Slack Gets Massive Redesign to Streamline User Experience

Popular workplace app Slack is releasing its most extensive redesign ever, aiming to transform its appearance and layout for improved usability and efficiency (via The Verge).

The anticipated overhaul primarily caters to heavy Slack users, according to Noah Weiss, Chief Product Officer at Slack.

Weiss acknowledges the current challenge for end users who often need to toggle between different workspaces to access various functionalities such as channel activity, mentions, and threads. The redesign strives to alleviate this issue.

Upon launching the redesigned Slack, users will encounter a fresh Home section, resembling the existing interface, displaying channels, DMs, and applications, consistent with the current version.

However, significant changes come into play afterwards. The most conspicuous addition is a novel sidebar on the left side, introducing multiple novel views for Slack content.

The DMs section, reminiscent of popular messaging and email platforms, adopts a layout similar to Slack’s competitor, Microsoft Teams. Conversations are listed on the left, with the active one displayed on the right.

Further down the sidebar, a new Activity window is introduced, coined by Weiss as a “unified inbox.” This window aggregates all messages, mentions, and reactions from across various Slack workspaces into one centralized location.

Weiss emphasizes that the overarching objective of this redesign is to offer users enhanced context and focus.

The design categorizes different work modes – catching up, responding to inbound messages, managing activity, and following up on tasks.

For users who thrive amidst the chaos of multiple Slack channels, the redesign includes an enhanced multi-windowing system, enabling simultaneous viewing of multiple perspectives.

The redesign also emphasizes user-friendly access to previously harder-to-find features. The “Huddles” video chat function now resides prominently in the top-right corner of chat windows, alongside a button for initiating new canvases.

Meanwhile, the “Create” button in the left sidebar opens doors to launching new canvases and initiating calls.

Weiss says he hopes the new design also creates space for what’s to come from Slack.