How could Xero improve the homepage?

@Kelly Munro, the resize options (on chart of accounts and cashin/cash out) is a joke, to be brutally honest.

All it does is effectively double the width of the widget and give you no more information...it is literally the same level of info, just spaced out to twice the width. You are still forced to scroll, especially in the chart of accounts, to see all the info.

This is not an improvement or an expanding the level of customisation...to call it otherwise, is nothing short of insulting.

DO BETTER!

The resizing as per the chart of accounts is useless - I actually want to see all the accounts in my watch list (hence they're in a watch list!) not just see YTD on the ones I can see. Would appreciate full dynamic resizing or the ability to permanently keep the old view.

I wish you would leave the set up as it is and not keep changing the format. I was happy with the way it was.

Totally agree with this. I would like to be able to see two bank accounts and Debtor and Creditors WITHOUT the need to scroll.

Hi, this is still so annoying, looks like MYOB is back come 1 Jul

Yes - so my list of "Invoices due" has blinking scroll bars because it's too narrow - long invoice ids and customer names - so I can't see the actual values, without scrolling the little grey bar to the right - annoying. Literally can't see what's due at a glance any more. Won't be adopting until they let me resize my widget!

The only option for re-sizing the accounts watchlist is to double the size. At double the size, there is so much white space it is unreadable; at the base size it's so spread out it's unusable (see screenshot comparing new to old - you can see that in the old version, because it's a LITTLE wider, the account names mostly fit on one line, and all the accounts I want to see are visible. In the new, the padding around each line takes up almost as much space as the line itself, so because the account names all take two lines, you can fit ONE account in the space the old uses for nearly THREE.)

Because the listed accounts are all in account number order, the ones I want to keep an eye on on a daily basis - wages payable, super payable, PAYG payable, suspense - are all hidden because they're at the bottom and I can't increase the length of the widget to accommodate the excess of white space and the text wrapping.

Even with an unwrapped text line, in the old view, it's about 10mm between the information on the line above and the information on the line below the line I'm actually looking at. In the new view, it's 18mm. There is Too Much White Space for the usability of the information presented - you don't put oodles of Pretty White Space in between lines of information in a table, because it becomes unreadable and unusable! Pretty does not trump fit for purpose!

Would be useful to be able to adjust the size of the Homepage Widgets (Especially for Privacy)

The resizing of the Cash In/Out and Chart of accounts is very limited (large and larger). If the watch list is one or two accounts, the widget is still taking up a large amount of screen real-estate with no information (screenshot to demonstrate). It really neesds to size to its content at least.

Further to my comment back in January requesting we have the ability to change the size of the wigets, I am currently trying to train an employee to do the reconcilliations etc on Xero while I am on leave for a month. My employee is finding the home page very intimidating and in your face. Her comment was "it's very big and messy, isn't it!". She also doesn't need the peripheral widgets telling her how the business if going etc. If she can get confident using Xero I can see if we can delete that from her login down the track. A nice ordered list, like the old Home page would be heaps better for her.
I'd hate to be on the Spectrum and having to deal with that home page, it could almost be called discriminating.
Just thought you'd like some feedback from someone who has never used or seen Xero before - I don't think she would purchase it she needed an accounting system down the track.

"I'm unsure whether the product team at Xero are being deliberately opaque, or whether efficiency and usability of UI is just something Xero product management doesn't understand"

whynotboth.jpg

Thanks for the update Kelly, but I'd also like to reiterate what others have noted. The proposed solution to follow the existing widget capabilities of smaller/large sizes does not meet the requirement people are requesting.

Specifically, most people are asking to make some widgets smaller, and/or have a "compact" view with less white space, smaller fonts, etc. (that should naturally flow from having a smaller sized widget), and/or (as in my case) having widgets like Chart of Accounts full height (i.e. taller/longer, not wider, spanning multiple rows in the grid) so that all accounts are shown.

I'm unsure whether the product team at Xero are being deliberately opaque, or whether efficiency and usability of UI is just something Xero product management doesn't understand - but overall, the handling of the new homepage design, technical implementation, and roll-out is not giving Xero a good look.

(The resizing will work in the same way as what has been provided with the Cash in and out, and Chart of accounts watch list widget.) PLEASE DONT! That is not resizing - you have large or xx large.
You need to have it that the widget box can just be dragged to whatever size we require. Similar to eg. attachment in bills - you can drag the box bigger and zoom in/out. Since we can already do this, I am sure you would be able to use the same function for the widgets. And make the widgets the same - say all squares.
I spent a while with a Xero case rep trying to help me out with the homepage, as now a lot of confidential info was on display. Trying to work out squares vs rectangles was a drama. I ended up having to add unused bank accounts or make new blank bank accounts to fill up the top section and have my widgets that I use down the bottom. So now I have to scroll down to see the widgets I need. Pretty silly, but it is the only way to have a homepage and be able to hide info.

To be honest, I love the new layout. In fact, I'd like to see the ability to make the widgets even smaller so I can get more onto a page, in particular the bank account tiles - I still think there is too much white space. We have lots of bank and card accounts and being able to see them all in one screen view is great, I can't tell you how many hours i've spent scrolling up and down finding accounts. Also, another feature I have seen on other systems is to have a toggle to show/hide certain balances. This could be a sub menu off the dashboard page where you can assign which tile balance will be hidden when you toggle the view/hide button. Also you should be able to set default position as show or hide, so whenever you go to dashboard, it is defaulted to hide mode (meaning all your tiles are there but balances are hidden on those tiles you have chosen to hide)

Hi - I would appreciate if the user could scale the tiles on the homepage. These tiles are quite large - having the option to scale them smaller there would be more information on the home screen.
My suggestion - scalable tiles please
thanks

Just been forced to the 'new' home page. I now have to remove all widgets, have nothing on the homepage, then go find everything. As all widgets and their XXXL font are now a confidential issue. All our tradies can now see how much the company has or owes! Anyone got suggestions for another accounting package?

The widgets are too big, I would like to be able to shrink them to my preferred size.

This (attached) is the only way I can have the new dashboard/home screen. By removing all widgets so staff cant see bank account of other sensitive figures just by walking past.

I have had to change my login link to land me on the bank accounts screen instead as this shows the classic look of the bank accounts that used to be on the dashboard.

Please either allow us to use the old layout or the flexibility to seriously reduce the size of the widgets. Sometimes I have people working behind me that can easily see a client's most confidential information when I am logged in (I have access to a number of of clients Xero accounts, and I work at their various offices) I would suggest in future before making a permanent switch, Xero actually gets feedback from their customers in advance and then make a final decision? The flexibility to switch back would be a great gesture of goodwill until we have the freedom to reduce the size of the widgets. I am very seriously concerned about confidentiality given the huge size of these new widgets.

I would rather have a list of outstanding invoices on the dashboard instead of a graph with the totals owed. (same layout as the recently paid invoices list which i have removed completely as its not necessary)