💡Feature Idea: Shapes with rounded edges and new shapes
1. What you want to be able to do in MURAL: I would like to have more shapes (clouds, speech bubbles, ...) that can be resized freely. Currently I use images I've made in PPT or so as a workaround, but then they're graphics which are just resizable symmetrically and sometimes that's "tricky"... Would love to see new shapes with rounded edges, too. They look a little more "modern" to me. Rechtangles and squares with rounded edges would be great :-)
2. The problem you are trying to solve: Working around this with shapes I create somewhere else.
3. Why this helps everyone (or many people): Less trouble, less work and a modern look. Would make it a little easier for users.
Comments
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I would like to add the request for process shapes for modeling user journeys etc. "prettier" ;-)
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@manuel Yes! Perhaps the same methods could be used to allow for freely resizing other images too, such as photos or illustrations that need to be made wider or higher but not proportionally bigger, in the same way as the Mural shapes can be pulled in all directions, as mentioned in a previous feature requests. I also really like the idea of being able to make an image "fit" precisely into a shape placed around it, like a square image made to fit a circle shape, as recently mentioned as well.
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Thank you very much, @Christina! It works.
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I would like to add that more shapes like clouds, spech bubbles and process flow elements would be cool (those classic boxes with a "sharp end" on the right side) to create a process flow diagram without connections in it.
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I'm migrating tons of diagrams created on miro.com to MURAL. Miro has 9 basic shapes, including rounded rectangle, which is a basic shape used in many diagrams. So, +1 for adding a rectangle with rounded corners to the MURAL basic shapes!
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@manuel @pmerson I am using speech bubbles like crazy now too, often for a GIF persona giving instructions (see https://icons8.com/l/animations/, or you can just pull one from the Image feature using GIF in the search).
I've found that the icons function is great for speech bubbles, thinking clouds, and all kinds of diagram shapes, etc.
The feature would be even better if icons could be CROPPED, as well as PULLED in different directions, like the shapes can.
If those two features - crop and pull - are added to the icons feature, then the sky will really be the limit with regard to shapes.
A hack for what you're looking for right now: put in "rounded rectangle" in the icons search and pick your favorite from tons of options.
Enjoy!
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@Christina I work with software design, where diagrams must show different types of components with different types of shapes. In this case, icons are *not* a solution. They cannot be resized only horizontally (or only vertically) as you mentioned. They cannot have text inside either, and they don't allow changing the fill color or line pattern. 😥
I'm new to MURAL, but I've been using Miro since 2019. Miro has approximately 30 types of shapes (there are 9 basic shapes and several more), whereas MURAL has only 6. @manuel and I missed the rounded rectangle shape. I also missed the database shape (drum). But by far the biggest miss to me is different types of arrowheads for connectors (MURAL has only one type, whereas Miro has eight).
Some of the shapes in Miro:
Different arrowheads (connector ends) in Miro:
So, my conclusion is that MURAL is a great tool for sticky note workshops and other activities where graphics are not technical, semantic elements of design. Corollary: MURAL is too limited for software design whiteboarding due to lack of shapes and arrow types. 🤷♀️
Paulo Merson
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@pmerson Sorry to hear that, but what a richly informative comment. It will surely be very helpful to the MURAL people to keep those specific images and points above in mind as they continue to add features that are valuable to people in your field and for those reasons.
My sense is that it is an ongoing process, and that whatever is the case right now could be changed quickly, as was the case with my beloved new folder feature. Perhaps, since it is now possible to label arrows, which was not just a few weeks ago, we will soon see other additions too based on those cool options you note.
Writing in icons is possible by adding a title or text box inside of course, but I too would love for more of the features of shapes, like filling in color to those with only outline, as well as pulling vertically or horizontally only, to be added to the icons feature.
My job does not involve technical graphics, so it is less a requirement than a wish on my end, but more than that, I wish you lots of success!
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Yeah, lots of more shapes would be wonderful. And I can see the use of those various arrow ends although I have not yet missed them. But I would use them if they were there.
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@Christina : Thank you very much for the link (https://icons8.com/l/animations/)! That looks great. Will have to dive into that deeper. I would also recommend unDraw (https://undraw.co/).
