Atlassian's Trello redesign may be 'worst in tech history' say frustrated users

Angry users of Atlassian’s Trello project management tool users are dishing out harsh criticism about a recent redesign. Revisions of popular apps invariably elicit a few critical comments, but dislike for the new Trello is difficult to write off as just background noise. It's as if Atlassian had seen the blowback from …

[IamAProton]

I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

Imagine a car company swapping pedals position because some UI evangelist said it's more ergonomic... or the gereas positions in the gearbox... not a single muppet in the world would do that.

With software we still have a very long way to go before it will become a well understood tool people can rely on

[Korev]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

Imagine a car company swapping pedals position because some UI evangelist said it's more ergonomic... or the gereas positions in the gearbox... not a single muppet in the world would do that.

The rise of touchscreens in cars is terrible, you have to take your eyes off the road to use them which you didn't for the knobs and switches of old.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

"The rise of touchscreens in cars is terrible, you have to take your eyes off the road to use them which you didn't for the knobs and switches of old."

Really good point. The loss of tactile feedback from knobs, switches, buttons etc missing from pure touch interfaces has quite a high cost in usability.

[PCScreenOnly]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

Same with the sat nav. Got to really turn and look away from the road. Heads up is good until you wear polarised sun glasses and then it is impossible to see.

Prefer to have a phone with navigation at the bottom right of the windscreen. Easy to see the nav and road. Only thing is the cars touchscreen is so much larger and useful vs phone screen

[werdsmith]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

The satnav duplicates its information, countdowns and turns etc in the middle of the drivers dash display between the speedo and other digital info.

It also talks to you.

I also prefer physical controls in a car, but my car does its functions by speech commands, so no need to Rach for anything. Also, much of the control is on the steering wheel or on stalks just behind.

I know people don't like being told this because it destroys their reasons to have a whinge but......

[Richard 12]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

Voice commands barely work to not at all.

I've had it attempt to send me to a location many hundreds of miles away from the address I asked for many times, because it either misheard or (more often) ignored the town name.

Plus they all still really struggle with accents outside of the posh bits of the US and London. Glaswegians have no chance.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

Siri and Alexa are completely lamentable at understanding clearly spoken English (other languages are available).

Alexa is particularly dumb/infuriating when mangling music requests or ‘‘sorry I don’t know that one’ for something in my music library or a recent/frequent play…. so much for Machine Learning, LLM Datasets, inference or just looking at what I like (happy to recommend lots of rubbish).

Both absolutely dumb as shit…. and about as useful as Yahoo! was pre-millennium.

[werdsmith]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

Voice commands barely work to not at all.

Voice commands work 100% of the time In my experience.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

You've said the same about AI too.

Ever heard of credibility?

[Aldnus]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

Not in all cars , you have to take into account older and cheaper models and brands dont have this feature to provide visual information in the dash board.

[David Hicklin]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

> The satnav duplicates its information, countdowns and turns etc in the middle of the drivers dash display between the speedo and other digital info.

Not on mine is doesn’t! Mind you I love my cars simple, clean and uncluttered driver display as it only shows stuff when enabled and then in minimalist fashion. centre display is fine for satnav as it is high enough and slightly angled towards the driver.

The car?? 2021 Corsa.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

… asks Siri for help with something (using the voice assistant button on the steering wheel)

‘Sorry I can’t do that while you are driving’, or if stationary gives you a list of ‘what I have found on the web’ (not on the CarPlay touchscreen)

Driving is literally when you need a fucking voice assistant.

<sigh/shrug/roll-eyes:double-Picard>

[David Hicklin]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

> Driving is literally when you need a fucking voice assistant.

Is that not the passengers job to push the touchscreen?

[PCScreenOnly]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

Motorbikes changed the side of brake and gears.

Bit confusing when you get an old bike that has that arrangement.

I also find that they should set a standard width of pedal. Going into a Yaris I often find I catch the brake with the accelerator - not in other cars I have access to

[FeRDNYC]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

Automakers also continue to enable "spirited debate" among drivers and/or their national governments regarding which side of the car the driver's seat should be on.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

Last Picanto I drove had weirdly offset pedals.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

try a modern Unimog. Gears on what is headlights stalk in Oz. Windscreen wipers on wrong side. Gear range/4WD selector switch in odd places compared to "vanilla" 4WD. Parking brake is at least a lever in odd position but recognizable. At least accelerator and foot brake are standard, unlike every recent car I have needed to drive in last 10 years where handbrake on floor, flat LCD with controls in different places and all, as referred above, require eye and attention off road. Very unsafe. I used to think mid 1950s Citroen were a bit weird until then.

