Second Insight - Let's talk Layouts

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. 
InfoUser 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.
Quote
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


    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


      • Recent Topics

      • How can I clone my website in order to try new templates?

        I want to try a new template for my existing Zoho website without the risk of changing the current site or accidentally publishing the wrong template. Therefore I thought a 'clone website'-option should be somewhere, but I can't find it. How do I try

      • Custom Module Missing from Roles & Permissions List

        Hi Zoho Community, I created a new Custom Module in Zoho Expense. The module is fully built and I can see it in the Module Builder (Settings > Customization > Modules). However, I am unable to deploy this to my users because the module does not appear

      • Need Customer Item Inward Module along with QC

        Need Customer Item Inward Module along with QC 1. Using Transfer Orders hit the item balance sheet 2. Items without inventory it becomes difficult for tracking purpose. 3. Custom Modules become tedious to capture multiple items, item subforms are not

      • Possible to Turn Off Automatic Notifications for Approvals?

        Hello, This is another question regarding the approval process. First a bit of background: Each of our accounts is assigned a rank based on potential sales. In Zoho, the account rank field is a drop-down with the 5 rank levels and is located on the account

      • Will be possible to create a merge mail template for products?

        Hi, we would need to create a mail merge template for products (native) module. Will be possibile? or do you have a smart solutions to merge products data with a mail merge? thanks Chris

      • Maximum incoming email (attachment size) limit

        I see that the maximum size of received emails can now be set to 20MB, however I'd still like to see it be larger. It's embarrassing when a client sends me an email with a large attachment and I can't receive it. 50, even 100 MB seems reasonable these

      • [Free Webinar] Learning Table Series - Multi-currency management in Zoho Creator

        Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to another edition of the Learning Table Series webinar. As you may already know, we've moved to a purpose-based approach in the Learning Table Series this year. Each session now focuses on how a Zoho Creator

      • LESS_THAN_MIN_OCCURANCE - code 2945

        Hi I'm trying to post a customer record to creator API and getting this error message. So cryptic. Can someone please help? Thanks Varun

      • Ranking by group in report

        Dears, I am new to Zoho Analytics and I would like to ask you guys help to creating a ranking column. Report type: Pivot Matter: I want to create a ranking column on the right of Percentage. This ranking is group by column Type, and ranking by Final Score/Percent.

      • How do I add a project template to a pre-existing project?

        Help....How do I add a project template to a pre-existing project? Right now I have to delete the old project, make a new one and add the project template at the time of creating the new project.

      • Passing the image/file uploaded in form to openai api

        I'm trying to use the OpenAI's new vision feature where we can send image through Api. What I want is the user to upload an image in the form and send this image to OpenAI. But I can't access this image properly in deluge script. There are also some constraints

      • Users may not pick the fields to be shown as columns in the Choose Account window when creating a new Deal record

        Hi there, by talking with other users I found out that I, as an Admin, am the only one who can pick fields to be shown as columns in the Choose Account window when creating a new Deal record. In fact, if other users click on the "Add Column" symbol on

      • Why is the ability Customize Calls module so limited?

        Why can't I add additional sections? why can't I add other field types than the very limited subset that zoho allows? Why can I only add fields to the outbound/inbound call sections and not to the Call Information section?

      • Report Template - How to remove page break after each record?

        Hi, We have report template for a list report. It looks good at screen. But when printing, it creates a page break after each record. How to remove the it? So we can print multiple records in same page. Please look at the attached screenshots. Report Template Report Print Preview

      • Calendar report with order options and more quick view templates

        I think many of us regularly work with calendar-style reports. It would be great to be able to customize the quick view with new templates and have options to sort the entries for each day of the calendar by different criteria. I think this is an interesting

      • Deprecation Notice: OpenAI Assistants API will be shut down on August 26, 2026

        I recieved this email from openAI what does it means for us that are using the integration and what should we do? Earlier this year, we shared our plan to deprecate the Assistants API once the Responses API reached feature parity. With the launch of Conversations,

      • Shall we play a game?

        Presenting the very first game created using ZOHO Creator: Tic-Tac-Toe (or noughts and crosses) I made this to challenge myself and employ some of the new features of ZOHO Creator. I must admit that the code is very literal and not too elegant. There are plans to improve on the machine AI and streamline the code over time. Currently the code makes extensive use of functions for the machine "AI" - there are 12 of these.   The machine AI can be tricked, so to counteract that I made it exceedingly arrogant

      • CRM notes

        I want to be able to add notes to a task that do not necessarily get rolled up into an account or contact.   For example, I tasks to work on a Court Order for John Doe divorce account.  There might be lots of updates (in the form of notes) that employees

      • Confluence export to zoho learn

        Hello Is there any known way to export Confluence spaces to zoho learn ?

      • Zoho People API, Inactive users

        Hi, I would like to export using the Zoho People API using Fetch Leave Records API V2 | Zoho People API. However it only pulls active user's leaves. I want all users, active and former employees records.

