Boost productivity and focus with a new reimagined inbox

Hello,

I won't go too much in depth regarding the new update since almost all of the points are already mentioned in this thread.

I’m wondering how the Front team is using all of this feedback and whether or not certain things will be changed or not. I’ve seen comments that feedback is being collected but have you already made some decisions or what is your stance regarding all this feedback? During the webinar you said that improvements and changes would be shipped on a daily basis. I haven't seen them so far within Front or here in the Product updates section to be honest. Maybe they are subtle and I just didn't see it? If that's the case please let me know.

I would just love to hear from you guys what you think and what's coming in the (near) future. Please keep us up to date as the changes that have been made are pretty significant as you can see by all the feedback. 

Hi ​@jdekruijf - thanks for asking and happy to clarify. 

First, prior to launching the redesign, we heavily tested the new design internally and with a large group of beta customers. There were many iterations of the redesign shipped during the beta, such that we feel confident with what we launched. However, since the launch, we’ve continued collecting and aggregating all of the feedback we get internally. We always prioritize bugs that are identified first. From there, we look at the themes of feedback to determine how it impacts customer’s workflows. A few examples of things we have changed in response to feedback include: 

• Feedback we've addressed and shipped:
  • Greater visibility of tags in the message preview and message header
  • New chat indicator in message preview for prioritizing chats
  • Attachment indicator in the message preview has been brought back
  • Flattened message menu (Resend/Fwd more prominent) has been brought back
• [Coming soon] In progress:
  • New filters for finding items in Later/Done
  • Improvements to bulk actions page

We also understand that there is a large bucket of feedback that is preferential and may take some time to adjust to - things like color updates generally fall into this bucket. Right now, we don’t have plans to address this type of feedback as we’ve seen that it typically takes users a few weeks to adjust, but we’ll continue monitoring and collecting all of this feedback. 

Hope this helps - thanks! 

Just signed up here to say the new UI is unpleasant since all the colours have been watered down. 

We will be using the original UI as long as possible to delay this update. My team hates it.  Just add more contrast please!  I don’t want to leave Front because its visually hard work navigating the interface.  

Hi everyone - thanks all for sharing your feedback here in the community! While we haven’t been able to respond to every post, we’ve been reading everything you’ve posted and discussing internally. Based on your feedback, we’re excited to share some changes we’ve recently made to the redesign, as well as some changes that are currently in progress. Megan mentioned some of these recently, but we wanted to share a few more, and will continue to do so as more changes roll out.

Recently shipped:

• Chat: Introduced a new chat indicator for prioritizing chats
• Attachments: Brought back the attachment icon in the message preview
• Message menu: Flattened the 3 dot message menu making Resend/Fwd one-click actions
• Unread vs read indicator: Updated the bolding and color values for "unread" in the left-hand navigation pane and message previews.

In progress:

• Inbox filters: We're introducing a new inbox filter for finding conversations in private/shared inboxes. This will allow you to filter your Open/ Done/ Later sections to single inbox space. 
• Bulk actions: We're making improvements to bulk actions (most used actions first will be available with one click, less used actions behind the more menu)
• Application objects: We're exploring exposing a limited number of objects in the conversation header
• Click to compose: We're exploring ideas to make composing an email 1 click vs 2. 
• Mobile: We are redesigning our mobile app to match the look and feel of the desktop inbox UI / navigation
• Adding metadata in conversation header: We're making improvements to the "+" menu to help users quickly search for/apply any object across tags, custom fields, tasks, etc. without needing extra clicks. 

Monitoring (not comprehensive):

• Inbox color impact on scannability 
• Subject line length in conversation header
• How counters, timestamps, and SLA timers are used

Hello,

While the new UI may offer a more modern look, it has significantly impacted our productivity. (While the claim is the opposite: Boost your productivity!! A huge failure from Front).

My team and I have made a genuine effort to adapt, but it’s become clear that the new interface is not workable for our day-to-day needs.

It's difficult to justify paying premium rates for a product that complicates even simple actions compared to before.

Given that the transition to the new UI is made mandatory, we're now actively exploring alternatives—specifically, migrating to Missive.

Good luck to those of you who will have to work in the new Front.

We’re just a small team (3 people) but had to move away from Front when this update came out. I’ve been using Front for five years in various organisations, but we just don’t have time to wrap our heads around this when we’re in the middle of some massive projects, so we’ve reverted to Outlook. The super-short “keep using the legacy UI” period just meant we had to make a rushed decision whether we persevere or move. Would have been better to have 6 months before the old UI goes. The whole “you’ll get used to it” approach comes off a bit elitist.

Why can’t we see the number of emails in a thread anymore?

This is very useful, who would even think of hiding this?

We need the badge back, both in the conversations list and in the message pane!

How can i go back to the older version. Our entire office up in arms over the awful update. 

I am here to echo what others are saying. This new UI is not user friendly at all. It’s disappointing to see Front team members on here just telling us to “get used to it” instead of actually taking the feedback seriously. If the majority of your customers say it’s bad, it probably is. The old interface was much better and the option to revert back to it should at least still be there. Forcing changes that increase workload in fast paced environments is the best way to lose customers. We are definitely looking at other platform options. 

Bring back the old version. This new version is awful and so hard to use. Difficult on the eyes. Forcing this change over and not allowing the old version is terrible.