Share your thoughts on the new On-Object Interaction feature (preview)

[RosieL]

Hit Reply to tell us what you think about the new On-Object Interaction feature so we can continue to improve.

For example:

• What changes would you like to see?
• If you turned off the preview switch, why?
• Any suggestions for addititional settings or capabilities?

Thanks,

-Power BI team

To read more about the feature, see the announcement in the Power BI Product Blog or our documentation on how to Use on-object interaction

FAQs:

• Q: How can I open multiple panes at once?
  • A: You can CTRL + click or right click on the unselected pane you wish to open and choose "Open in new pane"
• Q: Where did aggregations move to?
  • A: It's still on right click of a field, or you can use the new flyout aggregations dropdown while choosing or swapping a field.
• Q: Where did drillthrough and tooltip page setup move to?
  • A: Drillthrough is now in the page settings of the format pane under Page Information > Page type > Drillthrough or Tooltip.

[GaryC]

The silence from MS on this is deafening. The lack of any attempt to shed light on why development seems to be determinedly proceeding in the face of what seems to be overwhelming and consistent resistance from the professional users is only exacerbating the angst we're all feeling. 

[GaryC]

Ok, they answered. Not in this feed, but rather via an interview from Guy in a Cube. I mentioned this in another reply, but it is becoming apparent that the developers for this "feature" are not interested in feedback from those who don't like or want it. They have their agenda and are pressing on whether we, the ones who use it daily, like it or not. The best we seem to be able to hope for now is that they allow us to turn off this "feature" once it becomes the default. I'm betting that they will for awhile, and then begin to phase out support/development for it to force us to eventually switch.

They have to hope that we don't switch to a competator's platform. Then again, maybe they're banking on there being enough "newbies" to PBI that don't know the difference to make up for the loss of those users who can make it shine. Dollar signs for the win! 🙁

[Severofm]

Please read, analyze, think and review your response position regarding the negative feedback for this new feature. We expect objective answers as developers, we are becoming increasingly disappointed and angry. Do you want to develop something new? Think about doing something simple with a few clicks, so far we only have an increase in clicks on a visual that is only simple in your head, listen to the base if you want us to continue using and recommending Power BI, or you will see a flood of developers moved to other BIs, such as Tableau and others. We don't want that, we like Poer BI, we chose Power BI, so hear us out.

[Rudz]

This broke the silence, but did not address our concerns in the least bit:
Why On-Object Editing in Power BI??? - YouTube

The worst part is that they confirm "it will become the default experience at some point." Time to start looking at other products...

[GaryC]

It appears the MS is not interested in dissenting opinions about this feature. It will be the default whether we like it or not. Our only hope now is that they allow us to continue to turn off the "feature" once it becomes the default.

[Severofm]

I completely agree. I always respond to the survey that appears from the BI service and I always gave my rating between 8 and 10, but today the rating was 5 and the explanation I gave was precisely an attempt to put down something that nobody wants, the new On-Object. Interaction feature (preview) is the worst one yet.

[QC]

What people mean by “having a similar interface like other Microsoft products”, are actual useful functions, such as right-click Waterfall chart data column to “make total”, or on Scatter chart dots to customize color (the typical Excel right-click magic), which is non-existent in PBI today.

“On-object” is not attempting to do any of those. It merely reshuffles existing functions to many different places, making a mess with UI, while quadruple click-counts. It adds absolutely no value to users whatsoever, only big headaches.

I am not sure MS is actually listening, or just pretends to, but seriously, if you sort comments by seniority of “badge level”, you will find so much negative feedbacks from power users – a.k.a. active members of the community who have been helping average users day-in-day-out.

But why bother listen to them?

[NunyaBiz]

Of all the mistakes Microsoft has made for Power BI (and there are way too many to name), this is among the most cumbersome and least thought out.

Way to design something from a non-user perspective.

[Brunner_BI]

I appreciate your efforts in improving Power BI but for on-object formatting I really think it got harder to work.

Even though I have all the panes shown it seems like especially when trying to change the visual types it is not that intuitive and somewhat still buggy (sometimes things disappear).

[Severofm]

Without saying that more clicks are needed to perform simple functions, I'm really losing hope that this will become productive, I hope that the default mode remains, it would be much better to include some good ideas of this new feature in the default mode, and stop trying develop this new feature.

