Microsoft promises it's made Teams less confusing and resource hungry
- Reference: 1679988728
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/03/28/new_teams_client_preview/
- Source link:
The software colossus [1]announced what it called a "new era for Teams" on Monday, claiming the new client delivers "up to two times faster performance while using 50 percent less memory" and "compatibility with a broader range of computers."
Teamsters are also promised a user experience that is "simpler to use and easier to find everything in one place."
[2]
"To optimize navigation, we prioritized the user interactions that occur most frequently, including switching between different chats, channels, and activities," [3]wrote Teams product marketing chap Anupam Pattnaik in a Microsoft Tech Community article.
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"On average, a typical user switches ten thousand times per month, emphasizing the importance of a faster and more responsive experience," he explained. "With new Teams, switching between chats, channels, and activities will be instant, without having to wait for content to load."
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Some of the new UI elements in Teams – Click to enlarge
In a [7]post from Microsoft Design, the company admitted that those improvements were needed because Microsoft got things wrong in its original Teams client.
"A consistent source of customer confusion, many of the challenges people faced when using them were rooted in basic UX problems," wrote Microsoft design chaps Thad Scott and Colin Day. "Initially, channel posts followed a chat-like model, where new posts and comments came from the bottom-up.
"Threaded conversations like this were a unique differentiator for Teams. But this is where we needed to be humble and admit mistakes based on feedback. Differentiator or not – the model confused people. It looked like chat, but behaved like threads."
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Pattnaik added that Teams will now feature "lowered shimmering and reduced wait times."
[9]Microsoft to move some Teams features to more costly 'Premium' edition
[10]Microsoft Teams: A vector for child sexual abuse material with a two-day processing time for complaints
[11]Microsoft dips Teams in the metaverse vat with avatars ahead
[12]Microsoft breaks geolocation, locking users out of Azure and M365
Admins may enjoy tweaks that make it easier to run Teams in "organizations that span multiple tenants and accounts.
"Instead of logging in and out of different tenants and accounts, you can now stay signed in across them all—receiving notifications no matter which one you are currently using."
Microsoft's Tech Community [13]details over 50 new features in Teams.
All of the promised new gewgaws are currently visible in a Preview that business customers can opt into [14]here . After doing so users will "see a simple toggle to switch to the new Teams. You'll also be able to switch back to classic Teams at any time."
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"We are targeting the general availability of new Teams later this year in 2023," Microsoft's main post states. Between now and then, the new Teams client preview will also debut for macOS "later this year." ®
Get our [16]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2023/03/27/welcome-to-the-new-era-of-microsoft-teams/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZCK6vqw6KKisGDIVn7c7hgAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/introducing-the-new-microsoft-teams-now-in-preview/ba-p/3774406
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZCK6vqw6KKisGDIVn7c7hgAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZCK6vqw6KKisGDIVn7c7hgAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://regmedia.co.uk/2023/03/28/supplied_ms_teams_new_preview.jpg
[7] https://medium.com/microsoft-design/designing-the-new-era-of-teams-523d772add4
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZCK6vqw6KKisGDIVn7c7hgAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/11/teams_premium_more_expensive/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/16/esafety_comissioner_csea_report/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/15/microsoft_teams_filters_avatars/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/24/microsoft_geolocation_fail_uzbekistan/
[13] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/what-s-new-in-microsoft-teams-at-enterprise-connect-2023/ba-p/3774374
[14] https://adoption.microsoft.com/en-us/new-microsoft-teams/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZCK6vqw6KKisGDIVn7c7hgAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Thank $deity, lowered shimmering
Teams will now automatically apply sunglasses to your face image. That way you are sure never ever to (see) shimmer again.
The colour of glasses can be adjusted through an adaptive range comprising of a blue-red combination for optimal comfort.
"On average, a typical user switches ten thousand times per month"
Let's say it takes 5 second to make a switch.
That means about 40 minutes are spent "playing about" with Teams every working day.
I thought this was supposed to be a "productivity aid"?
Did I miss something?
Re: "On average, a typical user switches ten thousand times per month"
10,000 / 20 / 8 = 62.5
Do they really think the typical user is switching teams view every minute continuously? I guess some poor souls are having to have multiple chats and copy-pasting between as their job (PHB), but I thought that was the point of popping out chats.
"To optimize navigation"
Stop moving everything around in the interface each release?
Re: "To optimize navigation"
Too many interns, not enough professionals at Microsoft, methinks, who have just go to f--k about with the UI of everything.
Basic UX problems
Quicker switching and performance improvements all sound good, but then again Microsoft has a track record of messing things up, so I'm not exactly holding my breath here. Saying that, nice for them to admit for once that many of the frustrations people experience with using Microsoft products are rooted in basic UX problems. People have been saying that to them for years and not just about Teams, however that feedback usually falls on deaf ears.
Anyway, with any luck they've got rid of that infuriating feature where the entire application dims and a dialog pops up to tell me "We're opening this file in Excel!" every single time I tell it to open a file in Excel. That has to be in the running for the most-pointless-dialog-box ever award...
Re: Basic UX problems
Upvoted for the 'opening in Excel' painpoint
Teams will be less like WhatsApp, more like Facebook
The changes to Threading are really significant, and I don't think you've gone into enough detail here. The chat bar moves to the top (like Facebook); each thread is now like a Facebook post, with comments below it. This will reduce noise like "hello" or "thanks"; and it will be more searchable. Overall this should improve productivity.
I want one feature
One Skype had. If I type to find in the search bar, it should be able to filter by department and location.
In Skype for Business, I could type a department name, or a location (data in AD) and Skype would dutifully filter the list by that, which was unbelievably useful. Can't do that in Teams, which is still an issue to this day, there's no good way to do it.
Thank $deity, lowered shimmering
What the hell is shimmering (apart from the obvious naturally occurring optical effect)? Can anybody remember sitting in front of Teams saying "Bloody shimmering, it's destroying my user experience! Bastards!"? I mean, lots of other things screw the user experience and are the cause of invective, but shimmering? Last time I thought about that, I was using CRT monitors, fercrhissakes.
I must be getting too old for this, losing track of the latest buzzwords, obviously.