How could Xero improve the homepage?

The new dashboard view appears to order by row, rather than column, which means that if you drag a widget from B3 to B1, A2 suddenly moves somewhere else rather than everything in column B just moving down. For me, it super unintuitive. If it needs to be responsive then stacking columns would be work better for my needs.

Please leave classic view available until the layout works properly.

The new homepage doesn't allow you to drag and drop modules into any order/position - it forces you to fill the screen left to right. Previously I could have our the bank account details (and their $ totals) in a lower position that was visible only by scrolling down. Now it is always there, and also visible to anyone else near my screen. This new layout won't let me move it down/away unless I put in other (unnecessary) modules to fill that gap, which would then force the bank details into the spot where I'd like to have it.

Thanks for the update.

I can only reiterate Elliot's remarks below. On the face of it, this sounds to miss the mark, and won't address the concerns we have with the widgets getting scrambled when customising the dashboard, nor when resizing the browser on any given display (e.g. when pinning to the left-side of the screen and reducing browser width by half).

If this update remembers the layout on a per "mode" basis (i.e. 2, 3 and 4 columns, rather than actual browser/screen width) then that's something, but still doesn't help people who only want/need a 2 column layout no matter the browser/screen width.

Overall this feels like the design is being pushed by a technical development team rather than end user scenario and usability analysts.

As an aside, you say you're going to monitor this - how do you propose to do that? You have no visibility if people are using the CSS hacks I shared earlier to fix the number of columns on the dashboard. Are you monitoring screen size, AND browser window size - both or just one? For example, if I'm using my normal browser size then pin to the left-side of the screen, will you see the change in # of columns behaviour in your monitoring when I'm using the same screen?

Edit - I tried saving a layout, and can confirm it remembers per-mode (i.e. 2, 3 or 4 columns) not by screen or browser window size. The problem that still remains is that there are no "blank" or "filler" widgets for the unwanted 3rd and/or 4th column, meaning that this is still problematic when we're trying to maintain consistency of widget placement for our own performance/efficiency when using multiple monitor/screen/browser widths. In effect we have to remember a different layout for every screen/monitor width we use, rather than having a consistent layout tailored to our needs.

Thanks Kelly for this update - I appreciate the effort towards providing a solution, but based on my limited understanding of what you're describing, I feel that tying the saved layout to each device/display misses the mark for two reasons:

1. Most fundamentally, on any given display, I might use Xero at a range of browser widths (namely, half-screen or full-screen), and I'd like to see the same column layout in each of those widths.
2. Even when moving between a large display and a small display (e.g. external monitor to laptop), I still want to see the same column layout, regardless of the size of my browser window on either device (half-screen or full-screen) - and if the "saved layout" for that device is tied to the (scalable) number of columns that fit in a window, I'm going to see a different number of columns regardless.

To put it most simply: ***my eyes are trained to look for any given account widget in the same place on the homepage*** regardless of the display or browser window size - and without fixing the number of columns, that becomes impossible.

Forcing your users to memorize the locations of several (nearly-identical) widgets, on multiple homepage layouts, across the many multiple Xero organizations we manage, is frankly an insane UX decision!

I hope that I haven't fully understood the proposed solution, and that the updated instructions will clarify things further - but just in case, I wanted to add this feedback. Thanks!

I use Xero every day on my 4 entities. I rely on the widgets staying in one place so I can see at a glance what my bills vs cash/invoiced work is to ensure I keep on top of my cash flow. Now that they have moved to an HTML flow (no doubt to save having to produce different code for different devices), they just move of their own accord as screen size is increased and decreased so there is no familiarity.

A huge step backwards and one that will make me seriously consider moving all my entities to another platform after 15 years of being happy with Xero

Please stop changing the layouts, it makes using Xero inefficient as we have to relearn the new layouts and it slows us down.

This is an accounting platform. I want it to deliver quietly in the background. I don't want ideas or new releases, I just want it to work and not go backwards. This new homepage is a massive step backwards

Allow me to place widgets on a page rather than put them in an order that flows from one line to another. The new layout is completely unusable.

