First let me start this off with some good news. The left-hand object bar has been further tweaked and reorganized. I previously commented that "process model / interface search results" being at the top of the list (as they are in 22.3 and lower) makes it harder to access the Smart Service Nodes we're after when that's what we're actually searching for. It looks like they listened! Yay!
But for the main point of this post: i've noticed that Grid Lines are now turned off by default and there is no way to undo this except by turning them on manually every single time you load a process model.
At first I was hoping this was a bug in my Community Edition instance, or some incomplete feature or temporary break. But other users are now posting screenshots from 22.4 versions around community and it seems like it may have been "intentional".
Hey Appian folks? This may have been intended to "look cleaner" or something - but to me, psychologically, it makes me think something hasn't loaded correctly. As far as I know, with as long as I've been looking at process models with grid lines, I anticipate this effect will last a long time.
I see they're still there. They're redesigned but I guess I don't have any major qualms with the newer, simplified grid lines (i'll paste an example below for everyone's reference). Can we just have them turned back on by default? Could it at least be given as an override in designer user-level preferences or something?
I know the product backlog is huge, lots of higher-priority stuff, etc. But I think this is something that wasn't necessary to change.
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I agree that both of main driving points behind this change are subjective.
We did meet with Appian developers because we were concerned removing the grid lines would make aligning nodes harder (which didn't seem to be the case).
If I had to trade grid lines as they work in newest version permanently for one of the other things mentioned, I probably would make the trade.
If I had to trade no grid lines ever in exchange for most of this thread, I definitely would trade.
Thanks Chris, this is about what I remembered. I guess an important distinction is that the data was shown in a mouseover "hover text", whereas now the detail is shown in the dialog info panel (which i'm fine with, and is probably for the better). Sam Wahbeh does this clarify the distinction I was making, with respect to the behavior of the new version and the detail I feel is lacking?
Another question, process model related - have they moved the Process Details paging to the bottom as well yet? Currently in 21.1, when I'm reviewing process history (in an opened process instance), scrolling down 100 rows, there is no paging at the bottom - you have to scroll all the way back up to then move to the next page..
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Otherwise this would be on my list for modeler enhancements
If I review the history from /design monitor mode without opening the instance, I can page only at the bottom (which is where I would expect it if I only had one option), but, it is restricted to 25 items..
Chris said:have they moved the Process Details paging to the bottom as well yet?
Nope, still at the top, same as previous versions. That's a good point - other than the fact that this UI uses the same legacy portal report configuration (which might have lots of hardcoded stuff we don't know about), it seems as if there's no good reason to have the paging controls only at the top. Or if they have to be at the top, the scrolling could be adjusted such that the columns and paging controls stay in place and only the data scrolls.
But again, I assume this is most likely baked into ancient legacy code and will be a big mess to unpack and update (maybe i'm wrong?)
Sam Wahbeh said:We did meet with Appian developers
I'm curious for some insight into who you met with on this matter, and how they were selected - for instance, were any of the top contributors here included in that? I don't believe I was, but I can't speak for Stefan and Harshit among others.
Wanted to follow-up one more time on this post, and to let you know that the feedback here has been shared with product managers at Appian. We've thought about many of the enhancements in this thread and have received similar feedback before. In regards to some of the subjective UX feedback, I'll continue to monitor that over the next few weeks before reverting any changes.
We are doing a lot of exciting work this upcoming year and I'll be sure to reach out for some feedback in an upcoming quarter. Happy holidays!