Compact mode
I really like Teams. I do. But the current chat layout is not suited for professional chats. It's way to space consuming. It looks like something imported from MSN with smiley's that take half of the screen. I would say that Slack have nailed it because they focused on the ability keeping a tight window with lots of chat text visible. In Teams the window is full and starts scrolling after like 10 sentences.
Thomas Nimstad
shared this idea
Hi everyone, thank you for your patience since the last update.
We want to extend a huge thanks to all of you who have engaged with us on this topic of compact chat. Your input has been invaluable and helped inform our design and decision-making.
As we look to 2019, we will be pursuing plans to continue to make the product more and more space efficient. We see this as a guiding design principle, as well as a backlog of requests from UserVoice that we catalogue, discuss, debate, brainstorm and problem solve.
This principle is also why we will not be making a sharp design turn towards a permanently heavy dense design. Our user base is a wide range of people — such as high school students, the visually impaired, open source developers, and your every day knowledge worker. Because of our broad reach, we must maintain a standard of usability that meets many visual needs.
Lastly, we are seriously considering a compact mode. This would be an option — a switch, you might say — that makes everything quite dense. We are entering a new phase of product development that makes this more possible than before. To that end, I’m changing the title of this request to “Compact Mode.” We’ll keep you abreast of these plans as we learn more ourselves.
Meanwhile, we really appreciate your patience, your feedback, and your support of Teams. Thank you for being part of #MicrosoftTeams!
Sincerely,
Suphatra
939 comments
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Anonymous
commented
This is pathetic. An amateur with a basic css knowledge could fix the **** Teams layout in one single day and make it better. Who the **** is working on this project? Preschool children?
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Sean Ellis
commented
@Christopher Clinton - "it is not all about the layout being compact, but about it being organized in a way that is usable for the variety of users"
I beg to differ. This request IS pretty much all about it being compact. Really compact. Maximally just-show-us-as-much-text-in-a-window-as-you-can compact.
But we realise that this will not work for everyone, so we've been consistent asking for this as a mode. That way, it's available for those people that want it, without causing problems for those that don't.
Having it as an option is the only way to make it compact enough to satisfy those of us who want to keep multiple chats open alongside our "real work". Simply making the default view 20% "more space efficient" will not be enough.
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GeekBrownBear
commented
I personally like the having Teams open in full on one of my monitors. But I REALLY need the ability to pop-out the chat or have Office files stay open when I switch from the Teams tab to the Chat tab.
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Christopher Clinton
commented
Sounds like a fun project! Keep in mind, it is not all about the layout being compact, but about it being organized in a way that is usable for the variety of users (as you mentioned).
I am sure the team can get it done, there are many ways to go about it and a good design-iterative led system is sure to work. Good luck!
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Sean Ellis
commented
This is NOT a difficult change.
It could (and should) be prioritized, with prototype screenshots shared for feedback in January and delivery in the February* update. This is more important than whatever new emojis are in development.
The original poster was asking for compact mode for Chat (and conversations) only. It doesn't necessarily affect other aspects of the UI. This restricts the scope of the change quite dramatically.
Four of us have demonstrated that a prototype can be developed in a couple of hours. Emmanuel has taken this further to show that you can develop this into a working solution with just one person, 4 days' work and CSS changes only.
Prioritise, prototype, share, feedback, deliver.
* - Tempting as it is to call for Christmas to be cancelled for the Teams team, in order to sort this out for January, this would only penalize the developers and I don't think the developers are to blame. It's much more likely to be the marketing team and product managers who have been suppressing work on this.
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Sean Ellis
commented
@Troy - " how about you change the status so we're not expecting change for a year and half?"
With my cynical hat on, because a lot of people would then go and use something else.
If it takes a month to procure and set up an alternative solution, then if the feature you need is a month away, you'll wait, to save yourself the trouble.
If the feature you need is a year away, you'll switch, to save yourself the wait.
