So Homey just turned 10 and they promised they are building a dashboard soon, when Home Assistant turned 10, they changed their logo and promised a better user experience coming soon. What should Hubitat deliver by their 10th year anniversary other than promises of a brighter future?
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For me, HE needs to keep enhancing their dashboards. Great leaps have occured in the last month or so but it's still lacking compared to the functionality l, look and feel of HA. Everything else is absolutely fabulous and thank you!
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On the upside, Hubitat has always had dashboards 
That said, things are certainly improving. I just hope people understand that the new dashboard is just a start... It will continually be improved.
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I think the EZ Dashboard is great and just needs a few tweaks to really take over, but by far I think is a major, major, overhaul of the UI. The new look they added for buttons with that grid look was a big step, but a lot of the terminology (like "add capabilities") is confusing, when you need to click on the background before you progress, and trying to edit complex rules in RM is a pain everyone bemoans. Even the power users here mention that time and again (not to mention virtually any YouTube review I've ever seen of Hubitat - which is where many, if not most, people considering Hubitat will look).
And that is where the new Visual Builder comes in (what I think others call a Flow). I 1,000% firmly feel that Hubitat is making a major, and possibly fatal, mistake if they think that is just for newbies/simple rules. The Basic controllers, aren't terrible and the Visual Builder is a great step forward, but the have to, have to, have to, add If/Then/Else branching and While and For Loops, etc. That would make the power that is now in Rule Machine vastly more accessible to everyone.
I get that it was much easier to come out with the Visual Builder being limited as it is in order to be sure that part is working well, and to make what will almost certainly be a few needed tweaks, but limiting it to that won't help the people that find SmartThings/Alexa/Google too limited and Home Assistant too complicated and RM, to borrow from Churchill, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
Hubitat has always aimed at being the Goldilocks of hubs and finding the sweet spot between the two, which, at least for me, is why I chose it. Considering how many rave about Code Red, and now Homey Pro, it seems this is the way "programming" the smart home is going. I hope Hubitat jumps fully on-board and provides branching/looping to the Visual Builder.
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Absolutely! We're confident that staff have a good ear and heed customer feedback. The team deliver!
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Continued steady progression as the home automation protocol landscape evolves. A mature stable business that rewards the founders and continues forward embracing the contributions of capable enthusiastic developers.
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I also understand why many companies, like Hubitat, don't want to announce future plans as everyone wants to then know when it is coming out, and it could hurt sales now for something that may not be out in many months. However, they only thing I've seen stated about the Visual Builder is that it is just for newbies/simple apps. In this case I would like to see Hubitat make an exception and say that the Visual Builder for now is just for that and they intend to eventually bring branching, (IF/Then/Else, AND/Or), looping (For/While), etc. to it.
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They don't announce a roadmap for anything as things could change and then you have more aggravated users over something that was expected and discarded. This has been explained many times.
Another thing with Visual rules like simple rules is bloat and feature creep. Visual rules are a basic rule system. Once it becomes bloated it starts becoming problematic. You want simple? Use Basic rules or Visual Rules. Anything more complicated you should be using RM or Webcore.
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This! This! This!
i still don't use RM. It's an amazing piece of work but it's just too complicated and a nightmare to move around and/or edit anything.
I really like webcore but won't use that either since you have to use the web to create/edit pistons and I'm not setting up an additional Pi just to make them local.
If node-red was built into the hub, I would use it in a second... but it's not.
Visual Builder is the way to go! Just need to add a toggle Beginner/Advanced switch. Best of both worlds.
TLDR;
- Make the UI better.
- Easier to create rules
- Have fun!
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100% agree!
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Another thing with Visual rules like simple rules is bloat and feature creep. Visual rules are a basic
rule system. Once it becomes bloated it starts becoming problematic. You want simple? Use Basic
rules or Visual Rules. Anything more complicated you should be using RM or Webcore.
Just like there are Basic Rules and RM, there could be Basic Visual Builder and Advanced/Power Visual Builder. As Hubitat has already shown us you can have both.
Even with node red, you have tags for basic and you have to switch to scripting for advanced
Dashboard Drag and Dr..... oh hang on....
Visual Rules Desig.... hmmmm....
A vibrant Community tha..... that's right....
Just continue as per normal thanks... 
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I've got it.... a Community driven mechanism to deliver custom drivers and apps.... Oh.... that's right....
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It is my perception that approximately 80%-90% of all Home Automation, (in a typical home) can be accomplished through the use of Basic Rules. On most of my clients, it's what I use the most. Strangely enough, the most appealing feature that it has, is the ease with which clients can understand what's going on in the Basic Rules.
When I first looked at the "flows" of a major competitor (It seems they all start with "H"), I said to myself that "Basic Rules" could be easily translated into a visual perspective. Basic Rules are relatively simple, yet powerful. They are also very "deterministic" - i.e. I certainly believe that it's possible to make a flow chart of the entire Basic Rules.
But they decided to do something else. They decided to implement that visual perspective on another way of perceiving Home Automation.
Of course, what they have done is a great step forward, and will allow them to position the product well in the marketplace. And, of course, there is much more coming in this format.
My hope is that in the future, they continue to expand the "visual perspective", and change Basic Rules to that format.
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That's it.... a cloud-hosted automation solution.... oh.... That's right....the whole local and cloud hosted thing.... Hmmmm....
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I'm a Zigbee fanboy and would like to see some 
for it.
Z-Wave got its LR, Matter got its implementation... Zigbee improvements seems a bit like an afterthought. Sure, we got 3.0 in C-8, but mostly with the name - I'm still waiting for things like Zigbee Green Power and Zigbee Install Codes to see the day light, but starting to lose heart. Also, the well-known pairing issue with IKEA battery-powered devices still irks me every time I have to add a new device.
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I've got it.... They should support the newest and greatest protocol that people are talking ab.... oh great....
I guess the 10 year anniversary is going to be a pretty uneventful period.... I guess they will just need to ring out a new hub.... I wonder what it will include....
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Matter sucks...lol At least for now... Doesn't matter (no pun intended) what platform it is
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I may be a bit fuzzy on this, but i think that was even stated when Basic Rules was released. and I agree the majority of people can do the vast majority of what they want to do that way. It's just us weirdos that seem to want to cram as much into a rule and make it as complex as possible! Hahaha.
When it was originally introduced in Beta, the visual rule builder was stated to be exactly that visual version of basic rules. even the name (if I recall correctly) was changed from basic rule 2.0 because it was thought it would be too easily confused.
It encourages me, and I would really like to use it, but it's a little TOO basic. A simple rule I currently have: At sunset turn X switch on, then turn off at sunrise can't be done in one flow (that I have been able to figure out) requires two separate flows. However I know it's very new in its development and more features and capabilities will come with time, so I can be patient and continue to use Rule Machine, Room Lighting and Basic rules in the meantime.
