Just took a look at the New Booking Overview Page.
You asked for comments/suggestions...
You really need to focus on reducing clicking around OwnerRez screens everywhere, and this layout, while improved, doesn't do that.
An example to make the point:
You have a 'Change/Move' button over on the top right side of the screen. Why?
If I want to change the check-in time, I should be able to just click on the Check-In time and change it! Same with the property, date of arrival... basically anything on the screen. Click on what I want to change and change it.
But instead, it's click on the 'Change/Move' button, click in a field to change, change it, click save, go back to the overview screen... too many clicks and screens! This bad design pervades OwnerRez.
Another example:
When one wants to change Charges, which always should have been right on the summary screen, one shouldn't have to click to get there, but you do. So you click on Charges, but can you make changes on the Charges screen? No! You have to click 'Change' before you can do anything! Why? Why doesn't charges just go to the screen that one can make changes on without an extra step in between? What is gained by all of this extra clicking?
And the ridiculous being forced to move things up and down on the charges screen, and it affecting what is taxable and what isn't, is just such amateurish, horrible UI design! If an item is taxable, it's taxable! You don't have whether the tax is applied based on where it appears on the screen! Silly! The display should automatically order itself based on what is being displayed! Rental charges at the top, discounts on rental charges (if any), (with a Rental Charges sub-total GD it!!!!!!!), then optional items (also with a sub-total), other charges, and finally taxes. EVERY display of charges should follow the pattern, and there should be no need to move things around! Clicky, clicky, click, drag, click, drag, click, click, drag, drag, click. And the DRAG buttons only work every other time on a Mac! After using them once, without an intervening click on the screen, the drag buttons don't work! Horrible, bad design! (Sorry, I'm passionate about this stuff!)
And then... after all that, click Save. And THEN click to go back to the 'summary' screen! No! The financials should be visible on the main booking screen, they are fundamentally important, and should be editable right there! Like everything else on the page! Get rid of the buttons! Get rid of the clicks! Get rid of the dragging!
One may think me ungrateful, but your customers really shouldn't be expected to be excited that this page design has finally caught up to what it should have been like/capable-of twenty years ago. So much farther to go!
Change your mindset from your users are 'monitoring' what's happening in some remote listing site's booking data somewhere, to 'Our users are doing and administering their bookings right here! Let's make it simple and easy and as time-saving as possible.' Hiding everything and providing access to edit/change it behind multiple screens with multiple clicks is NOT providing a good experience!
While your users always appreciate your efforts to improve things, if those efforts are misdirected because you're focused on the wrong things and antiquated design, changes which don't solve obvious problems become a source of frustration, rather than something to celebrate.
Did you ASK what changes your customers wanted to the Summary page before you expended the programming efforts to change it? Or just assume you knew?
"We're going to be updating the Booking Summary page! What changes would you like to see? Check out the preliminary design here <link provided>. Let us know what you think..." I didn't see that email, and I CARE about this stuff because I have to fight my way through (read that as waste my time with) this stuff every day!
If you feel you would not or don't get enough feedback to bother asking, bear in mind that there are features in the feature request forum that YOU indicated you were working on delivering SEVEN YEARS ago, and they're still not out. This results in many of your customers losing faith that their feedback is being paid attention to, and when that happens, they won't provide you with any.
Consolidate! Make information editable at first view. Get rid of the buttons and additional pages wherever possible. Eliminate every unnecessary click. Let those fundamentals guide you.
I am struggling with the new Booking Overview. I and my cleaners aren't able to see check in and check out times that used to be on the overview page. Now we have to click "change/move" every time we want to see this information? My cleaners have view only. This is serious problem for me. Maybe I'll learn to like this change someday, but right now I hate it!
I hope they continue refining the new look. On a laptop there is SO MUCH "white space". It needs to be tightened up, IMHO.
I'll have to get used to the guest's contact info being sent to the bottom right corner.
If no labels/indicators show a different time for check-in or check-out, then the booking is the normal check-in/check-out time.
The new design is highly dynamic. More indicators show at the top if things are not "normal".
For instance, here is a booking where the guest has late checkout. Notice that there is a "Late Checkout" tag up top and the "1 pm" time is shown in red above that.
So your staff should consider the booking "normal" check-in and check-out if there is nothing that says otherwise.
Much more coming to this design by the way! This was the first of several updates. The first goal was to migrate the old yellow page to the new layout we are using app-wide, and make it mobile-friendly. We will be prioritizing message, tasks, notes, and other things above the fold in the near future.
Where is the email history now (used to be top yellow bar, far right)--where you see all emails that have been sent, if they are delivered and if they've been opened?
Hey Megan. I found it within the booking overview here: Messages > History > Email (same for SMS, Airbnb, etc.)
Ah! That is not very intuitive at all so good work finding that, Alece! And thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction. :)
Ah! That is not very intuitive at all so good work finding that, Alece! And thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction. :)
But this is EXACTLY what I was talking about in the first post!
I am constantly referring to that email history screen! It used to be one click to get to it. Now it's buried FOUR clicks away!
What research with users said this was a good idea?
Meanwhile the Messages section of the page is blank! So frustrating...
I would swap that email history for the unused Messages section any day!
Hey Megan. I found it within the booking overview here: Messages > History > Email (same for SMS, Airbnb, etc.)
All of the items that were in the old Yellow header have been tucked under the vertical 3-dots menu in the top right of the header by the ORB... booking number.
All of the items that were in the old Yellow header have been tucked under the vertical 3-dots menu in the top right of the header by the ORB... booking number.
Thanks Shawn! That's good to know too. But it's still two clicks where it used to be one. Any chance that this Communications History could replace the 'Messages' section? Or make it a user selectable choice what appears there?
Another idea: Don't have the Avalara tab on the main menu unless a user actually has an integration setup with them?
Extension of Another Idea: Allow your users to customize the main menu. I don't use your insurance offering, so why would I want a tab for it there? I might want something else!
Extension of Extension of Another Idea: Allow your users to customize which 'cards' or sections appear in the Booking Overview Window! I understand you have lots of different customers with different types/sizes of business. What I would prefer isn't going to be what others may need or want. I get that. The ability to set display preferences may be a great feature to have.
I agree with you 1,000%!! Yet what you are pointing out is only a fraction of the messes.
And I have to ask, too - what's with everything having to be green? There are other colors in the world. Colors help, and a skilled, talented UX designer will be able to introduce their usefulness along with all the other types of fixes of the messes created.
Thank you for the clarification on what the new notations at the top of the page mean; however, even if we assume check-ins/check-outs are at the normal times, there is no way to tell from the main Overview page whether a cleaning is a "turn," which is how we schedule the order of cleans when we have more than one check-out on the same day. Instead, you have to click into the Change/Move page to access this information, which is not readily available to the cleaning crews. The visual calendar that used to be at the bottom of the Overview page was very helpful with this, as well as allowing a guest to check-in early or check-out late.