This strategy works right up until the point where it doesn't, and you have to admit that it was never a month away at all, and will be at least a year away because that's how long it takes to get anything from Planned to Completed.
Then everyone gets very, very angry.
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Troy
commented
We've waited a year and a half and the response is, "seriously considering a compact mode." ....What? This topic has been "working on it" since July 25, 2017. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there have been precisely zero improvements for UI or density in this time.
What is the point of the UserVoice community if we're just being lied to and strung along? What feedback are you listening to exactly? If you are internally conflicted about a topic, how about you change the status so we're not expecting change for a year and half?
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Jean Mannina
commented
Still not using Teams because of this...
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Anonymous
commented
Still not using Teams because of this...
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Chris Parker
commented
+1 to what Sean Ellis said.
I suspect there's one or more large customers that Microsoft is prioritizing fixes or special requests (or... there's an exec with a pet project that has reprioritized tasks that are more important to the community).
It might be in MS' interests to do this but sure leaves a source taste in the mouths of the enthusiasts.
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J Copeland
commented
Just chiming in here too, Teams development has been far too slow for far too long now. This is one the most requested features for Teams. We're not asking Microsoft to make compact view a global default view that would work against those that have special needs, we're asking them to make better use of the wasted screen real estate that we presently don't enjoy. This needs to be a toggle. Just like dark mode.
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Mason Schuler
commented
Compact mode is not reflecting the original ask. Chat is the primary issue. Why would you the primary ask over the potential of a few use cases that don't fit? It's a HORRIBLE user experience as it stands and makes the tool nearly unusable to conduct meetings and chat. How could this not be addressed more urgently?
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Ryan
commented
If its not going to be clean and compact then I will just stay with SLACK!
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Anonymous
commented
This has too many votes to be ignored. Please revisit your stance on this and prioritize it
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Ian Caldwell
commented
Great to see an update - but not many happy comments. As correctly mentioned in the update, there are a wide range of users, so UX is not a simple thing. But, this is not just a single-use app, this is Teams, a multi-dimensional work tool - we expect our users to spend hours each day in the Teams app, so the interface can and must be held to a much higher standard. In Outlook, a user can customize their interface extensively. Teams replaces a lot of email, and adds much more - so customization is not a nice-to-have, it is a must.
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Sean Ellis
commented
We need a better "contract" between MS and Uservoice contributors.
See https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/35969446-uservoice-give-detailed-information-on-progress-o, and vote and comment if you agree.
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Emmanuel Preveraud
commented
So, it looks like I will need to maintain my own custom CSS for many years to come !
Compact and Condensed mode available through user CSS : https://userstyles.org/users/727497
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Anonymous
commented
I completely agree with what Sean is saying here. It is absolutely preposterous.
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Sean Ellis
commented
"we will not be making a sharp design turn towards a permanently heavy dense design"
Glad to see that this is clear. No-one was asking for that. Many of us have gone to great pains to point out that this is NOT what we want.
"... we are seriously considering a compact mode. This would be an option"
This is also good news, and is exactly what we need. We need this to be maximally dense - at least 4x as dense as the default mode.
"we really appreciate your patience"
Thanks. But...
"[PLANNED]"
Planned?!
You (as in Microsoft, not you specifically, Suphatra) have been saying since Feb 9 last year that you have been actively working on this. You have had months to update the status to anything other than "working on it". You said that you had "spent months testing designs with users, reiterating concepts, and reading through your feedback".
It appears that none of these things were true.
To restore the trust of the UserVoice community, you need to do four things:
1. Commit to a release schedule, so we are not left in limbo for another two years.
2. Show progress, and soon.
3. Share that progress at all stages, so we can feed back early and avoid a repeat of the "collapsed threads" debacle.
4. Listen.We have shown you what we need. We have even shown you how to do it. We now need you to execute and deliver.
We will continue to press for this feature. It is the first hurdle that all my colleagues so far have balked at when evaluating Teams.
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andylockran
commented
Thanks for your response! :)
Something is better than nothing.