Zoho Projects 5X is here. We have taken version 5 up a notch with a UI facelift and feature enhancements aimed at providing a smoother, quicker, and easier navigation experience. The best part of the new Zoho Projects is that, there is something in it for everyone!
For the industrious taskmasters
When a taskmaster or a bug squasher logs into their account, they’ve got one thing on their mind: get the job done. If you are a taskmaster or bug squasher, you will especially love the new “Home” look. This is where all your tasks, bugs, work items for the day, milestones, time logs, and events for the week are listed. Gone are the days of sifting through rows of data to discern what matters to you. Now, you can head to your Home screen and do what you do best.
For the hawk-eyed managers
The project dashboard gives you a complete overview of your project’s direction, progress, and speed. We’ve reworked our dashboard and made it a standalone tab, separating it from the project feed. Now there is more space to display useful information including your weekly digest, overdue work items, task progress, milestone status, bugs, upcoming events, team evaluations, and special mentions for top performers. Soar over your projects and take control.
For the number crunchers
Some people don’t communicate using words; they speak the language of numbers and reports. In addition to our Gantt, Resource Utilization and Planned vs Actual charts, we’ve added a bunch of Task Reports and Bug Reports. All information displayed in lists and tables are also translated to charts and graphs.You can choose to view them as a horizontal or vertical bar chart, a pie chart, or a donut chart, according to your preferences. The pleasant, contrasting color scheme can help you gauge project trends just with a glance.
For the methodical minds
If you like to keep everything well-ordered and organized, hunting down discrete settings for each element is the last thing you want to do at work. We’re bringing you the Global Setup. This is where you will find all settings, integrations, and customizations. These are organized into categories such as User Preferences, Portal Settings, Project Settings, Bug Settings, Integration, Data Administration and Users. Easily navigate to any of these sections and get all your configuring and customizing done.
We have also made little changes here and there, all of which help contribute to a better project management experience. For instance, the app now has bigger, brighter fonts and better contrast, as well as a wider range of themes to match your aesthetic eye. You also now have the option to collapse the left navigation panel, satisfying your inner minimalist. Click on the “Try New UI” button at the top right if you haven’t checked 5X out yet. The older version will cease to exist from mid April.
If I were to summarize version 5X in a rhyme, this is how it would go:
A soaring bird’s eye view, of all that is and isn’t,
A place to call your home, all you’ve done and haven’t.
An interface that’s crafted, to be slicker than a whistle,
With less words and more visuals, and fine details neatly chiseled.
Like options now convened, all together side-by-side,
Quicker actions, smoother moves, an easy-peasy stride.
With changes big and small and a UI that’s remade,
We bring you Projects 5X- the user experience upgrade!
So, let us know what you think of the changes. Which are your most and least favorite tweaks? Which of the above categories do you fall under? Let us know in the comments below.
I'd love if you made a project management UI like Hitask. Zoho is comprehensive but has too much work switching from tabs and all. Anyways, thanks for the great read.
Hi! I had contacted your customer service a few months back to see if it's possible to have the ability to turn off the 'Add client user' section in Zoho projects portal. Any plan to add this function? This is the only reason I can't get my team on board with using Zoho projects--there's a concern about accidentally adding client users.
Hi Mason, Yes, we talked about this a few months ago. I'm sorry, we have no plans to add this function.
Need Improvement . Old version is much better
Thanks also for the new native iPad app for Zoho Projects! I know that it is just a start and will continue to get better, but it already is making my life tons easier. As an outside consultant, my iPad goes everywhere with me while my laptop stays home. Having a native iPad app for Projects is bliss! !
Hello Steven, It's great to see that you are as excited as we are about the native app for iPad. :) And yes, this will continue to get better!
Wow love the new user interface! It's awesome that you guys are always making improvements. Thanks!
Thank you Lori, for being on board with Zoho Projects. :)
Thank you for making these changes, they really provide real value to managing projects!
Hi David, I'm glad you think so. :)
Awesome, Zoho always improving!! keep working like this!
Thanks for the updates. It would really help our team to have the ability to add a custom task status of "Billed" and "Paid," and be able to pull custom reports reflecting the status and other related fields of all projects or select client projects. Is this something you anticipating coming soon?
Hi Allison, Custom statuses and custom reports for tasks comes to Zoho Projects! Read more about them here.
Hey Allison, You got it right! You can definitely anticipate this.
New UI looks really good. Definitely an improvement over the previous version. Awhile back, I spoke with a support representative about adding a feature where the hours applied to subtasks would be linked with the overall hours on a task. Is this feature still in the works?
Hey Josh, I'm glad you think so. Yeah, we remember your conversation with Avinash and the Task cascading feature you are looking for is in our plans!
