broken the workflow of the last 10 years so drastically and PROMISE this will never happen again.
• After the rollback, all the users will see the "old-style labels" for any label regardless of when it was created.
• The people that CREATED NEW LABELS during the last 3 days will see them "temporarily" in OLD colors while yout Trello guys implement this fix.
• After we all are back to "normal work", then (and only after the rollback) code the "label" object to support those new two properties:
  • pastel = true/false
  • addDot = true/false
• This will be the behaviour:
  • pastel == true => The displayed background color is lighter than the color I pick in the palette.
  • pastel == false => The displayed background color is exactly the color I pick in the palette.
  • addDot == false => No dot is displayed.
  • addDot == true && pastel == true => The dot is "the palette color"
  • addDot == true && pastel == false => The dot is "same color than text color".
• Then make ALL the existing labels created before 15/sep to default to "false/false" (ie: They will have null/null as the values will not be set in the Event source of truth). If you advocate for CQRS this is a very simple change in the read-side: If null, set to false.
• Consider having a per-workspace label-creation default config. Not to say that it'll be false/false for any existing workspace. Caution, this is not a user preference. It's a preference of the board administrator.
• Do a new deploy on "day N" (from New). No matter if this lasts one month. We are all happy seeing the "old style" awaiting for the new options.
• For the new labels created between 15/sep to the day R, apply true/true if you are happy with that, as this is "what the user was seeing" when creating the label.
• For the new labels created between day R and day N, default to false/false.
• After day N... The new deploy WILL STILL have the "default set" to "false/false" to create a new label for ANY EXISTING user. When I create a label it will be "bright" and "without dot", albeit I'll have the option to go with dots and pale-colors if I want to.
• For newly created workspaces do whatever you want as a default but allow the admin of the board go false/false if he wants.
• Add some "tips/ballons" saying "hey! do you know what? You can now put dots in your labels and/or use a paled-color scheme IF YOU WANT. Try it now!"

This is the way to plan a non-breaking change in a serious company.

This is it! Open to offer more help if needed.

[jamescollado]

I wish I could like xmontero comment 10^6 times! That is a plan I can get behind.

To the devs at Trello: you have millions of users, you cannot "guess-change" the work flow of so many millions of users! In the hope that "yeah the new labels look good" will be enough!

[Brittany Joiner]

@xmontero i understand that it probably seems that simple, but in my experience, it's not necessarily as easy as knowing what the code is to make it happen. That being said, if you're wanting to build something into Trello, have you checked out how to build power-ups on top of Trello? Maybe you could build a power-up with your ideas for the labels, since you've got that plan laid out! Here's a link if you want more info about developing on Trello: https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/trello/

[Harjit Samra]

If there had been thought put into the pastel features from the beginning, and allowing "pastel" as another colour option without changing the existing colours, there wouldn't be such a long winded way of "rolling back" this feature (as suggested by @xmontero).  Rollback is never straightforward as you now have to deal with users who are using this "feature" 

[Andrew Bremner]

"Trello dream", more like a nightmare!. This is a classic case of a large software company dictating to it's customers what it will have rather than listening to what the customer and the market wants!.

[Malin Hunter]

Aaargh! Change for the sake of change and not for the better.  My first reaction was NO NO NO......

We rely on the bold coloured labels for our job scheduling (we use them for town ships to at a glance see where a job is at and schedule them with other jobs in the same area. With the new labels they are hardly distinguishable from one another. I REALLY hope they change it back or give the option of using old lables.

[Joseph Brannan]

I agree with nearly everyone here. Labels are meant to stand out. The pastel washout labels (and the fact that the default is now the weak colour options) does the opposite of this. Please give us strong colour options, and if people want pastels, sure. More colours in bold tones is what we'd like.

[Malin Hunter]

@Brittany Joiner Hi Brittany, granted I know nothing about code however with reference to @Montero's comment you say "not necessarily easy as knowing the code as making it happen", but your developers created the code for the original labels once already (long time ago) and they are clearly able to create code for new labels.... I'm sure Trello is capable of working it out. Surely with millions of users you have some pretty competent people to do this. 