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@manuel Undraw is an excellent resource - much appreciated! Sometimes I also use arrows and shapes (and tons of other things from their huge range) from https://icons8.com/illustrations if I want to really add some pop to the design.
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Thank you very much for sharing, @Christina !
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I am waaay behind on finding this but I have some feature requests!
- Rounded corners: Sharp corners can feel jarring when there are a lot - 'soft' shapes with rounded edges helps the user find what they're looking for quicker and helps with eye fatigue
- Accessible colors on dark stickys: When selecting a dark color sticky note, it'd be nice if automatically knew what type-color to use for the highest accessibility.
- Opacity on images: Helps fade back elements to help folks create a cleaner contrast hierarchy
- Personalized color themes: Allow brands to select color themes that match their communications and brand feel. Helps drive internal culture for companies and adaptiveness of brand styles
- Black-weight Proxima Nova: Display weights for fonts so you can create even more of a hierarchy with typography.
- Background patterns/textures: Built-in dot grid or square grid background options
- Cursor chat: Would be nice if chats showed up where folks have their cursors. Figma/FigJam has this feature and my team has been moving more towards that for collaboration because of that single feature.
- And pretty please, add a butterfly and dog to the animal avatars!
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@LUMA_whisperer Great ideas! It would be helpful for discussion to split them up in separate requests. This way we could easier relate to them and discuss them :-)
Some of those have been on my wishlist too. Great I like your ideas :-)
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@LUMA_whisperer such a great list agree with @manuel on splitting this apart! Good news is we already have some of them in the feature ideas category!
Ones that are ready to vote on
- Opacity on images: Transparency "slider" via object tool bar?
- Personalized color themes: Create custom color palette for (Enterprise) accounts
- Background patterns/textures: Dot native background
Ones that could be lovely new ideas
- Cursor chat
- Black-weight Proxima Nova
- And pretty please, add a butterfly and dog to the animal avatars! Ooh This one is a new idea. We have an open idea on Changing your Avatar color, but not to add animal avatars!
- Accessible colors on dark stickies: We have one for a patterned background for accessibility, but not colors.
If you have time and would like to submit them (or even submit your favorite), here is some information on how to add ideas. The one idea at a time policy helps our Product team examine each idea on their own.
Thank you so much for joining the MURAL Community Forum and commenting! Welcome, welcome, welcome!
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Very much agree with pmerson's post, for software design users, Mural needs to offer more shapes that allow for text (more choices, fonts/font sizes) in the shape and resizing freely (e.g. only horizontally or only vertically)
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I agree. Why such limited shapes? I can't even draw a 3D arrow and having rectangles with rounded corners would be great. It can't be that hard.
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As a new Mural user I am attempting to replace the use of Visio in brainstorming sessions with Mural. Visio has dozens of groups of shapes. Providing these will help make Mural more useful.
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I would love to be able to create things like these directly in MURAL. See those amazing shapes :-)
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Hi there! I also have to agree strongy with Paulo. Mural is (also) a great tool, but the lack in a Miro-like variety of shapes is blocking creativity greatly :( If Mural wants to continue to compete with Miro, this fact has to change.
Theo Rieken
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I love that this request is getting lots of attention! More shapes with the ability to pull horizontally, add color, include text and connect with arrows is really important.
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April 2023: Wondering if now that there are these nice rounded edges in the sticky notes we will be seeing this option any time soon on the shapes. the sharp edges do make charts seem rather dated and rounded edges give a much more modern and professional look. Also, connectors that automatically connect to the shape outline every time would be great. Sometimes they are a bit, or in the case of the triangle, WAY far away and going in for a close up connection between each shape is very time consuming. I use Mural for just about everything but this and the involuntary movements of the connectors when shapes are elongated makes for an inordinate amount of time spent cleaning up details that should not be an issue. Thanks, I really do not want to have to learn how to do all these charts in PPT!
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This idea would expand the use of shapes to another level: Fantastic idea.
To build on this I would also like the capability of joining available shapes to come up with new shapes to be added to my list of shapes (ie. custom shapes); similar to when making custom colors.
All the feature currently available to existing set of shapes should remain eg. adding text, changing colors & line thickness, lock unlock etc.
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