Love the new look - One thing we're VERY interested in - When a task is completed, and another task is dependent on the completed task, we'd like the person assigned the new task to be notified via email - any idea when that is expected (or did I miss it)?
Hey Paul, I'm glad you are liking the new look. This option that you have asked for is already in development, you can expect this soon!
Please add 'like' to comments. That would be a huge benefit.
Hey Paula, I feel you! We'll try to bring this in the future.
The new interface is excellent. Have you added the feature that will enable users to 'drag and drop' tasks and subtasks into different task list or to make them tasks from sub tasks? This is the most challenging element from a user experience. Once you've set up a project it's so difficult to re-structure it.
Hi Paula, I'm glad you think so! Yes, you definitely can move tasks between tasklists. You can either drag and drop them in the Kanban view, or select tasks and use the "Move" option the Classic view. Subtasks can be converted to tasks. You have an option called "Make this a task" in your Task details page.
I and my team of 11 addicts would love to be part of the early adoptor program
Hi ZOHO team, With this new Zoho, is it possible to filter tasks using the "AND" combination? instead of the default "OR" combination, especially for task assignee. For instance i wanted to search for tasks which have been assigned to both "Employee1" & "Employee2", ZOHO wil;l give me all tasks for "Employee1" and all tasks for "Employee2"
Hi Sam, I understand your requirement. We are planning to introduce "Custom views", so this will be possible once that's rolled out.
I want to improve Sam Shabas comment by the reply that for a nice usable rule System all and Causal Operators are needed. And; Andalso, Not, Or, Orelse, <;=,=,==,!= Otherwhise its like speaking with words of an alphabet where a,d,p and some other letters are missing. Its better than don't be able to speak at all. But its still very uncomfortable to create Intelligent filters without them. Or in most cases impossible.
HI, I really appreciate all the work you must have done: the new gui is quite beautiful. Unfortunately, I always prefer functionality over beauty and the old gui was far better in that aspect: the menu on the left sidebar was faster and the task list was available directly in the home page, I didn't have to click on "view more" among a bunch of widget that I don't really need or care or use. Maybe there is a way to customize the home page to get only what I want, which is: the full list of tasks with the ability to add list without moving to a different page and my timesheet, but I didn't find it and having a quick look to video and start guide didn't help. As long as things stay as they are, the new gui -although beautiful- has no appeal to me as I can't use it. So I'm switching back to the old one.
Hello Lounik, I can see that a customised Home screen is huge for you. A few more additions and enhancements to widgets are in the works now. We are always working towards improving the current version and feedback like this do matter, thank you!
Thank you for replying me. I think the thing I'll miss the most is the list of all my tasks directly on one single page. Now I have to open every project to see my tasks and it is not efficient because I work on several projects at a time. About the sidebar I've already talked in the previous answer, so I'll summarize the feature that I cannot miss in order to use zoho projects: - a quick access to all my tasks of all projects in a single page, so that I have a total control over all the things I'm doing - a quick way to move from tasks to timesheet (the old sidebar served well this purpose) so that I can keep track of the time I've spent on where. I hope this changes can be made in the new GUI, I think it will greatly improve its usability.
Hi there, Quick one!! love your new UI!!! wow! great upgrade! Have you guys think about a feature that can track "deleted task"? a way to undo when someone accidentally does that?
Hey Armando, I'm happy you think that the upgrade is great. :) You will be able to see Trashed projects now and restore any if required. Having the same for tasks would also help, I will relay this to our team.
Thanks, Yes pelase do. Sometimes people have accidentally deleted task and it's a shame that you can't restore them yet.
Am I missing something here or is there no longer the ability to view multiple projects at the same time in calendar view?
Hi Andrew, You can access the All Projects Calendar view by clicking "View more" from the My Events widget.
Hi, The new update is still an improvement. But I would say that it's only a minor update. The UX part is still missing some improvements. My observations below. Below are the main things i expected : 1. User can add their favorite projects in Dashboard.( Here home) - At a time, we have to move to different projects. Which is a bit difficult with the only recent 3 at the top header. 2. Adding user from the task panel itself - Each time while assigning a task for those who is not in the project, i have to move to 'Add user' page and then come back. Why not show all the users in search and do the 'Add user' + 'Assign task' instantly? 3. Each time i have to click re-order to re-order a task 4. Its difficult to move the task list to the most top from bottom in a tasklist. Always i move the list to the second and then i move the first list downwards 3. In Calendar, i cannot identify todays date ( resolved)
Hey Rajeesh, Thank you for taking time to send in your honest feedback. Being able to pin your favorite projects will certainly be helpful when you want to get to them quickly. We will see if we can bring that in our UI. I understand the UX issue you are facing with 2 and 3. I have relayed this to our team. They will take this up as future enhancements. 4 seems to be a bug, our tech person will fix this soon! Do continue to send us your suggestions, deeply appreciate them!
