Will Microsoft's new "your teams and channels" view in Microsoft Teams help manage the overwhelming number of teams, channels, and notifications, or does it highlight a poorly designed user experience?
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Summary
Microsoft Teams can be overwhelming for employees, with many teams, channels, and notifications to keep track of. Will Microsoft’s new “your teams and channels” view help ease this feeling, or does the vendor’s new feature emphasize a poorly designed user experience?
If you can’t fix it, feature it
Despite all the best intentions, Teams can grow too rapidly without proper user guidance and spiral out of control with channels packed with documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and chats.
Microsoft Teams offers various notification settings for users to customize how and when they receive alerts, including a “do not disturb” mode and quiet hours feature. However, to reduce the information overload problem in Teams, Microsoft appears to be creating a Teams management feature to help users cope with the complexities of multiple channels. The vendor is introducing a new “your teams and channels” view that will serve as a centralized hub for users to see all their teams and navigate to their channels from one page.
Apparently, Microsoft has designed this interface to streamline workflows, allowing users to access and manage their teams and channels quickly. Additionally, users can filter, sort, and pin teams and channels according to their preferences and priorities. This feature is part of the Microsoft Roadmap Feature ID: 411779 and is expected to roll out in October 2024.
Microsoft seems to have acknowledged that having multiple teams and channels can create significant user challenges. Indeed, users can get overwhelmed by the numerous notifications, messages, and files they must manage within Teams, the ever-growing sites and channels they get added to, the duplication of content, and underutilized channels. They might also have difficulty finding the necessary information or staying focused on their tasks. This can lead to technology-related anxiety, frustration, and communication overload, which affects employee well-being, productivity, and performance.
Will a “Your Teams and Channels” feature help solve a complex user interface?
The new “Your Teams and Channels” feature is designed to help employees organize and prioritize their teams and channels for improved usability. However, for these features to be effective, it is essential to ensure proper user adoption and understanding. Organizations using Office 365 tools should establish clear expectations and guidelines for communication within Teams to ensure effective use.
This new Teams feature highlights a broader issue with the Office 365 suite. Office 365 can feel like an overly complex mix of tools with overlapping features and functionality. If IT adopts Office 365 in an undisciplined way, it can create confusion and hinder employee productivity. Users may struggle to decide when to use Teams versus other applications like Outlook, SharePoint, Microsoft Loop, Microsoft Whiteboard, Planner, OneNote, or Viva Engage (previously known as Yammer). While “Your Teams and Channels” may help users manage the complexities of Microsoft Teams, other apps and services within the Microsoft Office portfolio can still create information overload and excessive notifications.
The success of new software tools relies on user awareness, adoption, and proper usage. Integrating these tools into existing workflows and providing adequate training is crucial. Alternatively, enterprises might consider a carefully curated and integrated platform developed by a vendor that prioritizes usability. Enterprises face sunken costs, technology debt, and shadow IT issues without carefully selecting easy-to-use communication and collaboration tools. Enterprises should carefully evaluate the benefits of adopting new tools and platforms versus the risks of maintaining existing ones.
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Author
Tim Banting, Practice Leader, Digital Workplace