This will be long, Please bear with me - Next Gen Layout - Search

This will be long, Please bear with me - Next Gen Layout - Search

In general, I think that Zoho are going in the right direction with the Next Gen UI. The latest update brings some nice improvements and all-in-all from a user's perspective I think the improvements are generally very good.

However, there are some areas of the UI which have been sorely neglected or are simply baffling. The following may come off a blunt and it is a bit of a read, so please bear with me. I'll focus on 2 main areas - The navigation sidebar, and search.

NAVIGATION SIDEBAR:

1. Completely unnecessary settings access.

I really can't understand why module and system settings are exposed in the navigation sidebar. For some users such as system devs or admins, this may be a welcome feature. Personally, I'm rarely focused on settings for a single module, I'm usually focused on many areas of the backend.

For users, this should absolutely be a very big NO. There is absolutely no reason a normal user should have those settings exposed and so freely accessible. by all means, have the feature, but it should be an opt-in setting, not a default setting.

2. Meaningful quick access actions missing

Why oh why do we have a UI where users get quick access to create a client script, but have no 'Create Record' action? 




It would be far more logical to have a '+' next to the module name for creating a new record (The search Icon I'll get to in the next section).

user: "I want to create a new Deal"
action: Hover over "Deal" in sidebar --> Click '+' --> New Deal

3. Quick Access to add module to folder

The '+' on the Folder level of the sidebar is, I feel, completely unnecessary. Icons, Actions, Features, whatever term you want to use, should always be frequently used actions.

Frequently Used > One-and-done

Setting up your folders is something that is done once and rarely updated. There is no need to have quick access to adding modules to a folder when no new module has been added to the folder for months, or even years. Setting up your folders is what I would consider a "one-and-done" type of task. if that's buried down a level or 2 in a menu, it doesn't matter because you so very rarely use the function.

Putting "one-and-done" actions in your UI but hiding features used every day is not efficient or helping anyone with productivity.

4. Alternate to #2 Above

As an alternate to having a '+' next to each module, you could also use the '+' at the folder level to create a record for any module under the folder, a bit like this...



This is a far more logical use of the folder level + icon to me instead of the rarely used 'Add Module'

SEARCH:

Search in Zoho CRM has been neglected for far too long. And it's not that it's not effective, in my opinion, Zoho search's problem is that it's TOO EFFECTIVE most of the time.

If I'm searching for a record, I simply get too many search results. I don't WANT to search all modules all the time. If I'm searching for a Deal, I don't want to make multiple clicks. I want it to be as effortless and intuitive as possible.

1. Exclude/Include all modules from "All modules"

There are back-end modules and records that I never or very rarely need to search. One improvement is to make the default search to be "Frequent Modules" and allow users to set-up which modules fall into the Frequent category, or, let ZIA figure it out from usage patterns.

'Frequent Modules' should be the default search which should drastically cut down on irrelevant results

2. Why are we hiding the search type from the search bar?

Why can't we have the search type/filter in the header along with the search bar? You see it as soon as you click in the search field anyway. Why not show that all the time?

3. Set default search area

Users should be able to set the default module search for themselves. As an extension of 'Frequent Modules', if a particular user primarily only searches Accounts, then let them set that as the default instead of 'All Modules'. Or let them set multiple modules as their default.

Asking the user to have to constantly select the same setting over and over again is inefficient and causes unnecessary friction.

4. Search quick access in navigation bar.

Another logical use of the navigation bar is to add a search icon. After all, the navigation bar is for, well, navigating the system. 



If you had a search icon next to the module, then you could have the search window pre-filtered to that module you clicked the search icon for.

Need to search within deals? Click the search icon next to deals.

Having a search bar pop up would be bad UI, but have that pop up the main search window with 'Deals' pre-selected would be much more intuitive

5. Search Module should be pre-selected to be the module you're currently within

If you're in a list of deals, there's a high chance that you're doing something related to deals. So why not pre-select the search module to be the module you're currently in? Again, make this a per-user setting in a new 'Search Settings'. Yes, I know there's the filters which can be used for search, but if you're just wanting to do a quick search within deals, the filters are clunky.

6. Have Module Categories that match the folders in the Navigation Bar

Having the folders in the left navigation bar is great. Why not make these more of a global grouping, starting with search. So in my case, I've got a folder for "People and Companies" and "Sales" which include certain modules.... It would be great if these were selection you can make from the Module dropdown in the search.

So users could search for "Sales" records, and the only modules included in the search results would be those included in the "Sales" navigation folder.

