Disappointing "updates" - Asana & Todoist

Posted by Ken
Oct 6, 2015 at 04:58 PM

Well, it appears that Asana was not content enough to just release some minor updates. They recently released a whole new look, including, you guessed it, a new logo. I am still wading through their changes, but it seems that the FOTM is certainly bright tropical colors and radio button checkboxes, a la Todoist. While I am generally content with very basic (muted) colors for my software, I do not mind some freshening up, but unfortunately the contrast has been dramatically reduced in Asana’s left column. They decided to color the column a darker shade of blue, but the font color is not a true white, and is not nearly as easy to see. Some folks have called this issue out, but it seems like a rash of defenders has come to the defense of Asana and their changes. It is a shame that intelligent discussion about the pros and cons of changes cannot be easily had in their forums since this was an easy issue to address without having to dial back the entire update. One thought that did cross my mind as I was looking at their new icon/logo on my phone, some companies like Wordpress (whose app site near Asana and Todoist on my phone) seem to do just fine with their updates without needing to reinvent their brand and write long blog posts about the rebranding process. A bit too much sizzle for my tastes, even if the steak has been improved.

—Ken