PlanPlus Online has gone through some major transformations of the user interface in the past year. In fact, this is not the first time we’ve revamped the UI, and it will not be the last time. We’re constantly improving your product, and the timeless principles of good time management and user interface best practices continue to evolve.
We’d like to share with you our ultimate guide to the history of PlanPlus Online’s user interface. Join us as we take a look back at few screenshots from previous versions of the software…
In Q3 2015 we announced one of our most significant changes in years to the interface, something we called “Aurora” because it marked a beautiful new beginning to productivity, just like the literary definition of aurora (“the dawn”).
New PlanPlus User Interface (Q3 2015)
The Aurora interface includes:
- A new search bar
- A new menu
- A new auto-sizing logo (customizable with your organization’s logo in the business edition)
- A new mini-calendar
- New icons on the task list and calendar
Here’s how the Aurora interface compares to PlanPlus Online UI in 2013:
New PlanPlus User Interface (circa 2013)
You can see that we’ve added more color, simplified the fonts and brightened up the overall UI a bit.
PlanPlus Online UI (circa 2011)
Stepping back further to 2011, you can see the UI was mostly unchanged but didn’t have the darker menubar.
So what’s so good about Aurora’s UI?Â
Aurora was a complete overhaul in the UI. More than just “flattening” some elements and changing the fonts, Aurora focuses on usability as well as attractiveness.
- Colors as compasses. The Color-specific user interface gives clues as to what the page is all about. In this screen, the view selector is now most prominent UI component.
- Filters have reduced font size to better fit more selected filters.
- The sort column now has different color from view selector so as not to compete visually (see the screenshot below to see how this used to be.)
- The view count color is now an unobtrusive grey.
The old summary page Interface, which shows how certain elements competed for attention and hierarchy by having the same color.
New Organization/Contact Detail Page
Our organization and contact detail page got a revamp, too:
- More modern UI for buttons and tabs
- Larger font sizes for input fields
- Click-to dial-phone numbers for browsers and devices with phone functionality
- Phones & addresses display the contact’s time zone
Old Organization/Contact Detail Page
 It’s Just a Login Page
New Login Page Interface
…but the new login page is a lot prettier than the old one. As nice as it is, we hope you only have to see it once. To get your auto-login set up, see the instructions here.
If you do visit the login page frequently, be sure to check out the version number in the bottom left corner, next to the Aurora logo. You can always read the release notes for the latest version on our blog here.
Here’s the old login page interface
And that’s a wrap. What do you like about PlanPlus Online’s UI evolution? Do you have any suggestions? Let us know in the comments below.
