Stay Tuned! The new look of Podio is almost here.
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Dear Users,
You asked for it and we made it happen! The new Podio UI is just round the corner.
We understand that our customers have been longing for more Podio improvements in 3 major domains: performance, UI/UX and new features. We are glad to have been able to address some of the calculation performance issues recently and continue exploring on more such improvements. In parallel, Podio team has also been revisiting our user interface, updating it to a new and more modern theme, that also aligns Podio UI with Citrix brand bringing us closer to the larger portfolio of Citrix products.
We have conducted multiple customer interviews to understand user sentiments about the new look. This new look has been open for testing by hundreds of Beta Users. We also did a customer facing Webinar in Jul 2021 giving sneak peak into our new look and taking feedback on what customers like vs dislike. If you have been part of the webinar, we're sure you have been eagerly waiting for this release. If you were not, then you have a surprise in store!
Excited? This is how you can switch to the new look.
- Click on your "My Account" icon.
- You will see a new link "Switch to new look" on the pull-down menu.
- Click to switch and that's it! Start using our new UI.
- Once on the new UI, you will see the link has changed to "Switch to old look". This allows you to switch between both the UIs till you get comfortable with the new UI.
P.S.: This "Switch to new look" option is only available for the web users. The mobile app users will be automatically upgraded to the new look on the latest version.
What's new for users?
- New and fresh teal theme: "Fresh", "Modern", "2021" define the customer sentiments from users who helped us test this new look. Our new teal theme with new fonts gives us a fresh visual look while simultaneously aligning to the new Citrix branding on both web and mobile apps.
- Modern and retina ready icons: All icons are being updated with retina-ready icons, while preserving the essence of what each icon means. A one-to-one mapping between icons in old and new UI will be maintained.
- More category colors: With our new color palette, we now support 16 category colors that gives you more flexibility with categorizing your data items, meetings etc. The old 8 colors are mapped to the 8 lighter shades of the new palette.
- Modernized components: Alert Modals, Charts, Polls and multiple other components are being updated as per modern standards
- Mobile apps are being updated across all platforms: Android, iOS and iPad.
- Email templates are being redesigned and consolidated into a standardized pattern for different types of email notifications.
- App Market and Extension pages are also planned to be modernized soon.
Here's a small trailer of our new look.
User Testimonials from Beta Testing:
"Love the new colors available for categories looking great so far 😎" - Damien Ruggieri, Citrix Podio Partner
"For the elements I use, I am finding it a lot crisper and easier on the eye. The categories are certainly standing out better for me now in a list. Overall enjoying it so far." Stephen McCurry, Podio Beta User
"Kudos - very smooth and clean UI 🤩 " - Caroline Vrauwdeunt, Citrix Podio Partner
"I appreciate the effort. It shows maybe you are working towards listening to your customers more" - Feedback during Customer Webinar
Is that it?
Of course not! This new UI is a stepping stone for many more additions to follow. The story does not end here. Our current effort has been focussed on the visual look and feel of the UI, without disrupting the usability. We do not want our users to go through an all new learning curve through a major UX overhaul all of a sudden. So we plan on making it a progressive change with both minor and major feature updates over the upcoming year.
Will we always have 2 looks to choose between?
- We will continue supporting the old look of our UI (blue theme) over the next couple of months only (as a transition period), and then deprecate it.
- For the next few months, you will have the flexibility to choose which look you want to work with. However, we believe and are almost certain that you would love our new look and not want to switch back. :)
- IMPORTANT: Any new features additions and UX changes we do from now on, will be supported only on the new look.
P.S.: Only Podio web UI is going to support these 2 looks. Mobile apps, once ready with the new theme, will not have 2 options to choose from.
Release Timeline:
- The new look on our web UI will be released this week (It's now LIVE!).
- The new teal theme is already available for the Android app users and will be available for iOS users soon too. More exciting updates to follow on mobile apps in an upcoming Product news item.
We really hope, with this news and new look, we are able to bring in a smile on your face, as bright as our new color palette 😄
Eager to know how you like the new look! Please comment below to share your feedback.
Cheers and Stay Tuned!
Pallabi - Podio Product Manager
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I really like the new colour. The very similar (a bit darker) Sea Foam theme has been my Google colour for quite a long time.As a beta tester, I've been using the new design for a few weeks now and actually like it better every day.
As a beta tester, I've been using the new design for a few weeks now and like it better every day. And as a Podio consultant, I work in Podio all day.
Pallabi Patnaik Thank you for the explanation:But fun fact: 'light teal symbolises creativity and provokes thinking'
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Benedict Stalder I have an iPad Pro and am able to update my templates just fine. The only issue I have is that I have to use a mouse (either external or on magic keyboard), as the screen does not seem to be responsive when touching with your finger.
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Well... most of us have a lot of wishes for features depending on our own circumstances.
