- Slack has redesigned its mobile and desktop apps.
- It's confusing and overwhelming.
Across the globe, some office workers woke up this morning, took a big sip of coffee, fired up the laptop, and were hit with a horrible surprise.
Slack looks like a carnival of distraction and chaos — a hideous Grimace-purple rail on the left side that now tracks every "activity." (Someone giving a thumbs up emoji to one of your posts, for example.)
Slack, of course, is a productivity and chat app owned by Salesforce and used by many workplaces, including at Insider. Today, it revealed a redesign that changes the layout of DMs and notifications for the desktop and mobile versions.
Here at Insider, some of the reactions range from "this 'activity' button is going to drive me bananas!" to "IT IS THE WORST UGH." (Although I'm sure there are some people out there who like it, too.)
Personally, it feels dizzying — like my eyes don't know where to go; like it's designed for anti-productivity.
Slack's website says a redesign debuted back in August, but that it's been rolling out slowly across its users. Based on the reaction on social media, it seems a big crop of users got the new look over the last day.
"At first glance, Slack may look pretty different from what you're used to seeing," the company admits on its FAQ.
I'm sure we'll all eventually get used to it. There was a big Slack redesign back in 2020 and we all seem to have come through OK.
In the meantime, please be kind to your local white-collar workers today. They're suffering. Be gentle asking if they've hit their ROIs on their KPIs, and please, don't "bump" them asking to "circle back." We're going through it.
POV: you are trying to navigate the new slack design update pic.twitter.com/yMhdIqyiZS
— Jeremiah Warren ◡̈ (@jeremiahjw) November 7, 2023