This week we replaced the app you use to run your shop with Sinan. The old one grew a screen at a time. The new one starts from a single question: what does the owner need to see first, and what can wait?
Here is what changed, what it means day to day, and where we're still working.
Home: what needs you comes first
Open the app and the first thing on Home is Needs you: your pending decisions as a stack of cards. A customer asking for a refund, an order waiting to be confirmed, anything Sinan is not allowed to do alone. Tap a card and a sheet opens with the details and your choices. Your answer goes straight to the server and takes effect, so you don't have to approve something on the phone and then check again on the computer.
This is the core of how Sinan works. It never acts alone on anything that can't be undone: refunds, cancellations and the like wait for your tap. That only works if the tap is quick to find and easy to make, so we put it at the top.
Home also shows your numbers for the day and buttons for your briefing.
Inbox: sorted, and with your handovers
The Inbox is split into All, Requests, Reports and Notes, so a report from Sinan doesn't get lost among requests that need an answer. When a message is about a decision, Open the decision takes you straight to it.
When Sinan hands a customer over to you, because they asked for a person or because it reached the edge of what it may do, that conversation now shows up in your Inbox. Once you've dealt with it, you close it there.
Sinan: talk, type or attach
The Sinan tab is where you talk to Sinan. You can type, attach a file, or tap the microphone in the header to talk out loud. The live conversation stays open while you do. You can also pick how Sinan sounds: Calm, Crisp or Warm, from the Language sheet.
A small thing we were asked for: the box you type in now grows with your message, up to six lines, then scrolls. Enter sends, Shift+Enter starts a new line.
Business: your orders, your team, your plan
The Business tab has your Orders list. Tap an order to see the full order sheet. It follows the way your business works, so a shop with pickup doesn't see fields that only make sense for shipping, and empty rows are hidden. From an order you can send a receipt: Sinan drafts the email for you to look at first.
New orders and new customers show up on screen as they come in, without a reload.
The Business tab also has a conversations meter showing how much of your plan's allowance you have used, and the departments Sinan runs for you, with their real settings, roles and rules.
More: your rules and your plan
Under More you'll find your plan, how to reach us, and log-out. Your rules are there too. The Always you list, meaning the things that always wait for you whatever else you allow, now sits above your order limit, because it's the more important of the two.
Only your data, and no made-up numbers
During the rebuild we were strict about one thing: everything on screen comes from your own business. The design came with sample figures, sample plan prices and sample team sizes, and we went through every screen and removed them. If a number isn't on record, the app doesn't invent one. We also removed the old demo account.
The same goes for buttons. A control either works or tells you plainly that it doesn't yet. We didn't want buttons that look like they did something and didn't.
On your computer too
The same app runs on a computer as the Workspace, with the same data and the same decisions. If you sign in to the old Workspace on a computer, you're taken to the new one. The app's own words are in English, French and German.
Signing in
If you forget your password, Forgot your password? on the sign-in screen now sends you a reset link. Create an account stays hidden, because new accounts are still by invitation only.
What isn't finished
This is a big change to a screen you use every day, and we'll keep fixing things as you find them. If a control says it can't do something yet, that's on purpose: it's telling you the truth while we finish it. If something looks wrong, or a number doesn't match what you expect, tell us. That's the fastest way for us to fix it.