I think it is important to remember that although the change of the labels may not affect everyone, for a lot of us that use them in a very specific way, we are relying on a quick visual reference in our everyday work which has now been substantially reduced. 

We all make mistakes, it's how we deal with things when they happen that matters. 

[Brittany Joiner]

@Malin Hunter hey there, i don't actually work for trello, so not my developers :) I was just saying that as _a_ developer myself (for another company), I understand that there's always more to a change and it's not as straightforward as the technical code of a single feature.

[Lori]

@Brittany Joiner It's time for someone who does work for Trello to join this discussion to address our complaints.

[Cam Lloyd]

@Brittany Joiner Totally agree with @Lori looking forward to hearing from Trello about their next steps.

[MichelleW]

The ability to have color intensity is critical.   I am all for adding additional colors, but to take away the original, with primary colors, and replace them with pastel colors ruins the point of labeling the cards at all.  The level of intensity of the original prime RED was perfect for labeling a card as PRIORITY.  It stands out.  Now, all I have is a weak, muted, pastel red that has absolutely no character to express the importance of the label.  Nothing that stands out anymore.  What's the point of creating labels that don't have POP? 

SUGGESTIONS:  (1) Bring back the primary and secondary colors and add a slider to change the transparency (intensity) of the label, or (2) create 3 levels of each color, like 100%, 75% and 50% transparence of the color.   Either option puts the level of needed intensity in the control of the user.

[Donna]

@MichelleW fortunately I had all of my priorties setup in Custom Fields, the colours have not changed in this area so I still have the wonderful levels of POP happening on my cards LOW Priority [Sky Blue] > MEDIUM Priority [Lime Green] > HIGH Priority [Orange] > HIGHEST Priority [Red]...

Try it!

[MichelleW]

I most definitely will!  Thank you!

[Donna]

@MichelleW forgot to add that I have mind setup as a dropdown box, so only one field for all options & I have setup automations that reflect the level of priority against the due date that is set on the cards

[zshirley]

Please make a way where we can go back to the old labels. The whole reason to have a label is to make it pop. The new pastel shades are ridiculous, and defeat the purpose of the label. Most of the time I can't tell the difference between some of the colors unless they are on the same card. We use all of the colors and it is no longer SUPER easy to tell the difference between what each of my colors mean. I know I am not the only one who is upset at this, and disappointed. Trello is such a great system, and my coworkers and I love how easy it is. Please fix this mistake, and stop trying to do stuff for whatever reason it is that you did this.

[Kylie Brooks]

Hi team, love the fact that there are more colours and a colourblind option, but everyone here HATES the new pastel colours!!

All the feedback from my teams across two locations want the old bold colour scheme back. It was visiable at a glance, no need to actually go in and read each label, cause the colours are so similar to each other being pastel. 

It's actually made our work harder, and wastes more time as we now have to double check we've read or attached the correct label.

PLEASE...PLEASE..PLEASE!!! Revert the colours back to the bold colours of the past!!

[Liam]

Hey all, I’m the Head of Design on the Trello team. First off, thank you for all of your feedback and passion for Trello. We’re listening and we’re working hard behind the scenes to unpack all of it, understand the big themes, and continue to iterate. It’s clear that, for many of you, the new labels aren’t working as well as the previous version. That obviously wasn’t our intent.

I’d like to share a little bit more about the thinking behind these changes. We're really excited to offer Trello users a wider palette of label colors to choose from — a top requested improvement for quite a long time. Alongside this update, we had a couple of other big goals:

• Improved accessibility — The previous version, with white text on bright backgrounds, failed web accessibility standards. These updates increased the contrast to ensure that the text label was more legible to more people. That said, although the new labels are more accessible by web standards, we hear loud and clear that they have become more difficult to quickly scan and tell apart from one another for many of you.

