Ticket layouts control the look and feel of the ticket interface. On Zendesk Enterprise plans, admins can create custom layouts to support different ticket workflows for agents.
Custom layouts with layout builder goes beyond ticket forms by allowing you to specify which components are included in a ticket and control the location of where the components appear. Components include ticket conversations, ticket properties (fields), customer context, third party apps, and more.
This article provides an overview of how you can use layout builder to create custom layouts and improve agent efficiency. You must have the Zendesk Agent Workspace activated to create and manage custom layouts.
This article contains the following sections:
Related articles
About Support ticket layouts
By default, the Zendesk Agent Workspace includes a standard Support ticket layout that provides the framework for the basic components of a ticket. This layout includes ticket properties (fields) on the left side of the ticket, ticket conversations in the middle, and a context panel on the right.
Standard ticket layout
With layout builder, you can use an intuitive layout interface to create and apply custom layouts to the ticket interface. You can rearrange ticket components within the ticket framework, add new components, and change component sizing. You can also control what data appears in a ticket component and change the ticket conversation flow.
Example custom layout
You can create and save multiple layouts in your account and use them for different situations. For example:
- You can control which apps appear in the context panel and change the order in which they appear.
- If your agents work with a lot of custom applications, you may prefer to move popular apps out of the context panel and into the middle of the ticket interface, so they are easier to access.
- If your agents spend a lot of time managing ticket properties, you can move ticket properties nearer to the context panel.
- You could create a custom ticket layout for Returns that includes Apps specifically created to help agents manage returns.
You will be able to apply a custom layout based on certain ticket conditions or even use one as the default ticket layout for your account. You can create up to 20 custom layouts for your account and use them with contextual workspaces.
Changes you make to a ticket layout do not prevent agents from resizing the context panel or resizing the ticket properties panel when they work on tickets.
About layout builder
Custom layouts are created using an intuitive layout builder with access to predefined layouts and a drag-and-drop component library. Layout builder enables you to pick which components to include in a ticket, then you can arrange and resize them. You have the power to create the exact layout you need.
Layout builder includes a canvas on the left for arranging and resizing components and a component library on the right for adding components. Layout builder enables you to customize both the main ticket interface and the context panel. For more information, see Creating custom layouts to improve agent workflow.
About contextual workspaces
You can use contextual workspaces to control which custom layouts your agents see. Contextual workspaces enable you to create customized ticket workflows based on a series of conditions. Working in conjunction with your contextual workspaces, you can dictate which custom layout to use based on the product brands, agent groups, and ticket forms that you define in a contextual workspace.
Once you create a custom layout, you can assign it to a conditional workspace. This enables the workspace and the layout to work together to make sure your agents see the right ticket layouts at the right times. For more information on contextual workspaces, see Setting up contextual workspaces.
23 Comments
I have been waiting for this feature for a long time. Thank you for the update.
However, it should be possible to use multiple layouts simultaneously and apply each layout to the suitable agent or group.
I hope this update will be applied quickly.
Thank you, Jihoon,
Support for multiple simultaneous layouts applied to contextual workspaces is definitely on our roadmap.
Does anyone know how agents that do not have access to certain apps would see the layouts? For example one of the columns has 2 apps that these agents don't have access to, would they see a blank column or would it just not display?
Agree, multiple layouts at one time is necessary. If employees don't have access to an app the layout options are limited without applying group level Layout settings. Any idea on timing?
이지훈 Rebecca Weifenbach - Thanks for the feedback! Good news is, this is exactly what the team is going to be tackling with the EAP now out the door. We'll be connecting Layouts with Contextual Workspace so that different layouts can be triggered for a specific group, ticket status, or any other condition that's already in Contextual Workspace.
We are tentatively targeting a release of this functionality by the end of June 2023. Will keep folks posted once that timing becomes solidified and we can provide a more precise date.
Is control over what fields and order on the ticket area on the roadmap?
For example,
As an Enterprise organization, there are the type of requirements I frequently get.
