As someone who joined close to the inception of Hubitat, personally it feels like last 6-12 months have seen the most significant shift in UI/UX in that time, taking into consideration other significant shifts that have also occurred prior to this period.
So what do other people like / dislike, feel in-different about? Primarily we've seen:
EZ Dashboards
Drag and Drop across both dashboard offerings
Visual Rule Builder
A new mobile offering in both Apple and Android
Personally, I am torn, I am largely ambivalent (but mostly positive) to these changes, not impacting my day-to-day interaction with the platform, but being equally positive about these change as they progress the platform for the broader user-base and make things easier for new users.
Essentially the same for me, but I can still see a positive in that the platform is progressing and that others will benefit from the improvements being made.
And in the end, that's ok as well, not all improvement meets what everyone needs, including me, but was curious what recent developments may have added to other peoples experience,
Exactly. What others may have found useful could surprise or inform my use of the mobile app, dashboards, or other apps, which I was not aware of, regardless of my involvement in the beta program, albeit somewhat limited.
Personally, I think all of the changes are great for the platform even if the only thing I use is the updated app. Hubitat has a strong base and is extremely powerful, but it can also be very hard for new users to grasp its concepts. The same thing can be said for other home automation systems like Home Assistant. Building out tools that make the platform more inviting to new users is 100% the direction that is needed even if the vast majority of folks already here do not need or use them.
I find this be particularly true of EZ dashboards and Visual Rule Builder. Neither of these things are things that I use, but there will be new users who do like/prefer them and that's great for the company. Having more options is never really a bad thing as some folks prefer different things than what I prefer, which is great.
"...having or showing an unselfish concern for the welfare of others..."
Surely it's a good thing for a company to be concerned about it's users. If a new UI helps to appeal to the masses - more money in the company's pockets too. Altruistic? Not sure about that.
Regardless of the intentions/motivation, progress is a good thing (even though I won't be using it).
I think Hubitat has always positioned itself as the Goldilocks hub being more powerful than SmartThings but easier to use/maintain then home assistant, Home Assistant, HOME ASSISTANT (as Paul Hibbirt might say :-)), which I agree with, and why I went with Hubitat. I think the "table" overhaul for rules is better than it had been. I also think the new dashboards and visual rule builder ("VRB") are a good start and a big step forward.
As I posted elsewhere, I think it would be a major mistake though to not add, at least a bit more power to both, particularly the VRB. Maybe it would never be Rule Machine ("RM") (and I hope they keep RM for those who prefer a more programming like UI vs dragging and dropping flow cards), but adding some basic IF/ELSE/THEN and While loops, etc. would be a major step in making it much easier for a whole lot of people to tap the power of Hubitat - both for the basic user and the Home Assistant users who have grown tired of the constant tinkering they need to maintain it (which leads to a decrease in the spouse approval factor).
I agree. Hubitat has probably 80% of the capability of Home Assistant with far less pain and effort. Nowadays, I just want to have things work, and the hours of fooling around with stuff just seems to annoy me. There are so many other things going on in my life, I don't need yet another set of annoyances.
I just said this in another thread, things like Echo Speaks are wonderful, but futzing around with it constantly put me off of using it. Even that level of interaction with an app that is mostly used to announce the washing machine is done is just too much for me right now. Simpler is better in many cases.
When you get out of the wheelhouse of Hubitat, I'm going to say Z-wave and Zigbee, and into automations that depend on others, you are more prone to be living in Futzville, at least periodically.
I certainly agree. I spun up Home Assistant, and thought at the time I may transition away at least partially. Way to much tinkering for me. Pretty much all I'm using it for is to bring some devices (primarily my litter robot) into habitat that I wouldn't be able to otherwise.
