By Slack is a famous and widely used communication software, kind of a elaborated chat system with channels, threads and direct messages. It also supports audio and video calls (huddles) and can in general be seen as a serious competitor to Microsoft Teams.
In August 2023, Slack published a new user interface design which should be "built for focus".
However the reactions from the users were not as Slack hoped them to be. Although there are some good ideas in the new user interface, the loudest outcry comes from users working in multiple Slack Workspaces. One such social media post on Mastodon comes from Bridget Kromhout, which speaks for many Slack users.
The old user interface showed an overview of all joined Slack Workspaces on the very left side, including a status icon whether or not there are unread messages in that workspace.
The new user interface removed the other Slack Workspaces and only with a click on the top (Workspace) button, the other Workspaces can be seen. To find out if there are unread messages in other Workspaces, this therefore requires manual interaction instead of seeing it at the first glance.
Bridget nicely shows the difference in her Mastodon toot:
After reaching out to Slack, we got an answer which hints that a "fix" might be on the way:
We've had similar feedback […] losing the at-a-glance view to check notifications and navigate to other workspaces. The team here is paying close attention and are considering alternative options.
Slack Support
Will Slack soon release a new version which offers the Workspace navigation as an option? We will see!