Anyway that's all from me. I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

    • Recent Topics

    • Automation#25: Move Tickets to Unassigned When the Owner Is Offline

      Hello Everyone, Welcome to this week's Community Series! 'Tis the holiday season—a time when work often takes a brief pause. The holiday spirit is in full swing at Zylker Techfix too, with employees taking some well-deserved time off. During this period,

    • Automation#27: Retain Ticket Owner on Moved Tickets

      Hello Everyone! This week, we present to you a custom function that retains the ticket owner when a ticket is moved from one department to another. Here’s more to help you understand the custom function: At Zylker Techfix, Alex, the Support Engineer manages

    • Automation#28 Notify Agents on Article Expiry

      Hello Everyone! This week, we’re bringing you a feature that notifies your team when articles in the Knowledge Base are set to expire to keep your content relevant and helpful for customers. The Zoho Desk's Knowledge Base is an asset for customers to

    • Automation#29 Retain ticket status on moved tickets

      Hello Everyone, Hear out Zylker Techfix’s Success Story on Smoother Ticket Transitions! Zylker Techfix, a gadget servicing firm committed to quick repairs and timely deliveries, faced a challenge when ticket statuses changed automatically while moving

    • Automation#32:Auto Add New Portal Users to the Help Center User Groups

      Hello Everyone, Introducing a custom function that automates the process of adding new portal users to Help Center user groups, making user management effortless! By default, Zoho Desk allows you to assign new portal users to groups manually. But with

    • Automation#34 : Automate Email threading for Ticket notification

      Hello Everyone, It's been a while since we've presented an automation. However, our community has been buzzing with ideas, use cases, and discussions with our community experts and Ask the Experts session. So, here we are again, presenting an automation

    • Automation#35 : Auto-Add Comments under the Owner's Name in Tickets via Macros

      Hello Everyone, This week's custom function provides simple steps to configure a Macro for adding comments to tickets with the name of the Comment owner. When managing tickets, you can use the Comment feature to communicate internally with your team and

    • Automation#36: Auto-create time-entry after performing the Blueprint transition

      Hello Everyone, This week’s edition focuses on configuring a custom function within Zoho Desk to streamline time tracking within the Blueprint. In this case, we create a custom field, and request the agent to enter the spending time within the single

    • Automation#33: Automate Splitting Names for Existing Contact Records

      An organized directory – who doesn't love one? Previously, we explored how to split contact names into First Name and Last Name for new contacts in Zoho Desk. But what about existing contacts already in your database? This week, we bring you a custom

    • Workqueue

      I really like the idea of the Workqueue generally - it will be really useful. What it seems to lack however, is the ability to customise it properly. I want to be able to show a custom view rather than just "My Leads" and "Leads Assigned in Last 3 hours".

    • Webform & spam

      Hi, We set up 2 webform on our website, fowarding the content to Zoho CRM. Since it has been opened up, we are getting lot of spam message (for now about 20 a day). To lower the amount of false new leads we added the captcha field and new enquieries are

    • Zoho CRM Web form page URL

      Hi there, I am getting quite a bit of spam through my Zoho CRM Web form and want to restrict the URLs it is submittable from. I can see that I can add Location URLs but I need to be able to just add a domain so can I enter mydomain.com/* to cover all

    • Receiving too many Spam Leads. Why?

      I am receiving so many junk leads from web forms created by zoho's platform. The junk queries are increasing day by day and are affecting our business. I am continuously following up with zoho team from the past one year but not getting any satisfactory

    • Mail Merge is not working properly as far as the AUTOMATE section is concerned

      Hi there, I created a Mail Merge template for the Deal module. I would like Deal owners to mail merge their Deal records, download the Mail Merge document as a Word doc and make a few changes before sending it to the customer. Thing is, neither the "Merge

    • Canvas Detail View Related List Sorting

      Hello, I am having an issue finding a way to sort a related list within a canvas detail view. I have sorted the related list on the page layout associated with the canvas view, but that does not transfer to the canvas view. What am I missing?

    • project name field issue- n8n

      Hey guys, I have a question. I want to create a new product using the workflow. The problem is with the product name field; I don't know how to fill it in. The workflow starts with retrieving information from the leads table, retrieving links to scrape

    • Function #20: Custom calculation in item table of invoices

      When you create an invoice in Zoho Books, the 'Amount' of a line item is typically calculated as the product of the "Quantity" and the "Rate" of the item. For instance, if an item has a sales rate of $50 and a quantity of 5 is sold, then the amount would

    • Critical:- Eneble TDS filing for 26Q from the zoho book

      We currently extract TDS data from Zoho Books and manually input it into a separate TDS software to generate the FUV file and file returns. Previously, while using Tally, we benefited from an integrated feature that seamlessly recorded transactions and

    • How to track repeat customers?

