Google Apps User Profiles: Providing a Better Experience
February 13, 2013
2 minute read
When it comes to creating, editing and browsing user profiles in Google Apps, the Control Panel leaves a lot to be desired.
Administrators lack the ability to add custom fields to user profiles like ‘Manager’ or even ‘Title,’ add and remove users to and from groups in bulk, bulk edit contact details and profile pictures and much much more.
And without the help of a third party tool, those additional contact fields are not surfaced in the end user ‘Directory.” The native directory is also difficult to navigate since it requires a user to click on a contact’s name to view more details – slowing down the browsing experience.
To remedy the disparities, we built granular user profile editing capabilities and a robust directory search tool into FlashPanel. And now, to provide an even better operating experience, we’ve updated the look and feel of the application’s corporate directory and user detail pages.
New User Profile View from an Admin’s Perspective
To start, Google Apps admins will notice that the Google Groups section of the user profile is far more intuitive and easier to page through. We now surface up to 100 groups at a time.
You’ll also notice that user profile editing is now inline, meaning edits can be made much faster!
New User Profile View for End-Users
End users will notice a much more powerful experience when browsing the corporate directory. When users click on a colleague’s name, vital stats pop up on the right hand side. This saves time and the trouble of navigating to each individual user page to view user details.
But wait, there’s more!
While we were redoing the look and feel of user profiles and the corporate directory, we also added new menus to make navigating FlashPanel easier. We know there are dozens of features in FlashPanel and it’s sometimes difficult just to discover every aspect of the application!
So to make the discovery and navigation process easier, we’ve built dynamic dropdown menus for every portion of the product.
What do you think of these changes? Let us know in the comments section.
