Second Insight - Let's talk Layouts

The Wheels of Ticketing - Desk Stories

Let's talk Layouts

What are layouts?

Layouts refer to the arrangement or design of elements in a space, whether on a physical surface, like a room or a piece of furniture, or in digital contexts, such as web pages or graphic designs. 

User interface layout: In software design, various interface elements, such as buttons, forms, and menus, are arranged to create an efficient and user-friendly experience. 

Layouts control how fields and related sections are organized on a department's module page. Each department can have its own design, which includes a combination of default and custom fields. These layouts dictate which fields are visible, read-only, and required.

 

Customer support agents need specific information to handle tickets for different products or processes effectively. As a result, help desks frequently incorporate multiple custom fields into the ticket forms that customers complete. This may lead to customers facing irrelevant fields that don't apply to their specific issues. The most effective solution to this confusion is to create and use an appropriate layout.

How can you benefit from using layouts?

Layouts are used in a wide range of software applications and platforms to enhance communication and user experience.

 

In Zoho Desk, you can use layouts to tailor the fields on module pages like Tickets and Tasks. The drag-and-drop feature enables you to add new fields easily, remove unnecessary ones, and rearrange fields to match your preferences. 

Key functions of a layout: 

• Visual hierarchy: Clarifies the significance of various elements and directs the viewer's attention to the essential information.
• Readability: Enhances the clarity and legibility of text and images, making it easier for the audience to digest the content.
• Aesthetic appeal: Creates an attractive design that engages users and encourages them to interact with the content.
• Consistency: This ensures a uniform look and feel across different pages or sections, which helps with branding and recognition.
• Navigation: Facilitates user navigation by organizing content logically and allowing users to find information quickly and intuitively.
• Functionality: Supports the intended function of the design, whether to inform, persuade, entertain, or provide a service.
  

A well-designed layout is crucial for effective communication and user engagement in any visual medium. 

A story for better interpretation of layouts

The Perfect Layout - A Tech Story

At Heaven Solutions, a bustling tech company, they proudly call their help desk software 'Heaven Desk'. It was the go-to place for agents facing tech troubles, but the overall situation was chaotic. The desks were cluttered, information was scattered, and the agent teams were overwhelmed with requests.

 

Ross, a bright and passionate senior tech support, was part of the help desk team. He loved helping others but often found himself frustrated when navigating through heaps of information to assist his team. One day, while dealing with a particularly perplexing issue, he had a revelation: the team needed structure to tame the chaos!

 

Inspired, Ross gathered his team for a brainstorming session. “What if we redesigned our help desk layout?” he suggested. The team was intrigued but skeptical. “How can a layout make a difference?” one seasoned tech support asked. 

 

Ross smiled and began to explain: “Let’s think of it this way: a well-organized layout can guide users to find solutions quickly. It can reduce confusion, streamline processes, and enhance productivity.” 

 

The team's curiosity was piqued, and they experimented with Ross's idea. They mapped out ideas on a whiteboard and discussed different elements of a successful help desk layout. 

• Categorization: They categorized issues into clear sections—hardware, software, network, and general inquiries. This way, users could quickly find the category relevant to their problem. 
  

• Search functionality: Ross proposed implementing a robust search feature on their help desk platform. Users could type in keywords or phrases, making finding solutions more manageable.
  

• Visible layout: The team agreed that a cleaner, visually appealing design would help declutter the experience. They envisioned a layout with ample white space, easy navigation buttons, and tabs representing different categories.
  

• FAQ guides: Recognizing that many questions were often repeated, they created an easily accessible FAQ section and a library of troubleshooting guides. This would empower agents to solve minor issues independently.
  

• Quick feedback: They incorporated a feedback mechanism where users could rate their experience after each interaction, allowing continuous improvement based on user input.
  

Excited about their ideas, the team presented the new layout to their manager. To their delight, he loved the vision and approved the redesign. With everyone's input, they built the new Heaven help desk. When they launched the redesigned help desk, it was like transforming a maze into a designated path.