Landry Norman in the case that a custom layout has an app that a particular agent doesn't have access to, the placement of that app would be maintained within the layout, but it would show the agent an error icon with the message "this app is no longer available".
Hi Michael, appreciate the question! That functionality is maintained by another product team who owns all things related to ticket fields and forms. I'll pass along that feedback so they can intake it for future consideration.
Paul Von that makes this feature unusable to us until contextual workspaces are integrated
Landry Norman the development for hooking up contextual workspaces to layouts is underway. We are tentatively targeting that release for the end of June, and look forward to announcing a more exact date once the enhancement is closer to release ready!
Other than setting a custom layout as the default, how do we apply them? I'm not seeing that in documentation. I can't set a layout at the group, view, or trigger level so how do I use it?
Mistyamber,
See Paul's comment immediately above your question. For the current EAP, you can only use a custom layout if you apply it as the default. But, we are working on the ability to use contextual workspaces to apply custom layouts. Once this feature is available, we will update the documentation. Stay tuned.
Can we have different default layouts per brand in our Zendesk? Thinking it would be cool to customize per brand we have.
Hi Lydia Forsyth! Once we ship our next release for custom layouts with Contextual Workspace, Brand will be one of the conditions that you can choose to trigger a custom layout within the ticket UI. We are currently targeting this next release around the end of June 2023.
My recent post in the Layout Builder EAP community touches more on this topic and has a full list of the conditions that will be available for you to set custom layouts against: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/5706915959578-Upcoming-summer-release-of-Layouts-Contextual-Workspaces-will-allow-application-of-multiple-layouts
Hello,
In the standard layout the width of the columns is smaller that in the custom layouts that we can build. Is there a possibility to remove the limit of the width in the custom layouts so we can narrow them a little bit more? Specially the context panel.
Thank you!
Tickets Support thanks for the feedback! Improving the column and row sizing behavior within Layout Builder is being tracked as a backlog item for further evaluation in terms of technical feasibility and delivery timeframe.
Hey folks!
Extending a warm invite for everyone on this thread to join us on Tuesday, November 14th at 11 AM CDT for our live PM Roundtable on Layout Builder community event, where you'll get to live chat with Paul Von, myself, and other PMs looking after customization at Zendesk.
We'll be going over the 2024 roadmap and long-term vision of Layout Builder, in addition to our customization strategy around Agent Workspace.
We'll then open it up to the floor for discussion on any questions regarding Layout Builder, feedback on the current state of the product, feedback on our roadmap, feature requests regarding Agent Workspace customization that you would like to see us bake in, sharing best practices around creating custom layouts, and so much more.
We'd love to see y'all there!
Cheers,
JJ
Hello, I hope this is the right place to ask about this.
We have activated a custom layout, and it's set as default, and it seems to be working well.
BUT, when creating a NEW ticket, the custom layout is not applied.
Our reply field is on top in the custom layout, so it's confusing for the agents that on new tickets, the reply box is at the bottom.
Please share if we are missing something in the set up or if you can work on resolving this.
Hey Tatiana Christensen! Glad to hear that you are giving Layout Builder a go.
What you are seeing is expected behavior as custom layouts are not supported on the new ticket page at the moment. That said, we can understand how it could be confusing for agents to have a variance in experience working on a new vs. an existing ticket if the reply field is in different place. We'll take your feedback into our backlog and evaluate how we can improve the experience in the future. Thanks for notifying us!
Is the Layout Builder in the Admin center? I am not seeing it
Hi Nora,
Thank you for your interest. The feature is still rolling out. See the Announcement for details. Also, you have to have an Enterprise (or Enterprise plus) plan with Agent Workspace activated to see the Layouts page in Admin Center and create custom layouts
Would be really nice if we could make the customer context app two separate apps. One containing the customer context and the other containing just the interactions.
We are using an app in our layout that makes the customer context portion superfluous and would love to see the 'Interactions' without needing to scroll past the customer context portion.
Thanks for submitting the feedback Steve Senez regarding splitting customer context into more discrete sub-components! I'll pass this onto the team that owns the customer context component for future consideration.
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