Atlassian Launches New Trello

Trello Unveils Major Update with New Views and Enhanced Card Functionality

Trello, the project management application centered around Kanban boards and acquired by Atlassian in 2017, has recently launched a significant update. This release represents one of the most substantial advancements for the platform in recent years.

A Widely Adopted Project Management Solution

Boasting a user base exceeding 50 million, Trello has become a leading project management tool. It played a key role in popularizing digital Kanban boards. The core Kanban functionality remains central to the platform, but the latest update introduces a variety of new board views and expanded capabilities for individual cards.

A primary focus of this update is integrating data from external applications directly into Trello cards. These changes are accompanied by refinements to the service’s overall user interface and aesthetic design.

Adapting to the Evolving Landscape of Work

“Over time, we’ve cultivated a large and dedicated user base,” stated Michael Pryor, Trello’s co-founder and now Atlassian’s head of Trello, prior to the announcement. “We’ve surpassed 50 million signups – a figure from 2018, as we haven’t yet been authorized to release the current number.”

He continued, “Last year, with the onset of the pandemic, discussions about the future of work intensified. Suddenly, remote work became the norm, compressing years of anticipated changes into a single moment. The proliferation of applications and the resulting information overload, previously discussed, were dramatically amplified.”

Enhancing Collaboration and Visibility

The impetus behind these new features was to streamline workflows within Trello. The goal is to provide users with a more comprehensive understanding of team progress, both within individual teams and across the entire organization. Furthermore, the update facilitates the seamless integration of data from other tools directly into the Trello interface, eliminating the need for constant application switching.

Image Credits: Atlassian

Introducing Five New Board Views

Trello is introducing five new views, offering users the flexibility to switch between them easily:

Team Table View: Enables tracking of work across companies or projects in a spreadsheet-like format.
Timeline View: Facilitates roadblock management and data adjustments.
Calendar View: Provides a visual representation of deadlines and time-sensitive tasks.
Map View: Designed for projects with location-based components.
Dashboard View: Offers improved visualization of key metrics and report generation.

The team table view is particularly noteworthy as Trello’s first view to incorporate data from multiple boards.

Expanding Perspectives and Future Development

“This view elevates your perspective to the portfolio level, rather than being limited to a single board,” Pryor explained. “Our intention is for all views to eventually offer this capability, allowing users to analyze cards based on project context and individual needs.” The team aimed to leverage and extend Trello’s established visual language to create these shared perspectives.

Trello also intends to allow third-party developers to create their own custom views, further expanding the platform’s functionality. The Trello team has already developed a slide view that automatically generates slides from project cards for easy presentation purposes.

Image Credits: Atlassian

Enhanced Card Functionality with Expanded Integrations

Pryor emphasized the importance of the updates to Trello’s cards. The team is adding over 30 new card types that allow users to preview content from linked URLs, including those pointing to YouTube, Google Drive, Figma, JIRA, and other Trello boards, directly within Trello.

“This enhancement transforms the card from a simple element within Trello into a representation of work happening across various tools,” Pryor stated. “Jira tickets can now coexist with Trello cards, enabling categorization, tracking, and discussion independent of Jira itself, while maintaining connectivity and consolidating work into a single location.”

Image Credits: Atlassian

Focus on Simplicity and User Experience

Pryor highlighted the team’s commitment to preserving Trello’s simplicity and visual appeal while extending its capabilities. “We deliberately avoided entering a feature race focused solely on project management functionalities,” he said. The goal is to position Trello as a comprehensive application for managing all projects, rather than simply adding features that could lead to bloat.

Instead, the team aims to expand upon the existing card metaphor, empowering users to build custom solutions within Trello using a familiar visual interface.

Mirror Cards for Seamless Collaboration

A highly anticipated feature, mirror cards, is also nearing release. This functionality allows users to share the same card between multiple boards. By linking a source card to a card on another board, the new card will mirror the original card’s content and appearance.