On the first day after the launch, Ross was buzzing with anticipation. As employees began using the new layout, he watched their faces light up. Help desk requests decreased as many users could now find what they needed through the FAQs and guides. The search functionality quickly became a hit, with colleagues excited about how quickly they could resolve issues.

 

Because of their collaborative effort, the help desk now serves as a support system and empowers employees to help themselves. The structured layout improved efficiency and user satisfaction, proving that a thoughtful design could transform chaos into clarity.

 

In the end, the purpose of layouts became clear: they weren't merely about aesthetics; they were powerful tools that guided users, reduced frustration, and ensured a seamless experience. Through Ross's idea and the team's collaboration, Heaven Desk became a model help desk, demonstrating that a little structure could lead to immense success.

Takeaway

A well-designed layout organizes information and resources in a coherent way and makes the system intuitive and easy to use, which reduces frustration and improves user satisfaction. It ensures that users can find what they need quickly and efficiently, whether it involves accessing a knowledge base, submitting a ticket, or tracking the status of their request. 

Please stay tuned for more Desk Module stories.

 

Cheers,

Kavya Rao

The Zoho Desk Team

Also read: 

•  First Insight - Find your Fields
  

• Topic Participants

• Kavya Rao Addepalli

  

• Recent Topics

• Missing Outlook calendar option in Calendar

  Hi all I don't have an Outlook Calendar option in the Settings > Synchronise settings of Calendar. Any ideas why not?

• Whats App Automation

  It would be nice to be able to send out an automated whats app message template on moving stages or creation of a ticket (same as you can do for automated emails). Currently only automated emails can be sent. Also, if whats app could be used more effectively

• Zoho Projects Android app update: Enhanced Documents module within the projects.

  Hello everyone! In the latest Android version(v3.9.35) of the Zoho Projects app update, we have enhanced the documents module within the projects. Now, you can view all the attachments that you have added across the project in tasks, bugs, comments, etc,

• Lead Source Disappears

  When adding a new lead and saving the page, the page refreshes itself and the lead source field becomes blank. We set the "Lead source" as a required field to see if it would help, but the problem persists and we always have to re-enter the lead sou

• Inquiry Regarding Monitoring ZOHO CRM API Credit Usage

  Hello ZOHO Community, I hope this message finds you well. I have a question regarding monitoring the usage and remaining credits of the ZOHO CRM API. I recently discovered that within ZOHO CRM, by navigating to Settings ⇒ Developer Hub ⇒ APIs & SDKs,

• Payment Gateways - A unified hub to manage all your payment integrations in Zoho Creator

  Hello everyone, We're thrilled to announce that we've completely reimagined the way payment gateways are handled in Creator. The result is a centralized Payment Gateways section that provides a clean, user-friendly interface to configure and manage all

• Community Digest Julio 2025 - Todas las novedades en Español Zoho Community

  ¡Hola, Español Zoho Community! Ha pasado un tiempo desde el último Digest pero, ¡ya estamos de vuelta con las novedades más relevantes en las aplicaciones de Zoho y su universo! Si no te quieres perder ninguna de las novedades que vamos publicando, te

• Tip #35- How to use Notifications in Zoho Assist to stay on top of session activities- 'Insider Insights'

  Hello Zoho Assist Community! This week, we’re exploring Zoho Assist’s built-in notification system for improved visibility and accountability. Keeping track of session activity is crucial, especially when you're managing multiple remote devices and technicians.

• Assistance with Exporting Specific Data from Zoho CRM

  Hi, Could you please guide me on how to export specific information, such as the model number and serial number, from the Accounts module in Zoho CRM? Thank you in advance for your assistance.