Love the new changes. Also curious of a few things and if they're on the road map. Would you mind commenting on the following? 1) I was told when we purchased initially that changes to Tasks were coming that would include the ability to add custom fields like with Bugs. Is that still coming? 2) Any changes to Business Rules such as the ability to auto-add followers at bug creation? 3) Any change to the ability to see all bugs you're following in a list/view without having to go into every project to do so one at a time? 4) Will the caps for # of custom fields by type be increased at all? We've hit the cap on some types on a couple of projects Thanks for all of your hard work and for not being JIRA :)
Hi Vincent! Great news for you. We've released custom fields and custom statuses for tasks. Read more about them here.
Hey Vincent, No problem, I'm happy to fill you in! 1) Yes, they are definitely coming. We will roll them out next quarter. 2) This would be a good addition. Our BugTracker tech team will take this up. 3) I understand that you'd like to see a list of all bugs you are following across different projects. I will pass this on to the team and keep you updated! 4) Let's chat over mail, I'd like to understand your requirements better. Thank you for taking time to send your feedback. We'll keep getting better, while being ourself. ;)
The lag on the new interface is crippling. Is there a resolution to that? When searching for projects, the average time is 30 seconds. I will stay with the old interface until this is resolved.
Hi Faith, I can understand your pain. Our tech team is working on resolving this and you should be able to see the difference early next week. Thank you for your patience!
I would like to see the % auto populate based on actual hours logged and a Status field added where there is the capability to have user defined status and have tasks close once the status is changed to Closed. This would allow for the management of the tasks to be a bit more workflow based. We have to have review and signoff on our tasks so for now it is just a comment or email we send to the reviewer. it would be nice to be able to say the task is ready for review and the Reviewer can use their dashboard to know what tasks are ready for review. I also think the additional clicks to get to time log entry is more cumbersome. We have asked for the ability to have Custom Defined Fields for Project Tasks and haven't seen that added in yet. Overall, the new look is great and the speed seems to have improved.
Hey Steffanie! The much expected custom fields and custom statuses are now out. Read more about them here.
Hi Steffanie, I'm glad you think the UI looks great! We are bringing Custom statuses and Custom field to Tasks. They are in their final stages of development and you can expect them in two months' time.
I know it is minor but would like to see you add back the Search Box to the title border versus having to click the search button. Everything else is looking very good so far.
Hi Calvin, I can see you miss our old Search! I will pass this on to our UX team and see what can be done. I'm glad you like the other changes, keep your feedback coming. :)
Are these features available yet, and if not, when can we expect them: 1) Custom Fields for Tasks 2) Grouping Users into groups / being able to filter, export, etc by groups.... Thank you - Love the changes so far......
Hi Lori, More reasons for you to love Zoho Projects! The custom fields for tasks feature is now live. You can read more about it here.
Hi Lori, I'm glad that you are loving the changes. Being able to group users is definitely a useful feature, our tech team will be taking it up soon. Good news! Custom fields are coming and you can expect them early next quarter.
Hi Guys, Maybe i'm missing something here, but here's my initial reaction.. No Scrum Support (a requested feature in the forums for years now)? Task point estimation with nice drag/drop calculation on the tasklist? Labelling / Filtering of issues/tasks to make large projects more manageable? Entering time seems to be more of a pain, instead of Home -> My Timesheet, the left menu has now disappeared meaning you got to scroll to the bottom of the Home page to find the link. The enter time sheet popup form is now larger which on my desktop means I need to scroll to enter the hours and hit submit, it's an inconvenience the smaller form that fit in the browser didn't have. I now end up having to zoom the page out. All in all it looks better, but i'm still not seeing the features I need or the UX improvements which stops me feeling like using this product is a chore.
Hi Andrew, Thank you for your honest feedback! We have a new scrum based project management software coming this year. This will help you run your agile projects. All the widgets in your Home page can be reordered, so if you'd like quick access to the Timesheet, you can drag and drop it on top. We'd like to understand your scroll issue better and discuss your requirements in detail. So our support staff will get in touch with you soon. :)
Hey Pearlyn, Will the new scrum based project management software integrate into Projects like bugs did? or will I need to choose between using Projects and Scrum Projects? I don't want to have to use a new application. Also, is there any preview or documentation as yet for what type of features the scrum software will have?
Hi Dan, Traditional project management and Scrum based (Agile) project management are two very different approaches, so guess we will not be integrating the two. As for the overview, our support staff will contact you soon. :)