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[Closed for comments] Customization of the dashboard

Not Planned


Posted Dec 10, 2012

In the new Zendesk Interface, the dashboard by default displays a "Tickets Requiring Your Attention" view. (I realize this is not a "view" in the Zendesk-defined sense)  This way of looking at tickets is not customizable - the fields displayed cannot be altered, the column widths cannot be changed, and there's no way to "anchor" alternate views on the left side where the existing icons (for dashboard, reporting, settings, etc) reside.  Those are features we consider vital in order for us to use the Lotus interface.  The most glaring omission on the default dashboard is the absence of the ticket number.  It would be great if Zendesk started by making that change, and then making the dashboard customizable so that it has real value to those users who need a different dataset than Zendesk has provided by default.


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... because (as Samantha also mentioned) we have way more views than the left-hand Views panel can display. That means it is no longer a one-click operation to get to the desired view.

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So Samantha and Jodi, another clarification. You say you have more views than the left-hand Views panel can display. How does that apply to the dashboard view? That seems more a weakness of the Views panel. How would making the dashboard configurable change that?

We also have more views than can be displayed, so we work with the team to identify the top views, and make sure they are visible in everyone's Views panel. Another enhancement I'd be in favor of is to make the Views panel configurable for each agent, so they can change the order for their login without affecting everyone else. Or, even just identify the use of the different views by that login, and push the most used view to the top of the list (ordering the rest), even giving the user the option to open the top view first by default.

Samantha, I'm sorry, but I don't buy the "because it's a workaround" -- I would buy "because I have to exit Zendesk, and go to the agent to set him or her up with the appropriate bookmark on their browser" (which is what you may have meant by that answer). I see that as slightly painful, but we end up training our agents at their workstations, anyway, and after configuring a custom view for them, adding the bookmark while we train them at their workstation takes about 10 seconds.

I also agree that the natural place to pick up tickets is the dashboard, but that is based on training an agent to login through the root login screen. By creating a custom view to be used by the agent or group, and bookmarking it, they bypass the root login screen, so it is still a one-click operation. Going directly to the custom view first takes them to the login page. After logging in, they go directly to the custom view.

Frankly, with the way the root login page now takes an additional step just to get to the dashboard by routing the user through the Help Center by default, the bookmark is much faster. In fact, if you LIKE the dashboard (and I rarely use it) you could bookmark that, and get there without the Help Center detour.

I'm really looking at the bookmarkability of custom views as being the same as a configurable dashboard PLUS configurable Views panel.

In a way, you could say Zendesk without providing these features exactly as we'd like them to be has still provided these features. I don't think I'll train another agent to login through the root login screen again. That is until the dashboard actually becomes useful.

BTW, I agree with most all comments about the configurability of the dashboard, and I ALSO agree that for most users the dashboard is the first thing they will see. I agree Zendesk is making a strategic error by not identifying the value of a fully configurable dashboard, and making that a development priority.

Thanks, again, for your responses.

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I've never thought of the bookmark shortcut. I may use that while I wait. But why do we have to make this a discussion whether or not it is a hack/workaround or whatever? It lacks configuration. Period.

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I think Olof, the complaint is that if the dashboard is the first thing our agents see, to not make it useful to them is a waste. I agree with that. And I also see that both for those who are power users and those who need something different than the stock dashboard, configuration is fully available through views and bookmarks, bypassing the dashboard altogether.

Basically, we're throwing away a non-useful element, and going straight to the useful ones. And since our client IS the browser, we're taking advantage of a built-in feature Zendesk offers.

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So let Us set the index page. It's not that difficult.

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So, we're talking about two ways to accomplish the same thing.

  1. You bookmark the root login page (or type the lengthy URL). Zendesk takes you to the login page, routes you to the default Help Center page, where you select "Support" from the dropdown, and then go to the dashboard. For some reason most of us seem to agree with, this is a bad flow. You want Zendesk to allow you to set the index page. They do; with a bookmark.
  2. You bookmark the page you want to go to. Zendesk takes you to the login page, then routes you directly to the page you want to go to. No detour through the Help Center or dashboard. I don't think it is necessarily useful for us to ask Zendesk to change their development priorities to add a feature we already have. I'd rather they rethink their strategy on providing something truly useful in a dashboard. Until they do, I'll bypass it altogether, and I'm happy it's a web app that allows me to do so.

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Yes David you and I made our point. I can wait too. Doesn't make the dashboard any more useful.

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Agreed.

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Presumably some sort of functionality related to this has been added by now, or at least we can pick one default view for agents to see on the dashboard? Apparently not.

Sorry for my terse tone but this is irritating. Not being able to customise the default view in Zendesk is annoying after this many years.

We have a large number of agents, and they should be able to click on the home icon in the top-left and be taken to a home screen accurately representing the tickets that they should be looking at and working on. Right now, that isn't the case, they're taken to some random list (as far as our structure goes in any case, it is basically random for the agents) of tickets rather than what they really need to know and really need to look at.