• Coming Soon in Zoho Invoice: Send Invoices Instantly via WhatsApp

  We're working on bringing a new level of convenience to your invoicing experience. Introducing a much-requested feature in Zoho Invoice: You can now share invoices directly to your customers via WhatsApp! With this new option, you can: Share invoices

• field update from the value of another field

  Hello, I need to do a field update from the value of another field, but i don´t know how can i do it. In the mass update option it is not possible... I need to put the last name value form the leads module to other custom field that i have created. thanks for your help

• What is a realistic turnaround time for account review for ZeptoMail?

  On signing up it said 2-3 business days. I am on business-day 6 and have had zero contact of any kind. No follow-up questions, no approval or decline. Attempts to "leave a message" or use the "Contact Us" form have just vanished without a trace. It still

• Is there any way to prevent the row cloning feature(on edit page)

  My initial requirement is to prevent some users from adding new rows in the subform. For that, I have implemented the client script, and the script is working fine. But users are able to clone the row and make changes. For that, I was unable to find any

• Using Another Field Value for Workflow Field Update

  I'm trying to setup a Workflow with a "Field Update" action on the Lead module, but I would like the new value to actually be taken from a DIFFERENT Field's on the Lead record (vs just defining some static value..) Is this possible? Could I simply use

• How Do I Change Business Location

  Ive just shifted my business to a new country and would like to update my address and Business location in the "Organisation Profile" page but it is locked in the previous country. How do I unlock it / change it? Thanks

• Verify details pop-up windows

  Hi, Is it possible to turn-off the anoying "Verify details" window that ask for closing date, "Reason for Lost" or other concepts. If I would like the user to enter such data, I will implement a rule .... How can I turn-off such pop-up? it's not necessary

• Monthly overtime wrong after adding/changing attendance time for past month

  Hi there, as I understand it, the montly overtime overview under attendance is calculated at the end of each month. If someone was not able to enter his attendance in time but entered it in the new month, this time will not be considered in the overview.

• As a security measure, you need to link your phone number with this account and verify it to proceed further.

  I want to disable this feature as my one staff travels with different phone numbers so it is hard to verify by phone. How do I do that?

• Asset Tracking

  I am looking to create custom modules to track customer assets. We install serialized and non-serialized equipment into customers vehicles. So we will have vehicles belonging to the customer then equipment that will belong to a vehicle (if installed)

• 【参加無料】8月8日(金) 福岡 ユーザ交流会 参加登録 受付開始！

  ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの藤澤です。 8月8日(金)に1年ぶりに、福岡でZoho ユーザー交流会を開催します！ ユーザー事例セッションでは、CreativeStudio樂合同会社の前田 美知太郎さまが、労働時間を削減したZoho活用のリアルな工夫を語ります。 Zoho社員セッションでは、データ収集から自動処理まで一気に効率化できるZoho Formsの最新活用アイディアをお届けします。 ▷▷詳細はこちら：https://www.zohomeetups.com/Fukuoka2025#/?affl=fuk2508forumpost

• Unusable due to "server" issues but there's nothing on Zoho or Down Detector saying there's an outage

  I just started the Zoho trial and I cannot do anything because no apps or even the "contact support" will actually load. I tried to create a project but it keeps giving me the error "server is unable to process your request at this time". I tried to load

• Issue After Updating to Zoho Desk Android SDK v4.5.0 – Authentication Fails (Status Code 204)

  Hi Zoho Support Team, I was previously using the Zoho Desk Android SDK with the following dependency: implementation 'com.zoho.desk:asapsdk:3.0_BETA_17' Everything was working as expected — including user authentication, the tickets section, and the

• add another department to helpcenter

  After activating multi-brand, how to add another department to help center? For example department A has associated with help center 1. We have another department B and would like user to be able to submit ticket to department B via help center 1, how

• Task and Milestones - Dependency feature needed

  I'm sure we're not the first to bring this up. We've been using zoho project for a while. Every project manager knows that to manage a successful project you need option to stack tasks and milestones and be able to create dependencies between tasks and milestones. I think you get the idea... Can you let us know if this feature is in the making or not? any chance we'll see this in future releases? If you need customer feedback about this feature or other enhancements, we'll be happy to test new products

• How to update task start date when project start date changes?