[Bella42]

Here's an idea. Why don't you scrap this fatally flawed 'feature' and put your efforts on improving the existing interface and functions. Like being able to lock individual visuals/elements on the page. Like redesigning that ridiculous Edit Interactions function (you have to move everything out of the way to turn off a buried visual, or hide and unhide. Also no way to bulk turn on or off that I can find). 
I must admit the daily barrage of negative comments for the On-object interaction 'feature' have been a source of amusement for me as people TRY to be polite but often fail. I'm not even going to try. Get rid of it. Focus on some basic issues that people have been whinging about for years. Once you get what you already have right, then maybe experiment with something new. But you are a long way from that scenario.

[andrewtuplin]

Turning off.

I would like this feature if it didn't take away the ability to also use the visual pane for adding and modifying data fields. As it is, it doesn't seem possible to do some of the things the pane allowed for (e.g. the options to show data for empty is gone). 

[Jenna4321]

I had to turn this feature off immedtiately, it completely killed my build visuals pane. I couldn't edit anything. I had to find this thread to see what I had turned on that made it so I couldn't do anything on my report: https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/Build-Visuals-pane-missing-Power-BI-Desktop/m-p/31...

[Severofm]

Note that there was a huge improvement compared to what was there before the October update, although it is still very far from becoming operational and generating any advantage compared to the current one. I also can't spend more than a few hours with this new feature enabled, I waste a lot of time and additional clicks to carry out tasks, which in my case are many and daily. Features disabled by default for me.

[GaryC]

Exactly

[elimcd79]

I am editing my comment after watching this Guy in a Cube's video on on-object editing. For those who havent watched it, it gives some insight into why Microsoft has gone this route. I can understand their logic, but don't agree with it (which I touch on below).

I understand that change requires patience and persistence (and a fair amount of frustration), so I keep turning this on hoping I can grow to like it but I rarely last more than a day before turning it off. While I do appreciate that the new on-object interaction will enable eventual improvements to the Personalize experience, as an advanced Power BI report developer, I see zero benefits to this on-object interaction functionality and many cons.

I work with fairly complex reports, with extensive grouping of objects in the selection pane and a lot of work configuring bookmarks for specific visuals, again, all via the selection pane. Thus I always have the selection pane open in addition to the formatting pane (and often the bookmarks pane open as well!). With the new on-object interaction, I know that I can use CTRL + click to open the Selection Pane in a new secondary pane ...but I can't get it to stay. As soon as I click on something else, the selection pane disappears and I'm back to one pane. This is extremely frustrating and an absolute deal breaker for me!

Any attempt to make a product easier and more intuitive for beginners shouldn't kill efficiency (and increase the likelihood of carpel tunnel from all that clicking) for more advanced users. Furthermore, while Power BI is a Microsoft product, I believe that comparing it to PowerPoint or Word is ill-advised. Power BI is far more sophisticated - and well, powerful - enabling developers to build an app-like experience. Power BI's UI for developers/report designers should reflect this, rather than trying to mimic the UI for other simpler Microsoft Office applications.

[elimcd79]

As others have mentioned, the December update is a huge relief! I've had the new UI on for more than 24 hours without major frustrations. Initially I didn't like that the collapse icon turned off/closed the panel but after giving it a bit of use, I realize I like it, because getting it back is a single click, so no different than getting it back by clicking to expand.

[leniorcortivo]

This is the kind of improvement that doesn't really give any improvement in the tool.

[Severofm]

In my opinion, there are some good ideas that can be implemented in the current standard, but this new one is anti-productive as a whole.

[GaryC]

I've tried this feature with every monthly release since February and still my basic complaint has not been resolved. It still take too many clicks to open/reopen the various menus to reach the values I want to work with. I guess it would be fine if I was only going to maybe just work on the visual formating. However, when working with editing selections and bookmarks and adjusting visuals to fit with various page changes, an extras click is required for everything. So, for a beginners interface, it may be fine, but for anyone trying to do more complex editing, it is still just as cumbersome as it has been from the beginning of this "upgrade." [Sarcasm] I'm turning it off yet again. Who knows, maybe it will be better in November, but I doubt it. I have as much faith in that happening as I do having Microsoft focusing its efforts elsewhere and leaving the more than adequate original interface alone.

[leniorcortivo]

Exaclty. If the efforts were redirected to increase de usability and agility of the current state to reduce the amout of clicks that we have to do now, then I would call an improvement. Sometimes in order to be more productive we just need to keep it simple.