[IamAProton]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

IIRC Triumph had some "left handed" kit for motorbikes (swap accelerator, front brake and clutch) but you could have it only if you provide a medical certificate proving you are left-handed.

Can't quickly find references, except for the 'switchcubes' available on ebay

[Tron]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

It's not just for the sake of changing it. Most of these companies hire people to design stuff and then wouldn't need them any more unless they kept designing stuff. With no new stuff to design, they justify themselves on the payroll by redesigning stuff. And if stuff worked well as it was, the redesign will be worse. Obviously they would have a better product if they just put these people on gardening leave until they needed them again, but it would look like a lack of productivity. In this case, it looks like the deliberate undermining of one product to nudge people on to another one. At times like this, folk may want to step back a bit and consider whether there is a better/simpler product out there, and whether they even need a specific piece of software at all. Just because someone invents a piece of software, if we don't need it, and have been coping without it, don't use it. We used paper for centuries and simple Works packages for a couple of decades quite happily. If you can use a word processor or spreadsheet file for something, do you really need a customised piece of software to do it. Each additional piece of software you use is a cost, a risk and a dependency. We need less of these.

[JLV]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

> gardening leave

So true.

Bit like each new iOS release has to rearrange the deck chairs on the Music app a bit. Followed by the obligatory pontificating from Apple pundit websites about the deep significance thereof ("the corners on the buttons are much betterly rounded!").

[NXM]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

Yeah, and what about the crisps UI?

Some manufacturers arbitrarily changed the bag colour from green for cheese & onion to blue! Blue is salt & vinegar. I don't like cheese & onion but many's the time I've accidentally bought them thinking they were salt & vinegar. It's a disgrace.

[UnknownUnknown]

Re: I love when they change software interface for the sake of changing it

Grew up a Tudor man, not Walkers (Smiths).

Fully agree.

… and lamenting despite the various flavours events Walkers run are unable to bring back Spring Onion flavour. Cockwombles.

[sanf]

CSS/JS based UI frameworks

This is what happens when you need to make user interfaces with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It is made different just to make sure you know you are using the application. All of the mismatched UIs distract me from my actual work. It also requires a browser running in the background consuming vast amounts of RAM.

It does not help that Microsoft already abandoned many of their own UI frameworks. Heck, their own new MS Outlook client is just a web browser, losing many of the features the old application had in the past.

I do understand that having web based applications makes them easier to port with the exact same look and feel. I just miss applications that used more of the OS and fitted in a floppy disk, being as efficient as they could. Let me get back to write some GUI in tk.

[wolfetone]

Calm the fuck down.

People love changing things for the sake of change, but people love moaning for the sake of moaning too.

We're human. We're meant to adapt to change. We may not like it, but we adapt and we move on. If we didn't we wouldn't be here. We'd be using Trello on a cave wall somewhere.

[that one in the corner]

Re: Calm the fuck down.

> We may not like it, but we adapt and we move on

You seem to have confused the roles of human and software: the software is meant to adapt to and provide value to us, *not* the other way around.

Random and undirected changes in software can result in approval - and be celebrated - or, as here, they can be reviled.

To say that we should not express disdain, or disgust, as appropriate is to say that negative feedback must not be applied - and I really hope we don't have to explain to you the importance of negative feedback in a system.

[lglethal]

Re: Calm the fuck down.

Normally, I would agree with you, but this seems a clear case of deliberate Entshitification, designed to push people to a more costly alternative (from the same firm).

So absolutely people should call this out. Then switch to an alternative, and show Atlassian the finger.

Entshittification should never just be accepted...

[Timop]

Re: Calm the fuck down.

Trello was really useful tool for complex chaotic task planning, management and tracking, keeping people up to date with tasks, assigning tasks to people etc.

Now there are lot of unnecessary clicks everywhere thanks to the UI redesign. Now I need to reconsider a lot of workflows.

Bit like taking one of the most useful rock tools and replace it with completely different tool while destroying all the existing tools and denying use of the old tool completely. Not an evolution path inevitably leading to microprocessors in my honest opinion.

[Anonymous Coward]

Rely on a webpage, expect it to change.

There are decent open-source (and offline) alternatives. Always have been.

[abend0c4]

TBF, it's not just web-based products/services. Microsoft has plenty of form for arbitrarily changing the UI of Office, for example - or, worse, its document format. The interesting thing is that the customers. who have mostly justified their expenditure on the basis of reduced training costs ("everyone is familiar with the UI") or compatibility ("it's a de facto standard") suddenly start finding excuses because the actual reason for the contract was the lazy, arse-covering "no-one ever got fired for buying it" one.