What would really be interesting to know and what would put everything into perspective, is if you Pallabi Patnaik could share with the community how many developers you have exclusively working on Podio.
I know there are a lot of shared resources in Citrix making sure the servers are spinning and who are doing day to day maintenance, small fixes etc., but how many, if any (my guess) are actually working exclusively on developing podio as a platform?
If we know that there is only 0,5 dedicated developer(s) looking into new features and upgrades, then it is completely understandable that nothing is happening on the platform.So... please let us know
Thanks,
/Tue
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Hi Maeve Richmond Thanks for sharing this detailed feedback. And we love users with OCD because that challenges us to keep improving our product further. I will definitely take this feedback (on the width of numbers and letters) back to our design team to evaluate if this can be made better. However, this has not been a common feedback, so I may not be able to guarantee an improvement here as of now.
Also regarding your feedback on the broad teal header: This has actually been a common feedback from multiple customers and our design team is already looking into it. The header size was increased to unify our branding look with the other Citrix products and also to match with the modern industry design standards. But we understand how important the screen real estate is for our Podio customers and so, we are working towards making it it better.
/ Pallabi - Podio Product Manager
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Ok, dear community, since it looks like changes we asked above were just ignored and the new theme now is obligatory, here are the basic CSS fixes for it. To use them, you would need to install a plugin for your browser that allows to add custom CSS styles for any website, for example, User CSS for Chrome. And then add the following CSS to it. A lot may be done this way, but these are just two things that were the most annoying for me.
1. This will fix the font to support Unicode glyphs like cyrillic and jewish letters etc. (since the now used font Public Sans does not supports them and the theme has no correct fall back):
body,
.header-sub-title,
.header-title,
.app-sidebar-new__current-views,
.sub-navigation .tabs ul>li h5 {
font-family: sans-serif !important
}2. This will reduce the height of the top panel:
:root {
--panel-height: 40px /* set your own height (63px is default) */
}
.content-container {
margin-top: var(--panel-height)
}
body.section-app .content-container {
padding-top: var(--panel-height)
}
#wrapper {
margin-bottom: var(--panel-height)
}
#header-global,
#header-global .nav-box>.inner .user-navigation,
#header-global .nav-box>.inner .user-functions,
.space-switcher-wrapper,
.space-switcher .search .default-title, .space-switcher .search input,
.space-switcher .search
{
height: var(--panel-height)
}
.space-switcher .search .default-title,
.space-switcher .search .img {
line-height: var(--panel-height);
}
.item-topbar,
.is-animated .item-topbar--animate-to {
top: var(--panel-height);
}
.space-switcher .search .img {
margin: calc( (var(--panel-height) - 16px) / 2);
}
.item-overlay,
.item-topbar:after {
top: calc( var(--panel-height) + 50px)
}
.item-activity-wrapper .item-activity {
top: calc( var(--panel-height) + 70px )
}Provided as is, some bugs may be still there, so no guarantees, use it on your own risk :)
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Adam Chipman This is a user level setting. So users would need to voluntarily switch to the new look themselves. Organisation admins cannot control the same.
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Benedict Stalder This entire update has been focussed on a visual re-do and styling updates. We are also launching an update for our iPad app soon. However, that too would majorly be a UI update. Having said that, we do have web-mobile parity as one of the critical items on the roadmap, while drawing the fine line between flexibility and complexity on apps. Idea would be to keep the apps light-weight with only absolutely needed functionalities that are needed on the go. So we will need to first understand if app template modification is a common customer demand for our mobile and iPad apps or at least iPad apps specifically.
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Pamela Alexander you are right; the Magic Keyboard does the trick! Solves a problem I had for a long time. Thank you very much!
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Hi Kenneth Oronsaye Thanks for raising this issue. We will try to reproduce this and definitely fix it.
Germán Gutiérrez Hernández Dark mode is on our radar - on both web and mobile. I just do not have a definitive timeline for it as it would not be a quick item.
Richard Kennett Thanks for adding your kind words and loving Podio. I totally agree and like I mentioned in my earlier comments, color is a subjective matter, so I am not surprised if the choices vary. In fact we also get business cases where companies want to update the color to match their company branding. We may not have color customisation in Podio right now, but we are working towards similar user value with Citrix Podio and Citrix Workspace together. Stay tuned for more news on the same.
Geoff Chatham I hear you and I would not say you are wrong. Customisation of apps, flexibility of setting up our own business processes are definitely one of the biggest selling factors for Podio. But Podio's power and user base is also owed to its extensive calculation, workflow and automation abilities. There are new tools in the market who have great UI but may not be as powerful as Podio. So we are taking a more holistic approach at continuous improvement on all aspects. (For example, calculation reliability performance was one of them and you would be hearing about some improvements in near future). I too am sad that our UI had not been through a major update all these years, and we know users wanted more than just a look and feel change. Let's just consider this as step1 in that direction. There is more to come.
