I wish that with all the time that went into making the nice little homepage shapes dance around on load, that they didn't look rasterized to hell and back.

There's a lot of really nice detail and illustration work on the interior pages. Very different and interesting to interact with, but interested to see how it's received outside the design community.

I wish that with some of these bigger redesigns, that companies would come back and report on how things went, and how it altered their usage.

This is a big and important change for Zendesk. As someone who knows how much collective effort it takes to make a project of this scale happen, I really applaud their team. It's huge to get a company to agree on a departure like that, especially when adopting an innovative style that really hasn't been done before.

Some big learnings for me, on first glance:

• Art direction: Like it or not, this art direction is very creative, thoughtful, and innovative. The use of simple shapes is unique and forward-thinking in B2B, especially when it's in place of what was previously photography. That was a bold move, and I imagine a difficult sell. An excellent example of this can be seen on the chat product page, where half-circles are subtly animated to make them look like they're having a chat conversation. This isn't just meant to be unique and look good; there's real thought behind it. That said, Zendesk have classically always had a distinct personality and voice, which they may have sacrificed when switching to the shapes.
• Photography, illustrations, and simple shapes together: I appreciate how they seem to be asserting that simple shapes, illustration, and photography can all be used in the same design. And they have very distinct purposes. This is not something that many companies get - they feel like they need to go all illustrations, all flat, all photography, etc. “Pick a theme”. This design seems to assert that’s not the case, and I agree. You could say that there are conflicting styles (and maybe there is some work to be done), but on a bigger level, this design is showing how illustrations aren't a "style", photography isn't a "style", etc. They're creative vehicles that actually serve different purposes, and when the team understands these purposes, they can use these vehicles together.
• Navigation: Really good design, but it got way bigger. Looks like there might have been some corporate compromise there. I think they'd benefit from a more simplified approach.
• Footer search bar: This has always been one of my favorite predictive UX elements on the web and they kept it through the redesign. Makes me think it must be working :)

I think there are definitely areas to improve and iterate on. They use two different logos in the header (looks odd and makes the nav feel inconsistent), there's some awkward horizontal whitespace in the heroes and other areas (while vertical whitespace seems to be too low), that paragraph on the home page feels odd, there are indeed some conflicting styles, etc. But most of those things can be fixed and improved upon within the next iteration or two. By and large, this was a massive leap for Zendesk and I think they're braving some new territory here. The entire team should be proud.

Next step: Collect data, see how it performs, and iterate accordingly :)

While I personally like this, from a business point of view I feel that art-direction is little too abstract for most of the audience.

Also, the typeface looks slightly awkward for body copy.

They made a documentary about the rebrand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewPBVaFfgS4

Wow this was more than just a site redesign. The new logo is slick. The abstract shapes forming the Z is unique. I already associate the look with ZenDesk. That's rare territory to be in.

I'm not really sure what to make of the supporting abstract shapes though. Without the form of the Z tying them together like the logo does they aren't discernible from one another. The products drop down menu on their website has wayfinding issues because of this—the shapes reduce the scan-ability of their product offerings.

Overall you have to applaud the boldness of this change. A few iterations of the abstract forms and you'd probably fix the problems, too. Neato.

Nooo, not the Buddha!

Love it. They turn basic shapes into amazing things.

Those icons are brutal.