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> The new Asana is designed to give you a feeling of calm and focus (ahhh…). When you first start a project, it looks like a simple sheet of crisp, white paper.

> The new Asana is designed to give you a feeling of calm and focus (ahhh…). When you first start a project, it looks like a simple sheet of crisp, white paper. But as you work, elements animate and light up in delightful ways (oooh…). When you complete tasks and get results with your team, Asana celebrates with you—and sometimes a flying unicorn does too. Does anyone else find this tone off-putting? I think it's the telling me (or insinuating) how I will feel part that bugs me. Like if I went into a store to buy a bottle of water and they insisted on telling me how refreshed I will feel after I drink it. It's over the top.

chuckcode 11y ago
If you don't like that tone, definitely don't watch the video as it has zero details and is all jargon about "teams working smarter" without so much as a screenshot or product details. I can see how the whimsical tone might not be for everybody but personally I don't mind the tone so much. I read it more as them conveying what they were trying to accomplish with their design choices.
dasil003 11y ago
Yeah, this, and then the marketing video amps it up even further. I'm probably jaded with having tried 100 project management tools in the last decade (including Asana), but it seems designed to appeal to the kind of clueless management that will dictate Asana to his subordinate teams while being too high up the chain to actually use it (classic Enterprise software problem I know). For those in the trenches, the aesthetics of a tool are all but irrelevant—once you start using the tool it's the functionality that matters and how it looks completely fades into the background.
awakeasleep 11y ago
Yeah man! I'm repulsed by all software that tries to have an attitude. People with attitudes are cool when they keep themselves fresh and upredictable, and adapt to the feedback they get. When 'attitude' is repetitive or predictable, or doesn't heed it's feedback, it becomes a horribly grating gimic. I want my computers to be computer-like. Predictable, flavorless tools that give feedback in terms of 'success' or 'error' only. I don't want a virual personal assistant that tries to cover its lack of functionality with 'personality'. I don't want my activity monitor to encourage me to reach 'goals' it set. I don't want my project management software to include rewards- how fucking patronizing is that? The reward is the project that I'm working on! Not a color splash or smiley face in the glorified checklist I'm using! Let's transplant an Asimov robot's (lack of) personality into my phone and rm -r /Siri/

chuckcode 11y ago

If you don't like that tone, definitely don't watch the video as it has zero details and is all jargon about "teams working smarter" without so much as a screenshot or product details. I can see how the whimsical tone might not be for everybody but personally I don't mind the tone so much. I read it more as them conveying what they were trying to accomplish with their design choices.

dasil003 11y ago

Yeah, this, and then the marketing video amps it up even further. I'm probably jaded with having tried 100 project management tools in the last decade (including Asana), but it seems designed to appeal to the kind of clueless management that will dictate Asana to his subordinate teams while being too high up the chain to actually use it (classic Enterprise software problem I know). For those in the trenches, the aesthetics of a tool are all but irrelevant—once you start using the tool it's the functionality that matters and how it looks completely fades into the background.

awakeasleep 11y ago

Yeah man! I'm repulsed by all software that tries to have an attitude. People with attitudes are cool when they keep themselves fresh and upredictable, and adapt to the feedback they get. When 'attitude' is repetitive or predictable, or doesn't heed it's feedback, it becomes a horribly grating gimic. I want my computers to be computer-like. Predictable, flavorless tools that give feedback in terms of 'success' or 'error' only. I don't want a virual personal assistant that tries to cover its lack of functionality with 'personality'. I don't want my activity monitor to encourage me to reach 'goals' it set. I don't want my project management software to include rewards- how fucking patronizing is that? The reward is the project that I'm working on! Not a color splash or smiley face in the glorified checklist I'm using! Let's transplant an Asimov robot's (lack of) personality into my phone and rm -r /Siri/