  Hi there, When the start date of a project changes, it's important to update the start dates of the tasks associated with that project to reflect the new timeline. Is there a way to shift the start date of all project tasks when the start date of a project

• ZOHO DESK | SET PERMISSION NOT TO ALLOW SPECIFIC AGENTS TO CREATE TICKET

  Hi Zoho Team, I have a question regarding this: "Team Desk are the ones to have the permission to create a ticket, Team OPS resolvers must not create a ticket." - How to set permission to Team OPS resolvers for not creating a ticket? Only Team Desk should

• On success Workflow not triggering from external Zoho Form submission

  Hello everyone, I'd really appreciate your help. I'm building a system, where I'm using Zoho Creator as a crm/spreadsheet to manage movements of inventory. I have 3 "forms" or tables, where one is a main table for obersving status on all inventory, another

• Tax is missing in expense unable to submit report

  Im getting the above error when submitting a report with an expense. Its complaining about the Tax is missing but there is no Tax area just "Amount". And if I try to Itemize the amount to break out the tax portions with the initial product portion it

• Time-based Automations updates does not trigger Webhook

  Hi, When a ticket is updated by Time-based automation, it doesn't seem to trigger the webhook event. I looked at the ticket history for the problematic tickets, they were all changes made by action with this label: `Ticket was updated through a Time-based

• Can't find parent child ticketing

  Hi I can't find parent child ticketing under tickets in this new organization... I have in the past on other organizations

• Filtering Parent and Child Tickets in Analytics

  Hello Zoho Support Team, We’ve noticed that when checking our ticket analytics in Zoho Desk, the data merges both parent and child tickets for key metrics like the number of new tickets, closed tickets, and first response time. This results in inaccurate

• Link Zoho Inventory Sales Order with Zoho Desk Ticket

  I'd like to, in a Zoho Inventory Sales Order, see linked/related Zoho Desk tickets. When I'm in Zoho Desk, I can look up related tickets to the sales order, but I can't seem to do it in the reverse manner (where when I'm in a Zoho Inventroy Sales Order,

• Shopify integration

  I need to integrate Shopify with Zoho Books

• Can't type latin characters Mac x Windows

  I access a Win XP machine using Chrome on Mac OS X High Sierra and I can't get special characters like á é ó â ê ô ã õ à í ú to work. I tried a few different keyboard layout setups, but nothing worked. I end up having to type a lot of stuff in a local notepad for further copy and paste, which is not convenient at all. Am I missing anything? How can I make this work? Thanks.

• Zoho People & Zoho CRM Calendar

  Hi, Does anyone know if it is possible to link Zoho People and the calendar in CRM? I would like when holidays are approved they automatically appear in the calendar on CRM. Thanks 

• How to add Leave Type Permission Start Time

  Hi, I have a requirement to add Leave Type : Permission Start Time on the email template to which is end to the reporting manager. But I am unable to find the field in the list of fields. How to achieve this?

• How to get batch number of item by api?

  Hi there, Is there any way to get batch number of item by api? Batch number is the batch reference number in https://www.zoho.com/inventory/help/advanced-inventory-tracking/batch-tracking.html . When I call the https://www.zoho.com/books/api/v3/#Items_Get_an_item

• Questions about ACH in Zoho Billing

  We have ACH enabled for subscriptions in Zoho Billing and we have the option enabled for users to be able to log in to their bank to add the account to their payment methods. Questions: 1) If the user's bank isn't supported via the log-in method, will

• Zoho Writer Default Publish Setting for Mail Merge

  Hello, I was thinking of using Mail Merge to create documents from CRM and automatically link them. However, I noticed the "publish" function and it seems the default is "to the world". This creates some anxiety as it is not clear what this "to the world"

• Contacts Profile

  Is there a way to add a picture to my contacts profile? You have an outline of a person but no way I can see to import a picture.

• Next Page