• Modernize Trello — Trello’s visual language has not really changed in the better part of a decade. Meanwhile many new, more modern patterns have emerged. For Trello to stay relevant, we need to evolve as well. So the truth is, we are going to continue to make visual and experience changes to Trello. Learning from this release though, we will be upping our research efforts and bringing your feedback into the process sooner and more frequently.

We understand that this rationale won’t satisfy many of your issues with the new labels. We also know we can do better for all of you with future releases, and we will. So what’s next?

• Making labels work for you: We will be iterating further to make labels stand out more and easier to parse, and applying all of your feedback to this effort. If you’re interested in giving additional input, please click the “Give feedback” button at the bottom of the labels menu on your Trello cards and fill out our survey. We are reading every response.

• More research: Our research for this effort did not uncover the real impact that this change would have on many of you and your workflows. We will be doing more fact-finding before rolling out these types of sweeping changes, and spend more time iterating on the feedback.

• Fine-tune our rollout: As we continue to modernize Trello we’ll be communicating more in order to reduce surprises across our user base and offer more opportunities to give feedback as we go.

We’re truly grateful to have such a passionate user base. All types of feedback are critical to us building the best product for you and your teams which is always our goal. Thank you for caring and for continuing to share your feedback with our team!

[Brittany Joiner]

Thanks @Liam for jumping in here and for the explanation!! I've said in a few other comments that i can appreciate how tough a decision is is to update tools to satisfy multiple goals and requests. I appreciate you taking the time to go through this feedback and continuing to, and I look forward to seeing all that's to come in Trello!

[Panagiotis]

@Liam Thanks for reaching out to us, explaining your point of view. We will look closely on the new features and we will send our feedback to make your job easier too. 

[Cam Lloyd]

@Liam Thanks for your feedback and time taken with explaining the rationale behind the change. I am looking forward to seeing future releases. Hopefully you are able to find a way to tweak the labels, so they meet all of the criteria you've mentioned above as well as meeting most of the needs of everyone in this group. Thanks again. 

[Lori]

@Liam Thank you for joining this discussion and acknowledging our complaints. It sounds like part of the change to the labels was to meet web accessibility standards, which is understandable. What I don't understand is why all of the labels have to meet web accessibility standards. As we have been saying, please let us keep what we have, and make the new label options an addition, not a replacement.

The dot at the beginning of a label doesn't seem to relate to accessibility. Many of us have commented on how distracting it is. Please remove that or make it optional ASAP.

You said, "the truth is, we are going to continue to make visual and experience changes to Trello". I'm assuming that means you will be changing the look of our due date boxes, since they are currently white text on a bold background. That will be just as frustrating to many of us, as we scan for due dates based on the color of the box around the date. The green vs. red matches traffic lights, so the due date status is very easy to grasp at a glance. Also, having the white due date text makes it easy to distinguish it from the text of the card itself, as it did when it was used for labels.

I also assume you'll be changing the options for cover colors. I use covers extensively to make a card that functions as a header within a list, distinguishing items below it from ones above it. This is important for avoiding excessive scrolling, when items in a list are related to each other but need to be kept separate. The colors of the covers are something that I set deliberately to make them meaningful and quickly noticeable. If you change my existing covers it will disrupt my ability to scan for information just like when you changed the label colors.

Overall, it sounds like you're going to take away one of my favorite aspects of Trello, which is its fun, colorful appearance. I've made custom card covers, chosen board backgrounds, and added Windows emojis to cards and list titles that go with Trello's current color scheme. I'll be really disappointed if Trello's entire look and feel changes to look like the new label options.

[Brittany Joiner]

Just my two cents, but if you're using Trello for its colors, then there might be a better tool out there for style and colors. You might want to try something like Notion maybe? In my opinion, Trello is a powerful, robust workflow tool. I am hesitant to say this to this crowd, but Trello could take away labels entirely and it wouldn't change the way i use it, nor decrease it's functionality for me. I'm more interested in the automations and the mechanics behind how the cards interact with each other than I am about the way they're styled, so i think there might be some better tools suited to labels and the styling of colors.