      I own a food business and every order is entered into Zoho with: a unique Customer ID total order amount date of order With this information, I want to be able to see a list of my "best" customers. In other words, descending lists arranged according to:

    • Zoho Books - Breaking A Working App

      We've been using Zoho for many years now. Across all apps, entering phone numbers in standard formats was enabled in all apps. These formats are: xxx.yyy.zzzz xxx-yyy-zzzz (xxx) yyy-zzzz and we were able also to add extension numbers in these formats:

    • Build data protection into your support

      At Zoho, privacy is our principle. Every Zoho product is built with privacy as the foundation and the finishing touch, guiding every decision we make. Security, privacy, and compliance are woven into the software development lifecycle, starting from how

    • Conditional formatting: before/after "today" not available

      When setting conditional formatting, it only allows me to set a specific calendar date when choosing "Before" or "After" conditions. Typing "today" returns the error "Value must be of type date". Is there a workaround? Thanks for any help!

    • Display Client Name in Zoho Creator Client Portal Dashboard

      Hello Zoho Creator Team, We hope you are doing well. Zoho Creator recently introduced the option to set a client’s display name in the Client Portal settings, which is very helpful for providing a personalized portal experience. However, there is currently

    • Customizable UI components in pages | Theme builder

      Anyone know when these roadmap items are scheduled for release? They were originally scheduled for Q4 2025. https://www.zoho.com/creator/product-roadmap.html

    • Amazon.in FBA multiple warehouse integration with Zoho Inventory

      My organisation subscribed to Zoho One looking at the opportunity to integrate Amazon.in with Inventory. But during the configuration, we understood the integration has severe limitations when it involves multiple warehouses in the same Organisation.

    • Feature Request - Set Default Values for Meetings

      Hi Zoho CRM Team, It would be very useful if we could set default values for meeting parameters. For example, if you always wanted Reminder 1 Day before. Currently you need to remember to choose it for every meeting. Also being able to use merge tags

    • Windows Desktop App - request to add minimization/startup options

      Support Team, Can you submit the following request to your development team? Here is what would be optimal in my opinion from UX perspective: 1) In the "Application Menu", add a menu item to Exit the app, as well as an alt-key shortcut for these menus

    • Ability for admin to access or make changes in zoho form without asking for ownership

      Currently in zoho form only form owner can make the changes in the form and if someone else has to make changes then we have to transfer the ownership to them and even admin also cant access it . So i think admin must have the ability or option to access

    • Issue with WhatsApp Template Approval and Marketing Message Limit in Zoho Bigin

      We are facing issues while creating and using WhatsApp message templates through Zoho Bigin, and we request your clarification and support regarding the same. 1. Utility Template Approval Issue Until December, we were able to create WhatsApp templates

    • Zoho CRM Calendar View

      Hello Zoho team, We need desperately a calendar view next to list, kandan and other views. I think it should be easy to implement as you already have the logic from Projects and also from Kanban View in CRM. In calendar view when we set it up - we choose

    • Camera

      I can sign on to a meeting and see the other participants, but my screen is dark. The instructions for Zoho "Camera Settings" say "click on lock icon in address bar," but I don't see that icon! Suggestions?

    • What is Workqueue and how to hide it?

      Hi， My CRM suddenly have this "Workqueue", may I ask how to set the permission of this tab?

    • Batch/lot # and Storage bin location

      Hi I want to ask for a feature on Zoho inventory I own a warehouse and I've gone through different management software solutions with no luck until I found Zoho, it has been a game changer for my business with up to the minute information, I'm extremely happy with it. It's almost perfect. And I say Almost because the only thing missing for me (and I'm sure I'm not alone) is the need of being able to identify the lot number of my inventory and where it is located in the warehouse. Due to the nature

    • Adding Sender Address with Basic Plan

      According to the knowledge base, I should be able to add Sender addresses with the Basic Plan. But whenever I try to add an email, it takes me to a search window and I cannot find any emails in the list. Even mine, which is the admin. email.

    • Conditional Field Visibility in Bigin CRM

      I would like to request support for conditional field visibility within Bigin CRM. This feature should allow administrators to configure show/hide rules for fields based on predefined criteria (e.g., field values, picklist selections, stage changes,

    • Bill automation in Zoho Books

      Hi I am looking for 3rd-party options for bill automation in zoho which are economical and preferably have accurate scanning. What options do I have? Zoho's native scanning is a bit pricey

    • Reporting Tags

      We've been using reporting tags for years (before itemizing was available) and now we are finding reporting these tags are impossible to track. Reports have changed in the customization and our columns of reporting tags no longer show up. We do not use

    • Consumption based inventory

      I am currently using Zoho Books for my hospitality business, which includes lodging and restaurant services. We purchase many items in bulk for storage and consumption as needed. I'd like these items to be recorded as inventory when purchased and categorized

    • Smarter Access Control: Role-Based Access vs. Responsibility-Based Profiles

      Every business has roles, responsibilities, and workflows. While roles help define structure, responsibilities within those roles are rarely the same. As your team grows, some members need access to only a specific set of features. Others require visibility

    • Partner with HDFC And Sbi Bank.

      Hdfc and sbi both are very popular bank if zoho books become partner with this banks then many of the zoho books users will benefit premium features of partnered banks.

    • Next Page