I use Xero for 4 entities at the moment and have done for about 15 years and this one "feature" is enough to make me seriously consider moving all of them to a different accounting platform with all the pain that would involve and all the loss of history.

It is THAT AWFUL

Andrew G, thanks for the CSS override info. It works beautifully!

This is probably due to window resizing. I've made a separate post about this. (https://productideas.xero.com/forums/966063-new-homepage/suggestions/50901080-widgets-jump-around-on-the-new-homepage-when-the-w)

My ability to navigate efficiently in Xero depends on the homepage widgets being in a predictable place. If I open Xero in a tab of a browser window that has a different width to the one in which I last opened Xero, everything is in a different place and I'm immediately disorientated.

This is particularly bad for me because I have a lot of bank accounts (chequing, credit card, PayPal in multiple currencies, Wise in multiple currencies, cash in several currencies) so I have a lot of widgets. It was difficult to get them where I wanted when editing the homepage immediately after I was switched to it, and now they won't stay where I want them. My preference is to have the bank accounts in a single column on the left, in a set order that I can choose, and all the other widgets (invoices, bills, etc.) in a single column on the right. Currently, it's impossible to achieve this. If the window is only slightly wider than normal, several of the bank accounts move to a third column on the right.

Edit: this has been extensively discussed in another post (https://productideas.xero.com/forums/966063-new-homepage/suggestions/50789081-homepage-ability-to-cap-fix-the-number-of-colu).

I organised the new homepage exactly how I wanted it. Today I've logged in an everything has moved and I can't get the widgets to go back to where they were. Not impressed.

Really dislike the new home page - everytime i log it moves around depending on how big my browser window is. It is HORRID.
Please keep the original page - this is NOT an improvement

I work from two offices - one has a 4k screen and the other doesn't. The one with the 4k screen shows 4 columns but the other only shows 3. Every time I move between offices, the auto arranging homepage throws out the layout. It's very annoying.

Automatic rearranging of widgets when browser window is resized moves them about too much, changing my priority based layout. Achieving a compact geometry looks pretty but breaks the relative ordering of widgets. Please just leave the layout unchanged and allow me scroll the homepage with the browser scrollbars.

I understand the new homepage could be powerful. However moving different items around is painful. It seems you can only order items in a left to right method...

I would much rather columns to be the primary way to order. At the moment I can get it to a way where it's almost how I like it, but then you move something, and it reorders things in a left to right fashion first, putting things into columns I don't want them to be in.

It does also look more cluttered, however I guess we'll get used to it, and it's not what's making it unusable.

Yes, I would like to have th ability to place each box where I want it rather than it effectively being a list that shifts across the columns when I move something.

A grid based system would help this so widgets can be placed in column and row position which could then translate easier to other screen sizes (eg i dont need to see column 3 if there is only space to view two)

Movable homepage widgets reduce usability and layout consistency

The current behaviour of movable and responsive homepage widgets makes the interface harder to use rather than easier. When the screen size changes (for example, switching to split screen) widgets move into different positions. The same happens when logging in on a different laptop or monitor.

This behaviour is particularly problematic when working with multiple bank accounts. Trying to keep four or five bank account widgets aligned on the left-hand side is not reliable, as their positions change depending on screen size or device.

As a result, the homepage cannot act as a consistent starting point or reference for work in Xero. The way widgets currently move is frustrating and disrupts routine workflows.

Widget layouts should remain fixed regardless of screen size or device, or users should be given an option to disable movable widgets entirely.

You're AI is hallucinating and creating solutions to problems that dont exist in the real world.

Need to be able to select the amount of columns on your homepage.
4 columns wide is too many

I agree with Heather's comments - I customised my homepage on a 3-wide monitor, and I'm now looking at it on a 4-wide monitor which I use once per week and it is completely different and nowhere near organised the way I originally intended.

The ability to either set a column, or 'lock' a homepage view once you have set it up (eg within my own file, having a locked view for '3 column' and '4 column' so that I can set each separately or stick to 3 column only if preferred) would be fantastic.