The Product Design Spotlight: Solving Real Customer Pain Points
For the last few months, we’ve been spending more time listening intently to our customer’s needs to better understand their pain points and identify opportunities where Mattermost can better empower them to get work done. In this installment of the Product Design Spotlight, we’ll be sharing some design solutions to key problems that customers have shared with us recently. Enjoy!
A disclaimer
As usual, a short disclaimer that the explorations shared here are not yet finalized solutions. Priorities can change from time to time, so be aware that some of the ideas being shared here may not end up in the final product as shared here.
With that out of the way, let’s dive into the explorations.
The Bookmarks Bar: Streamline Access to Important Documents and Links
Locating important files or links proves challenging for customers who work in the field or on-the-go. Scrolling through channel info and finding specific files or posts can be time-consuming and inefficient. To address this issue, we’ve been working on the Bookmarks Bar — a solution that makes accessing important links and documents effortless for both desktop and mobile users.
The Bookmarks Bar enables users to pin frequently accessed links or files to the top of the channel, ensuring quick and easy retrieval. Whether you’re utilizing a desktop or mobile device, essential documents are now just a tap away.
Previously, users have used the channel header markdown to include this type of content, but it can be cumbersome to work with and doesn’t provide the necessary visibility on mobile.
Adding a bookmark is simple. Just tap the + button in the bookmarks bar, choose either file or link, and enter the label for the bookmark. From there you can re-order the bookmarks in the bar as needed.
Improvements to channel configuration
Another area we’ve been working on improvements for is channel-related settings. Currently, in order to configure a channel, users are required to jump around between different modals and scattered list items within menus, which requires closing and opening multiple windows just to access the necessary settings for a single channel. Clearly, this is suboptimal.
A single unified modal for all channel settings
By consolidating all channel-related settings into a single modal, we aim to simplify channel configuration without losing context by eliminating the hassle of navigating through multiple views. In addition, all elements in this modal get a refreshed UI that aligns better with our design standards.
Share channels with multiple teams
Because many organizations have multiple teams within their Mattermost workspace, the struggle of frequent team-switching is real when navigating through channels. At times, users have to join other teams in their workspace just so they can have access to one or two specific channels. An organization may have channels that they want everyone to be a part of (like “Announcements” for example), but don’t want users to have to join additional teams to do so.
We think there is a straightforward solution to this problem: shared channels. By enabling users from different teams to collaborate in a single shared channel, we reduce the need to onboard individuals to new teams and greatly reduce the friction of switching between teams.
This body of work is also part of the unified channel configuration efforts mentioned above. Here’s what the shared channel settings could look like:
Google Calendar Plugin…finally!
Another thing that has consistently been asked for over a long period of time is an integration with Google Calendar. We’re currently working on this as we speak and look forward to delivering this long-awaited integration that will aim to bring seamless integration between these two productivity tools. Here are a few key highlights we’re working on:
Event Reminder and Invitation Notifications
The first key piece of the puzzle is the Google Calendar bot, which will send reminders about upcoming events with direct links to join meetings. In addition, the Google Calendar bot will notify you of new and changed events. You can accept or decline meetings from Mattermost without switching apps.
Channel Reminders
We’re also looking at ways to link calendar events to Mattermost channels for team-wide reminders of meetings or deadlines. This could be ideal for team standups, deadline notifications, and other recurring events for teams.
Create Calendar Events from within Mattermost
The ability to create calendar events from within Mattermost is also something we’re looking at. This will be accessible through slash commands and other UI elements.
Daily Schedule Reminders
What if you could get a rundown of your daily meetings each morning when you first log in? This is also something we’re hoping to include to help you feel prepared and organized for the day’s work.
A Righthand Sidebar (RHS) view of your schedule
Many users aren’t comfortable with slash commands, so we’re also looking at ways to surface interface elements to be able to view schedules and create new events. We’re thinking that utilizing the right sidebar view to show your day’s agenda side-by-side could be really valuable while working in channels or conversations in the workspace.
NOTE: This will likely not be a part of the initial release of the plugin, but we think it could be a great improvement for those less comfortable with slash commands.
What do you think?
There are lots of goodies we’re working on. The bookmarks bar, improved channel settings, sharing channels across teams, and the Google calendar plugin all aim to solve real customer problems and hopefully make life a little easier for our users.
I hope you found this preview of the design team’s recent explorations interesting and valuable. There is more to come!
We’d love to hear your thoughts on these initiatives and what you’d like to see in future volumes. Please share feedback with us!
