[New Feature] New Workflow Tab in Beta

[trecko]

Love the new feature, looks sleek, BUT

It looks like a big waste of screen to me. I was used to working very comfortably on a wide screen, able to see a bunch of workflows at once. Now that’s impossible, most of my screen is empty while working on workflows:

Not saying everyone should work on a widescreen, but a toggle between Icon/List view would be a killer!

[jared.gibb]

I really like the vertical workflow. If you don’t like it now, it will be coming an acquired taste

[chris19]

@sudsy

Allow user to set width of sidebar

…like the elements tree.

@kate.mcnally This would be a very simple change to make a big impact.

[gerbertdelangen]

Agree, big waste of screen, please go horizontal with the workflow (or give us the option to choose ):

[bubble62]

Hi Kate,

Thanks for sharing these updates! The new Workflow tab experience looks like a great step forward, especially with the improved organization and search functionalities. I appreciate the focus on user feedback, especially with features like the hover details and dynamic workflow views.

A couple of thoughts: It would be super helpful if the resizing feature in the folder side panel gets prioritized, and the ability to sort workflows by event types sounds like a game-changer. Looking forward to testing it further!

[fernando2]

Glad to get a refresh… but why all this empty space? Seems like this was designed with mobile in mind? Long workflows now require lots of scrolling…

[rwhibbey]

YES can we have bigger font. we build on desktop/laptop computers. NEED BIGGER FONT

[mghatiya]

I’ve switched back to earlier workflow tab for now as it is so much of a strain to find out the workflow you are looking for.

Compare these two landing screens.

Older one has these key plus points regarding usage of space, readability and scannability:

1. Good use of screen space to show workflows
2. In spite of taking lot of space for one workflow, showing many more workflows in one go
3. There is a good visual hierarchy that distinguishes one workflow to another; Distinguishes different types of workflows to another
4. Much better contrast in font and background, making it much easier to read workflow names
5. Much more space for workflow name and condition detail so that you can read full name instead of half of it
6. There is good amount of space between workflows and each workflow box is given enough space which gives a breathing space and it is easy to scan through workflows, to go from one workflow to another and read a workflow name easily without somewhat worrying whether you are reading the wrong one by mistake or if you are mixing up one with other.
7. Very clear contrast on which workflow is selected and quick to go to another one instead of moving cursor and eyes both to extreme left and then search again.

Cons of new design

1. There is a useless information about number of actions in a workflow, causing clutter and information overload. (Also there is a dot over there before “n actions” which I do not know what purpose it serves)
2. It is not clear how the workflows inside a folder are sorted
3. Can see only about 10 workflows at a time
4. Need to squint to read workflow names and since all workflows are so close to each other with little contrast and unnecessary text, it almost seems like one long paragraph where you need to search what you are looking for.
5. All the advantages listed above on previous design are the downsides of the new one

Hope these issues regarding “landing screen” are addressed for sure in the coming redesign.

[asked111]

Agree. By getting rid of the “• X actions” line and making much better use of colour, they instantly half the main pain points.

[georgecollier]

Why is everyone using screen setups like this all of a sudden

[senecadatabase]

Myself, I like the new workflow screen.

It’s really not hard if you’re working on a wide screen to reduce the size while you’re working in the workflow tab if all the space is bothersome.

For work, I use widescreens and minimize them quite often.

[login]

+1 on the four points.

I was initially very positive but mit admin:

1. It’s less visual. Both in terms of scrolling needed and this list vs “a catalog of square triggers”. I need a visual overview of all workflows. Not just some of them.

2. Scrolling vertically does not feel natural. Make.com uses left to right view which is much better and more logical for the mind.

3. I can’t delete the workflow by right clicking the trigger. This is annoying. I have to use the list which requires me to identify it there as well.

4. Action icons need to be bigger or somehow have mere visual weight over all the text information. I need to be able to identify an action by its visual appearance instead of reading through the info text. Typical UI trick is to squint your eyes, blurring your vision. Once you do that, you need to able to “feel” the item you are looking. If not, it’s has too little character.

5. Where did the colors go? Ned them back please. UI needs to be visual thanks.

I suggest converting the workflow view into a board. With workflow triggers and actions shown from left to right and the entire list from top to bottom. Like a matrix allowing us to collapse triggers, either showing or hiding its line of actions. Clicking an item is the workflow list view, would simply center on that trigger on the board.

Think of it as a landscape, tapping into more natural type of human navigation.

This would be a bit more complex, but a really visual way of having a total overview.

Again, the overview is also important for app performance as it’s easy to spot redundant triggers and actions.

With the new view, I have far more waste triggers and actions - messing up the app.

Nb. The add new action circles between workflows are brilliant. Dragging actions feels much more natural now. Also, searching is great.

[gerbertdelangen]

Yeah, using the full screen for just one browser window is a little exaggerated (normally 2 or 3 windows next to each other), but it was to illustrate the point.

[ihsanzainal84]

I love the new layout. Just need that sidebar to be resizable with better visual hierarchy. I don’t bother with the colors because the dots are waaayyyy to small to be useful.

[michael.bond]

@kate.mcnally

ady received.

Sorry I know this deviates slightly from the change, but I find the arrows in the workflows so misleading - especially as a newbie on the platform.

It’s misleading but you would assume the workflow actions run sequentially, this can lead to some real head scratchers and confusion as a new user - until you scan the forum and understand the order of operation.

I don’t have a good solution to this unfortunately, but wonder whether there’s a better way of displaying the workflow order of operation to the user - the arrows seem so misleading.

[mulleralice984]

It would be really great if bubble could focus all of their energy on features and issues that we as advanced bubblers really need to get fixed and not on the workflow UI which is perfectly fine and efficient to use and doesn’t require a new pretty look that is highly inefficient:
1. Page load: all bubble pages rank super bad on google lightspeed tests. Even with no dynamic data loaded it still takes seconds. Considering that people’s attention span is 1-2 seconds these days before dropping off and abandoning a webpage, fixing this should be a P0 for the bubble team because it blocks all of our apps from getting the traction they need!
2. Native apps, no explanation needed here, this would be a blessing!
3. Performance in general, make everything faster and much much much lighter.

[luke2]

There appears to be a painful bug where say if you copy with workflows a GroupFocus element that has a few workflow events already that are assigned into folder/s, then when you paste with workflows in a different page or reusable, it will not show the workflow events in the left side. So once pasted with workflows, you can’t reassign the folders, as they are not present in the left sidebar list

[luke2]

It would be great if we could have a visual indication, on a workflow action, when the action has an issue/error. For example, it could be bordered red with a tint of red on the workflow (maybe even a side warning icon) as well to indicate that action is needed to resolve the issue and therefore fix the wf event.

[daviddr17]

Maybe we get the feature to choose between one after the other or simultaneously execution of workflows.

Right now its a beta and there is space, thats true. But with this desired feature as well as if and else statements the vertical workflows will be better than horizontal. Just right now it looks like there’s too much space left.

I am excited for the upcoming features and I hope that there will not be a standstill, as with the table element.

[kate.mcnally]

Happy Friday, Bubblers!!

I’m excited to share some updates we’ve made in the past week to the Beta experience. Check them out today in the Workflow tab!

• List of Workflow folders is sorted alphabetically
• When searching across folders, the list will only show folders with search results
• Folders auto-expand when dragging a new workflow into them
• When creating a new Workflow, you can search within the list of events to quickly find the event you’re looking for
• Improved auto-scrolling when navigating to a specific workflow from another tab or editing a workflow name

Thanks for the continued feedback - more updates to come as we continue to build a workflow management experience that best fits your needs!

Kate