Create a Dedicated Pane for the Inbox

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I’ve seen a number of different valuable suggestions regarding the inbox:

However, while these suggestions would go a long way to making the content within the Asana inbox more feature-rich and noticeable, it doesn’t address the underlying problem of the inbox being an entirely-separate component of the application ― and, therefore, seemingly-inaccessible (i.e., out-of-sight, out-of-mind).

What I would propose would be the addition of a dedicated pane in much the same way that team/project navigation is currently offered on the very left of the app.

Many of my colleagues don’t necessarily want email notifications re: task/project updates coming from Asana ― they get enough email as it is ― but they don’t feel comfortable disabling those email notifications because the Asana inbox doesn’t grab your attention the way that it should. Specifically, the way any inbox should (see related threads above).

That said, I think it would make sense to eradicate some of the white space in and/or between panes (while I do love the backgrounds that are offered, I never really get to see all of it anyway) and use that space to give the inbox a dedicated presence. Here’s how I picture that working (forgive the crude mockup):

Asana-Mockup
Asana-Mockup1781×803 133 KB

I want to have all ‘work’ exist in Asana ― and I think plenty of others would, too ― as opposed to that work being scattered across dozens of users’ inboxes. Unfortunately, it’s hard to convince people to make that leap if they know that [a] they’ll have to jump around from inbox-to-projects/tasks, [b] there’s no way for them to get up-to-date notifications on everything (cough Push Notifications at 'Due Time' cough), and [c] they may miss more urgent comments/questions from their colleagues.

Giving the inbox a dedicated presence would go a long way to addressing many of the issues alluded to here in these forums.

I want to get rid of the traditional inbox (Office 365, Gmail, etc.) so bad. :slight_smile:

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@Jason, as much as I completely agree with the sentiment (inbox doesn’t have a ‘presence’) my personal opinion is that another pane may make it feel overly cramped. Perhaps rather have a line in the left hand pane that says ‘inbox’ (or even just leave it where it is) and just like in my mail app a number showing how many new items have appeared since I last looked at them. Once I’ve read / actioned/ archived the number goes down. Or perhaps it might be possible to add the ‘number’ to the project in the left pane? So that you know something has specifically happened in that project?

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I get that. That’s a valid point re: the potential for crowding. I do, however, know that something is lacking, awareness-wise / notification-wise. The inbox is such a critical part of the overall process.

Thanks for the response. I’d love to hear more ideas about how awareness of updates can be improved (and I genuinely think Asana would love to see those ideas, too).

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I find funny that Asana self promotes as a way to free your email inbox, while needs itself to rely on emails to notice important things.

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In my opinion this is all about personal “training” and habits. Make it a habit to check your Asana Inbox when needed, and you will be fine. Your email inbox will be empty and you will feel so good :slight_smile:

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I manage a 8 people team, working on more than 100 projects at the same time. I check inbox multiple times a day. The problem is that there is no sorting or filtering capability. You understand this is ends in continuous alerts coming from different projects. You cannot focus your attention to multiple projects at the same time.

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