[that one in the corner]

Suggesting Jira as a Trello alternative

What was that phrase? "Embrace, extend, extinguish"?

Trello was proving popular and useful, but it is still all foreign and greasy, compared to Atlassian's pride and joy[1] so what *can* they do to fix that?

[1] "a face only its mother could love"

[Dan 55]

Re: Suggesting Jira as a Trello alternative

And I was thinking that nothing could beat Jira for the shittiest user interface in the world ever award. Perhaps Jira can claim to be a step up from Trello now (don't know, never had the displeasure of trying it).

I'm posting to put off switching tabs to one of around 50 open Jira tabs because I think I may sick up in my mouth if I see it Jira one more time again today.

[werdsmith]

Re: Suggesting Jira as a Trello alternative

Jira, Confluence, Trello...... At our place they were introduced by some new boss bringing the idea with him. Everybody, en masse just refused to use it, so that licence money was wasted.

I remember the first day we were shown it for "training" headache within 5 minutes.

[m4r35n357]

Re: Suggesting Jira as a Trello alternative

Worst. UI. Ever.

[Anonymous Coward]

Atlassian do it again

Like they haven't messed Jira up enough recently with the complete interface redesign no one ever asked for.

[Richard 12]

Re: Atlassian do it again

If only they spent 1% of the time wasted on UI redesigns fixing the 'ing bugs in their 'ing bugtracker.

There are bugs in Jira that are old enough to drive!

[Anonymous Coward]

As if Atlassian had seen ...

the arrogance of Microsoft's Skype redesign, Accenture's Hertz site debacle, GitHub's bungled code search renovation, and last year's CEO-ending Sonos update, and then said, "Let's have some of that."

Lashings would be favourite.

“We are changing Trello to become an entirely different product ”

Why not just find a new name for a new product ? Perhaps "effoffe "™ could serve ?

Unfortunately for them not everyone is that keen on cake (or brioche. :)

[Pascal Monett]

So, Atlassian has decided to do a Broadcom

“We are changing Trello to become an entirely different product ”

Yeah, apparently one that no one wants.

What is it with these stupid UI coders who change everything ? Don't they understand that a UI is something users get used to and they need to keep it that way ?

Move fast and break things DOES NOT APPLY to user workflow.

Get that into your thick skulls.

[krakead]

Jira is an abomination - there's no getting away from that. But Trello was at least usable and mostly made sense. Unfortunately, we're way too deep into the Atlassian rabbit hole. That hole is full of shit, but climbing out has become an impossible act without it being self-destructive. Roll on retirement...

[Ace2]

Jira is a steaming pile. For me, it became unusable when they removed the non-“smart” editing interface.

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

Regardless ...

... of what one thinks of Jira, the virtue to Trello is that it's comparatively lightweight and streamlined. Forcing people onto Jira adds a ton of overhead to project and task management, which users are strangely not going to enjoy.

[JpChen]

See also Jira. Stop messing with stuff and moving the effin buttons around. Absolute dog’s dinner.

[Rob F]

Misread of sentence still makes sense

I misread a sentence as "Users are speculating that Atlassian is trying to shit professional users to Jira"

Still made sense, in my eyes.

[TM™]

I was just following Jiras

Never mind user feedback on a speedily delivered prototype - our waterfall admin system told us to do this.

[Henry Wertz 1]

two product lines

Why wouldn't they have Trello and then modify it under a new name for personal time management or whatever they think they are going to pivot it to. They might think they'll just move existing customers to Jira, but they could just retain them on Trello AND have 'Trello personal' or whatever for what they apparently are intending to turn Trello into instead of pissing off their existing customer base.

[Anonymous Coward]

why even keep the Trello name if it's a new product?

Maybe they don't want to maintain Trello as it was anymore and want to cut staff or shift staff to their "alternative"/replacement.

But if they are opening a new chapter, they're making a new product, why name it Trello? Are they trying to make the shut down of old Trello less groundbreaking by keeping the name around?

[Christian Berger]

Re: why even keep the Trello name if it's a new product?

Because Trello used to be a very decent product with a deserved reputation, while Jira seems to lack any kind of actual design.

[MJG01]

Sack the design team

Why is no one talking about the god-awful changes they made to the Jira and Confluence platforms?! They've made a truly awful interface.........well........... worse!!

[Senor Beavis]

Self-hosted FOSS alternative: Planka

Taiga already mentioned, but it's arguably a bit on the heavyweight side of things.

A simpler alternative is Planka, another Trello clone.