I thought one flexible dashboard was enough. User feedback changed my mind.
I started blockmade thinking one flexible screen would be enough: put the pieces you need on a dashboard, then let people shape it as they go.
User feedback showed me the problem. As I added more functions, that screen became too long to scan. The flexibility also asked people to make too many choices up front.
So I changed the structure to Box → Plate → Block: start from a complete Box, move between focused Plates, and edit the Blocks inside them.
I used workforce management as a concrete demo, with separate Plates for Overview, Attendance, Timesheets, Leave, and Payroll estimate. Changes in Attendance carry through to Timesheets and the payroll estimate. CSV import/export is available too.
This is a working demo, not a finished workforce or payroll product. I’m testing whether this structure makes a useful workflow easier to start and edit.
If you were considering a workflow like this, what would need to change before you’d actually use it? What missing piece or awkward step would stop you?
Thanks for writing this up. Bookmarking it for later.
Interesting. How are you measuring whether it is working?
Clear and practical, thanks. Did anything surprise you along the way?
Good write-up. What would you do differently if you started again?
Helpful post. How did you get your first bit of traction?
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
Clear and practical, thanks. Did anything surprise you along the way?
Really relatable. How much time do you put into this each week?
Curious how long it took before you saw the first real results?
Interesting. How are you measuring whether it is working?
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
Great breakdown. What feedback have you had from early users?
This is useful. How are you finding your first users so far?
Helpful post. How did you get your first bit of traction?
Interesting take. Would you still recommend this approach to someone starting today?
Appreciate the honesty here, most people only share the wins.
Appreciate the honesty here, most people only share the wins.
Appreciate the honesty here, most people only share the wins.
Really solid approach — curious how you're thinking about this, what's been the hardest part to figure out so far?
The hardest part has been making flexibility easy to understand.
A flexible tool can sound powerful, but if people have to learn the system before they can do anything useful, that flexibility becomes friction. I’m trying to make the first useful action much more obvious.
With the new Box → Plate → Block structure, what user behavior would show the reduced choice load is working—starting a workflow faster, completing more steps, or returning to edit it?
At this stage, I’m mainly looking at whether the new structure helps people understand what to do first and make a real edit without too much hesitation.
Completion and repeat usage are important too, but I see those as separate questions. First I want to know whether the initial path itself is clear enough.
That gives you a clean first-stage test. Could be useful to keep comparing notes by email as that data comes in, if you’re open to it.
Thanks, I appreciate that. I’d like to keep the discussion here so others can add their perspective too. Since this is meant to be a first-stage test, where would you expect someone to hesitate even after the next action is clear?