Sure, we can add a bookmark and tell agents to use that to login, and tell them to ignore that very obvious, intuitive 'home' icon. But we shouldn't have to.

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On a side note, what I would really prefer for the Dashboard page is to be able to stack multiple views in it. For instance, we have one view where we list VIP tickets, and one view where we list regular tickets. I would like to put the VIP tickets up the top, followed by the regular tickets underneath it, and be able to control flows in that sort of a way.

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But if nothing else, let us change the home button and where agents are taken to by default to the Views page. Hack it in dodgily with a checkbox in settings, and then later on do the rethinking of the Dashboard page proper so it can be usable by everyone in this thread.

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i also agree, please allow this functionality.

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This was the first thing I was searching around to change. This function should be there as standard. Please put this on your dev roadmap.

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Original Post Date: December 09, 2012 21:07

 

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LOL @owen

It certainly feels like so many users in the Zendesk community are just being ignored

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+1 on making the dashboard customizable.

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We are using Zendesk Multibrand, and we would really need the option to have the brand the ticket belongs to displayed on the Dashboard View.

Without it, the view is kind of useless and we have to revert to one of the other views.

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So frustrated that I cannot edit the dashboard. I have just integrated social media into Zendesk and would like the show the Channel on the dashboard so that my agents can clearly see when a social media ticket arrives. I can do this on all the Views I have set up but not on the most important area! Its imperative to deal with Facebook, Twitter etc immediately and by seeing the Channel would assist with this greatly, my agents could jump on that specific ticket ASAP. Please enable the dashboard to be edited. Crucial element required. 

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Please add the functionality to customize the dashboard.

 

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Another +1

It hard to believe this has not been addressed yet!! and no update from Zendesk for a long while!!!

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The only concern I had over two years regarding Zendesk is that their ability to respond to certain request like this one been quite minimal. I know there is certain list of features which are being worked on, but right now it seems like competition is outrunning them quite fast.

This is becoming more and more disturbing that they can't say simply - working on it or in discussion we will know more in Q3. On top of that this is highly visible topic, so honestly this is something which should be already partially addressed.

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I agree that Dashboard is not very useful in current form. We use Views, but it's a bit hard sometimes to explain to new agents that you should open View, not Dashboard, which opens first by default. 

Very strange, not sure why Zendesk is so active in adding other very good improvements and is so stubborn about this one. Perhaps, some of the founders or key figures is against and that's that. End of discussion. 

 

 

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As it is now, the Dashboard is not useful.

-no customizing of the columns showing the tickets so cannot even order by priority!

-no setup that allows displaying of 'recent updates' on tickets owned by a group

-no indication of tickets that breached SLAs

 

We will request for it to be not showing at all.

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+1

This is useless..



This would be better..

 

 

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SLAs should be viewable in Home (Dashboard) screen as that is how we should operate. At the moment it is not the case. Could we ask, please enable an ability to add and remove columns like in Views so we can have one central place with SLAs.

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Agreed. We do not use Dashboard, and it causes confusion for new users or infrequent agents. They say, I don't see my tickets! We say No duh, buddy...use the view you are assigned. They say shouldn't they be in my dashboard? We say ...use the view you are assigned.They say but it shows up EVERY TIME I LOG IN ... and we stop responding and mark their email as spam or junk. 

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I agree with the comments above.  We need the ability to customize which fields the dashboard shows.  In essence, we need the ability to customize the Home screen.

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+1

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We'd very much like the ability to customise the dashboard, and also to remove it completely from agents' Zendesk.

It's very irritating that the first "view" they see is of the dashboard (which we do not want them to see at all), not of their own views. We have to constantly ask agents to ignore the dashboard and go straight to their view. it's an unnecessary extra step and confusion.

Please allow us to edit who can view the dashboard. That would be so much more helpful :)

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@Ellie, as a head of customer support department I 100% understand you, we have exactly the same problem. It's been 6 years since this request has appeared and still nothing has changed. 

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If nothing else, could we please have a checkbox to prevent displaying the Home icon in the left-hand navbar? Maybe one to also redirect `/agent/` to `/agent/filters` as well?

Even if the full re-architecting of the dashboard and major extending and app stuff isn't on the roadmap or being looked at, something like those two checkboxes would be much appeciated in my case at least.

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+1

The problem is that mistakes cost money, poor process costs money, training costs money, and anything someone has to hit every day that's clearly useless detracts from the solution, and detracts from the acceptance of that solution as a good thing. None of my users know what it would be like if we did everything on a different platform - at best someone who worked elsewhere knows how it used to be, but they do not have any present-day benchmark. Zendesk is only as good as it appears to be. 

Having to train every user that the main view on a system is useless and that using it will be a mistake would only make sense if fixing it were costly. Can it really be costly to provide a 'Default' view to use instead? Yes, you can bookmark a different view, but the Home button remains the Home button, so users will think that is what it is. So why not disable it or fix it?

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