As we start looking ahead at Mautic v3 now is the right time to start discussing what the new UI should look like for this version. Just as a reminder version 3 is a major version release which means we have the opportunity if necessary to break backwards compatibility. This is one of our big releases which means are looking to revamp the UI and UX for Mautic and make sure we continue to show everyone else what modern marketing automation should look like.
As a first step in that process I am creating this forum topic where we can begin to discuss those ideas and debate them. Let’s do this!
Overall, I love the core Mautic theme in V2, but here’s some low hanging fruit for V3:
Mautibot: Hide him. It’s great to have a mascot, but he’s not the most professional looking bloke. Maybe make him optional? At some point in the super-future it’d be great to have video embeds in these “helper” locations to explain features to new users… but I digress.
White Label: Allow minimal white labeling. Allow one to upload a logo, select one of a handful of compiled color schemes, and drop in some overriding CSS for the truly picky. I suspect this will increase adoption rates for those that care very deeply about their personal brand. We should expect the target demo to want some window dressing to help sell the platform to their bosses.
Campaign Editor: This is Mautic’s killer feature in my opinion, so it needs special TLC. Take a look at how Google has revamped their Calendar, and compare how outdated their old theme looks (with thin lines and excessive white). Thicker lines to connect items in the workflow would be more appealing. The boxes should also be a solid colored backgrounds with white text predominantly. A “snap to grid” option here should be added as well. I like how the campaign preview has labels identifying the types of actions. Let’s make things more consistent by bringing those into the builder as well (but not with uppercasing, and perhaps on hover).
Side Navigation: The side nav bar could be a little thinner when expanded, bump the font size up a little as well. When the sidebar is collapsed make the icons scale up to be more visible. With transitional smoothing applied this looks quite nice and a tiny bit easier to jump in to.
I second all of what Heath and Joan said. I would also like to see more out of the box functionality when it comes to relating a contact with a company. Right now it only shows this contact is in this company or this company has this many contacts in it.
I would like the ability to be able to change something in the contact and the company at the same time in the same place. I’m sure this could be done by having the ability to create a custom field for the Contact object AND the Company object together. Not just for the Contact OR the Company (like it is now). I could create a custom field related to both of them and then when I change something in one of them, for example, change the “Status”(custom field name) on a Contact it will then reflect the same in the Company.
Here is an example of what I do now:
I have a custom field called “Status” and a data type called “Closed Won” under the “Company” object and then I have a custom field called “Status” and a data type called “Closed Won”, under the “Contact” object. When a contact becomes our customer I have to change the “Status” on both, plus I have to change the “Status” on all of the other contacts associated with that company.
Here is how I would use it:
If I was able to change the “Status” for every contact under that company to “Closed Won” by ONLY changing the stage in the company, that would save tons of time. See where I’m going with this? This could be a huge feature to add to the Custom Fields area.
I think debating design possibilities is so subjective that it is pointless.
What we need is a templating system that would allow for any and all present and future tweaks, as well as for community produced templates of all sorts.
oh also, CMIIW i think mautic should start decoupling things from the core, i suggest mautic to decouple the UI application, the API, and the woker application ( like for instance worker to send the message) so it will be easier in the future to make some changes and scale the application
What are we discussing? UX principles or color schemes? I think both of this would be pointless. Ask a good designer to make the look state-of-the-art if you really want to change anything.
For me the Mautic GUI / look-and-feel is fine. Of course, solutions like MailChimp look more stylish. But these solutions have another approach than Mautic: simplicity. With Mautic you can do and modify at so many places and the GUI reflects it.
I think there is a few must considerations for the new release to address GDPR and privacy design in mind if Mautic is to continue to be used anywhere in Europe legally after the 31st of May.
DISCLAIMER: The information given below is NOT a legal advise and I hold no responsibility if anyone decides to use such information. By continuing to read this post, you confirm and agree that its your own responsibility to seek legal advise to become compliant and agree that the information in this post maybe incorrect or incomplete and is non-binding . Each person is required to seek their own legal advise to ensure compliance
There are few points that can assist mautic admins to become compliant if they utilised the features correctly.
Right to opt out of cookie tracking - this means each contact can opt out from being tracked.
Right to be forgotten - the ability for admin to mark someone on the system to be forgotten which will wipe and hash all their information in the database.
Database encryption at rest. Any personal data need to be encrypted when at rest so in case a breach happens, the database that is retrieved wouldn’t compromise the user information. This can be done by public/private key unlock mechanism so when you login the data would be de-crypted and can be viewed. Other than that, the un-encrypted public data that is used for tracking should not identify the user.
Probably as important to set IP restriction on the backend so only admins within the IP/IP range or country can access the backend. I tried doing that on a server level but unfortunately many things will stop working including APIs and trackable URls. So this need to be done probably within the admin.
The rest of the requirement can be done properly with existing mautic features (i.e. double optin, etc…) but the above from our experience needs addressing.
The penalty for any business that don’t follow is up to €10 million or 2% of annual global turnover of the previous year, whichever is higher. That with a company just being reported for being non-compliant. If there is an actual breach, they have to face public humiliation if there data was not encrypted, and to pay ontop of the penalty, to pay compensation to the victims that their data has been exposed.
Its really a big thing that everyone in Europe here are preparing for by the 31st of May including email providers… I am happy to help with any info in regards to the compliance - but to save you the time, the above points are the primary points that affect mautic from GDPR perspective which may make it non-compliant from my perspective. …
DISCLAIMER: The information given above is NOT a legal advise and I hold no responsibility if anyone decides to use such information. By continuing to read this post, you confirm and agree that its your own responsibility to seek legal advise to become compliant and agree that the information in this post maybe incorrect or incomplete and is non-binding . Each person is required to seek their own legal advise to ensure compliance
How about Adwords and Facebook Ads API so we can connect Mautic to ad accounts for viewing and reporting in Mautic. We would still need to create ad campaigns in Google’s and Facebooks’s UIs, but other mktg. automation systems allow connection to those accounts via API to pull data for reporting.
Modify Twitter plugin/social monitoring so when selecting a monitor by hashtag or mention, we user can also specify a geo area. We may want to capture profiles only with a certain geo. I believe the Twitter API allows GEO specification.
How about a way to throttle Tweet campaigns, like max. to send per hour.
Presently perhaps a common use case is to use Social Monitoring to capture Twitter users then Tweet to them. But without a way to throttle, Twitter quickly detects rules violation and restricts the app from performing write operations.
Fixed position for save/cancel buttons in builders.
Use sliders for switching contexts like in Google Tag Manager, rather than poping up a window. I am expecially thing about when you click “Edit email” from the Send Email action in a campaign.
List : contacts/companies : Let user configure what columns is shows and how it’s sorted
Improve search feature used in all tables, allow filtering easily by category
