How could Xero improve the homepage?

Yes, like Jennifer Grauer says, it would be good if the tiles had a background colour, to make it easier to see where each widget begins and ends. (or if the background of the webpage is a colour, and the tiles/widgets are whilte)

Compress home page box sizes, with just New Bill / New Invoice tabs seen. Like a double click to open full box view

Like many of the comments here, I find the new layout hard to read.

The lack of distinction between the bank account widgets, especially when all need to be reconciled of a morning is chaotic and overwhelming at first glance. There is none of the calm professionalism of the original dashboard.

Maybe give the widget titles a background colour to help distinguish the widgets we are looking for easier.

Also, a major function I use daily is the Accounts Watchlist.

Can we please have the ability to:
- extend the length of this widget to 3 rows
- drag and drop our most important accounts to sort by a custom order
- move the YTD column slightly to the left so it is not impacted by the vertical scrollbar

Thank you

I would like to add.. the bank account widgets are physically about the same size as the old dashboard but do not include the little graph (which I quite like as a visual person)...
So if the graphs are not going to come back, the widget size is totally disproportionate to the data being shown... with the extra column available I would be expecting to display all my widgets without having to scroll down, but I feel like I am scrolling more than before.

I completely agree with others that the GUI designers have made everything extra large, when there was absolutely no need to... a re-design, sure, I like the idea - but just shrink things back down to where they were, it's now far to in your face...
Definately needs a 'make smaller' ... i've had to manually zoom out to 80% on my browser to reduce the overwhelm that it creates ..

And to add, as a very visual person, all the widgets for bank accounts look the same to me now... I've got a fair few 'accounts' and now the graph is gone there is no point me having any of the accounts on my dashboard anymore because it does not give me the visual overveiw that I want to be able to see.

Having played around a little more, I'd also suggest that some of the widgets need a "compact" setting - especially the account watch list - to reduce the amount of spacing between each of the rows.

Using both "compact" and being able to resize the height to enable all watched accounts to be shown in a list without the scrollbar would be far better to detect discrepancies quickly.

I agree the new home page feels much clunky and cluttered, I far prefer the old layout, it is cleaner and easier to navigate

I'd like to see the option to drag the widgets by the border to resize. Currently there is just a 'Make Larger' and Make Smaller' option (only on some of them) which is annoying as I want to reduce the height on some of the widgets further. It could snap to grid, at logical sizes like each centimetre and I also agree with other's comments that the ability to change (reduce) font size would be very good. Flexibility is key. You've allowed a small level of customisation, but not the level we expect from something that looks like Excel charts but doesn't behave like them.

I do not want link to other apps on my Homepage. I want the ability to set the sizes of all widgets and decide what I want to see. It is my Homepage so please remove the clutter.

I think we are all getting tired of SAAS companies deciding what their customers need and want. I run a software company and just because a functionality is possible or "cool" does it mean that it is necesarry.

The question is sometimes asked in focus groups "Do you think this looks better", or "Do you like this functionality" and the answer will nearly always be positive. But if users were asked "Would you be willing to pay $5 extra per month for the improved Homepage" then the answer would be a lot different.

Thanks

Make the Chart of Accounts widget resizable in height.

It now has a scrollbar within the widget. I preferred the old widget that shows all the accounts in a list without the scrollbar. Alternatively, provide an option for it to be dynamic in height based on the number of accounts being shown.

I now have to scroll the widget view itself to see important accounts, rather than all accounts being visible immediately. There's a good chance I might miss something important.

I dislike the new homepage.

I run 7 Xero files.

On the companies that only have 2 bank accounts it is ok and I just remove the widgets that you don't require on a home page like the chart of accounts and recent payments screen. On a daily basis that isn't required and you will see the recent payments as you reconcile the account daily.

For our bigger files that have many bank accounts, forgein bank accounts, credit card accounts and term deposits - it is so so bad. The visual clutter and the unability to resize alot of these just makes it a really bad interface.

Personally not a fan. Remove the things you don't need on a homepage that isn't needed here to help with trying to down size the clutter.

The Homepage: Visually, there is a problem distinguishing one widget from another. At a MINIMUM each widget should have greater definition, such as a darker border; otherwise, the home page is just an alphabet stew.

The ability to reduce the widget size and wasted space would be sensible and for many, preferable. Or removing them completely - for small businesses the concept is not useful at all.
As mentioned by @Paul Rosser - confidentiality is a definite consideration with the oversized fonts. Bigger is definitely not better, even if programmers think it's flashy.

What is it with the GUI designers that they have to keep making font sizes extra large and generally wasting screen space with large blank border areas, so any advantage of increasing monitor size is negated by the boxes seemingly being the same ratio as the old homepage on the smaller monitor?

For those in open plan offices, there are confidentiality problems, because bank balances and the like become easier to read at a distance, so you'll be looking at hiding the dashboard from view as much as possible, slowing down your productivity, or it's a case of not having those widgets on the dashboard, defeating the point of the new widgets.

Either a double-width widget (spanning two columns) or an option for 2 columns. I find the 3 columns overwhelming.

Either a double-width widget (spanning two columns) or an option for 2 columns. I find the 3 columns overwhelming.

@Kelly -- This is similar to the request I posted a week or so ago. Someone on your team combined my request into a feature request for the released product (not the beta navigation), and you'll see that I left a comment saying I think that combination was a mistake -- trying to merge 2 distinct requests. If you need to combine my request (& any associated votes) anywhere, it should probably be here. Thanks.

Here's the link to the feature where my request was combined -- incorrectly, in my opinion: https://productideas.xero.com/forums/939198-for-small-businesses/suggestions/47768120-xero-resize-in-conjunction-with-browser-window

I find the view is too much and some of the widgets are too big. I'd love to be able to choose a smaller size for some that don't need such significant real estate.

Also allow the Accountant to set a global view that would encompass client and team views. This makes sure that everyone is seeing the same reporting and data

Thank you.

I would like the ability to resize the widgets on the homepage. Perhaps this is offering versions of the widgets with or without different elements (e.g., toggling the bar chart on or off on the "bills to pay" or "invoices owed to you" widgets). Perhaps it's literally just about making it smaller & removing excessive white space (see attached example of the chart of accounts watchlist for one of my clients).