David Schaap Thanks for adding your thoughts. I would say we have mix of both backend and customer facing use cases, but I do understand the spirit of your comment that there are many companies who are primarily dependant on the powerful capabilities of Podio rather than just the client facing UI. Having said that, we want an improved UI for your employees as well (not just clients) and like you suggested, it actually adds layout and responsiveness updates as a key roadmap item for us. Search in filtered tables is also a very valid requirement and we will add it to our feature backlog.
Tue Roth I am not authorized to share our team size publicly. However, I can assure you that the focus and investment on Podio has been steadily growing and we are positive towards a brighter future in Citrix. In fact if you check our Product News section again, this last 1 year has actually seen a lot of feature improvements related to security features (2SV, SSO) and performance improvements. In addition to that, we have successfully undergone multiple platform updates and maintenance activities over the last couple of years. We are dedicated to keep making Podio better!
Samuel Artmann Yes upgrading the complete UX and layout changes are definitely on our to-do list. I just cannot indicate any timeline here owing to the massive scope the project would entail. However, we will make sure to give due importance to UX while adding more functionalities on Podio.
/ Pallabi - Podio Product Manager
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I appreciate the team's work on making this UI/UX better. But I haven't seen any significant improvements in that regard. Still looks too close to the old design. And, while the old design colors were less than impressive, so is the new one. I can definitely see hints of improvements and more modern feel here and there, but...
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Pallabi Patnaik, I must have missed it, could you point me in the direction, or give me any information when Citrix will deprecate the old look? The image popped up today as a reminder that the old look will go away
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Hi there. I sincerely appreciate all of your efforts that your team has put into the UI/UX changes, I will explore them when time permits. I have witnessed first hand via usability studies the effect UIX changes can have on users. The reactions can be harsh and pull up all kinds of psychological issues associated with each person. I do however want to bring to your attention a feature request that I deem to be very important for Podio. Many of us build and maintain a large number of workspaces. Better workspace management has been requested over the years (i.e. https://help.podio.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/202504513-Workspace-Organization-and-Menu-Customization) and this in my opinion takes precedence over cosmetic changes to the UI.
If we could get a drag-and-drop menu with nesting (similar to Google Tasks) for the workspace icons, that would do wonders for a great deal of Podio users. I suspect that the code base may not have been built to support this, hence the lack of response from Podio/Citrix development.
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Hi Pallabi Patnaik, I'd like to bump my question - can you tell us when the old look will expire? Per that screenshot I attached to my last comment I infer that the retirement is imminent, but there's no mention of date.
Thanks. -
I'm curious how the modifications are coming that have been requested by the community.
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I use the awesome Podio Super Menu checkbox option "make new Teal UI nicer" to tone down the horrid teal banner and another checkbox "Remove animated Glipies" which makes the interface look a bit more professional. Thanks Eugen for the CSS options might give that a go one day. Cheers
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Thank you Users for pouring in your thoughts, likes and dislikes about this new theme. Of course 'colour' by itself is a pretty subjective matter, so while our new and brighter color palette makes the UI look more modern for some, we completely understand that it might not turn out to be the best theme for others. Your feedback really matters and we will pass on the same to the relevant teams within Citrix.
In the meantime, would like share my 2 cents summarizing on the different concerns raised above:
Header Color
One common concern I see above is regarding the "light teal header". I would want to highlight that the teal shade in the header helps us align with the new Citrix brand. Further, based on our user research, we have gathered that it gives a fresh new and modern feel to the UI, something that is more 2021 as compared to the old blue we had. I may not have the right answer to "Why Citrix chose teal color for its brand". But fun fact: 'light teal symbolises creativity and provokes thinking' I feel this is something that aligns well with Citrix's inclination towards unlocking human potential and innovating.
Category Color Palette
Our new color palette contains 16 new colors, 8 in light and 8 in dark shades. The 8 category colors from the old theme have a 1-1 default mapping to the lighter 8 shades in the new theme. If that seems too light, will suggest try updating some of them to the darker 8 shades in case it helps.
Icons
We are definitely recording feedback from these comments. Will highlight the concern with the " quotation mark icon and we will get it fixed. For any future comments, always feel free to submit your feedback via a Podio support ticket and that will be re-routed to product team for necessary action.
Fonts
Thanks for highlighting this. We have escalated this concern internally and hope to hear back soon.
Dark Mode
This is not a top priority item on our roadmap currently, apart from some aspects of dark mode compatibility. Our major focus was to get you users a new UI look with updated styling first. But if we see this as a growing feature request similar to the comments I see above, we can definitely bump up its priority. We already have certain posts requesting for Dark Mode/theme in our Community page. Feel free to add more comments there to showcase the demand!
Thank you again for all your feedback. Keep them coming. And we will keep the improvements coming in to the product.
Cheers,
// Pallabi - Podio Product Manager
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