      • Empty folders are now appearing in the sidebar...

        ...and the folder list is now auto-collapsed by default with no way to change. Neither of these recent updates are useful or user-friendly. ==================== Powered by Haiku https://www.haiku.co.uk ====================

      • Client Script | Update - Client Script Support For Custom Buttons

        Hello everyone! We are excited to announce one of the most requested features - Client Script support for Custom Buttons. This enhancement lets you run custom logic on button actions, giving you greater flexibility and control over your user interactions.

      • Zoho CRM for Everyone's NextGen UI Gets an Upgrade

        Hello Everyone We've made improvements to Zoho CRM for Everyone's Nextgen UI. These changes are the result of valuable feedback from you where we’ve focused on improving usability, providing wider screen space, and making navigation smoother so everything

      • Create custom rollup summary fields in Zoho CRM

        Hello everyone, In Zoho CRM, rollup summary fields have been essential tools for summarizing data across related records and enabling users to gain quick insights without having to jump across modules. Previously, only predefined summary functions were

      • Monthly Webinar - Getting Started with Zoho LandingPage

        Are you building your first landing page and want a little guidance? Join our monthly Getting Started with Zoho LandingPage webinar and learn how landing pages fit into your marketing strategy, drive lead generation, and improve conversions. Here’s what

      • View all email threads directly from record's History and Interactions

        Greetings all, We've introduced the ability to view complete email thread conversations directly from records' History and Interactions sections, along with email delivery status and sentiment insights on the Interactions page—which makes it easier for

      • Marketing Tip #22: Check website and navigation for broken links

        Do you inspect your online store frequently? If not, here's your reminder to do it now. Broken links frustrate customers and make your store feel unreliable. Whether it’s a missing product page, an outdated menu item, social media accounts, or a broken

      • Online Payment Fees

        We don't take many online credit card payments so the merchant service provider (PayPal) charges us the 2.9% fee for processing the amount. I would like the ability for the fee to be automatically added to the total amount for "ease of payment". We'd

      • push notification to Cliq when user is @mentioned in CRM notes

        push notification to Cliq when user is @mentioned in CRM notes. Currently users that is @mentioned gets an email to be notified. User/s that is @mentioned should get a Cliq notification.

      • How to make entries for restaurant sales in Zoho Books?

        Hello, I'm new to Zoho Books. I need to understand how to record our restaurant sales in Zoho Books. We can't raise invoices for each bill from the daily sales report generated by our POS (duplicated effort). We need a means of entering cumulative sales

      • Integrate with WooCommerce using Wordpress Plugin

        We’re thrilled to announce a powerful update to the Zoho Marketing Automation WordPress plugin with WooCommerce integration! This enhancement enables new possibilities for businesses running online stores using WooCommerce, empowering them to merge seamless

      • How do I sync multiple Google calendars?

        I'm brand new to Zoho and I figured out how to sync my business Google calendar but I would also like to sync my personal Google calendar. How can I do this so that, at the very least, when I have personal engagements like doctor's appointments, I can

      • Domain already exists

        Hi, I tried to add my domain creativecolumnist.com but its showing as Domain already exist. Please release if it has already been associated with Zoho, I am the real owner of that domain.

      • Select forwarding

        For Zoho mail online on PC in web browser: I had forwarding enabled in section "Mail accounts / Forwards", and I also have some filters that send emails from some unwanted senders to Archive. But it doesn't work as intended, it forwards everything (obviously

      • system not picking my default custom service report template

        Can you tell me why when we create a service report always pick the (standard old) template? Even when I have a custom service report selected as Default.

      • Restrict Appointment Booking to Approved Clients

        Dear Zoho Bookings Support Team, We'd like to propose a feature enhancement for managing appointments within Zoho Bookings. This feature would ensure only pre-approved clients can schedule meetings. Desired Functionality: We propose the introduction of

      • Automate Credit Card Surcharge

        Is there a way to create an automation that will add a 3.0% credit card surcharge to a subscription whenever a customer pays via credit card?

      • I have the item field and Quantity field in the sub form , on the submit of the form if the quantity is grater than inventory means show alert on submit validation only for item type goods ,

        I have the item field and Quantity field in the sub form , on the submit of the form if the quantity is grater than inventory means show alert on submit validation . Stock Check Validation only for item type goods , not for item type service . For the

      • Disappearance of all articles in the knowledge base

        Hi there! It seems like all of our articles have disappeared from the knowledge base: However, the names still appear in the "sort articles" section:

      • Logic for sending to a non-primary email address

        Hi, I have a scenario where contacts are able to sign up for emails with 2 different email addresses (example: work, personal). I've mapped both to Campaigns from Zoho CRM, but when I go to target an email only the primary email addresses are pulling in. How can I update this to look at both of the email addresses - or specifically the secondary email address in Campaigns? Thanks, Jenny

      • Next Page