Everyone got the same screens, and no say in them
A long grid of apps to scan every morning, lists and records on separate screens, a single bright look, and any change to colours or layout meant a developer.
01Overview
Project overview: before, turning point, after
This is the story of how the Odoo screens people stare at from nine to six went from one fixed look for everyone to something each person, and each company, can make their own.
It wasn't about looks, it was about control
Nobody wanted a prettier Odoo for its own sake. They wanted fewer steps to their daily work, and the right person in control of each choice.
A backend that adapts to each person
An app-drawer home, side-by-side lists and records, 13 colour themes and dark mode, with every setting owned by a user, a company, or the whole system.
My design process
02Context
Why the Odoo backend needed a rethink
Odoo runs sales, accounting, stock, HR and dozens of other apps from one set of behind-the-scenes screens. The apps keep growing, but the screens around them (home, menus, views and settings) stay the same for every company and every person.
The default backend is like an office where everyone gets the same desk, chair and lighting, whatever their job. ARC lets each person adjust their own desk, lets the company paint the walls in its colours, and keeps the house rules with whoever runs the building.
Where it breaks down
A growing grid of apps
The home screen is one flat grid. The more apps a company adds, the longer people scan for the two or three they actually use.
One look for every company
Branding stops at the logo. Matching the company's colours means a developer writing and maintaining custom code.
Lists and records live apart
Working through quotations or contacts means opening one, going back to the list, and opening the next, losing your place every time.
Long days, one bright screen
Many teams spend eight hours or more in Odoo. Without a proper dark mode, long or late sessions are hard on the eyes.
Key terms
- Backend
- The behind-the-scenes screens staff use to run the business, as opposed to the website customers see.
- App drawer
- A home screen that groups your apps like a phone does, with tabs for recent and favourite ones.
- List & form view
- A list shows many records, like all quotations; a form shows one record in full detail.
- Chatter
- The comments and activity log attached to each record.
- Scope
- Who a setting applies to: just you (user), your whole company, or everyone (global).
- Design tokens
- Named colours, sizes and spacing that every screen reuses, so one change updates everything.
03User Persona
Designing for the person who lives in Odoo
Kavya is a sales coordinator at an 80-person distribution company. She's in Odoo from nine to six, handling dozens of records a day. None of her problems were big; they just added up. Here's a typical day.
A working day, before ARC
Every single day
- 9:00 amShe scans the full app grid to find Sales.
She uses three or four apps, but has to look past all of them.
- 9:15 amShe works through 40 quotations.
Open one, back to the list, find her place, open the next. Forty times.
- 11:00 amAutosave saves a discount she was still checking.
Now she has to find it and undo it.
- 2:00 pmHer boss asks for the company colours in Odoo.
IT says that needs a developer and custom code.
- 6:00 pmA bright white screen, all day long.
Her eyes are tired, and tomorrow will be the same.
An illustrative day, pieced together from what daily users and administrators described in research.
User personas
Three roles shaped ARC: the daily user who works in the backend all day, the administrator who keeps it consistent, and the business owner who wants it to feel like their company.
Kavya Iyer
Sales Coordinator
Distribution company · 80 employees
I'm in Odoo from nine to six. I just want it to get out of my way.
- Time in Odoo
- Most of the day
- Apps used daily
- 3–4
- Records handled
- Dozens a day
- Can change settings
- Her own only
Goals
- Reach her daily apps in one click
- Work through quotations without losing her place
- A comfortable screen for long days
- Avoid saving half-finished edits
Frustrations
- Scanning a crowded app grid every morning
- Jumping back and forth between list and form
- Bright white screens late in the day
- Changes saved before she was ready
Responsibilities
- Create and follow up on quotations
- Keep customer records up to date
- Confirm orders and deliveries
- Answer customer queries quickly
Traits
Technical skillMedium
Time in the backendVery high
Wish to personaliseHigh
Vikram Shah
Odoo Administrator
Same company · IT team
Let people tweak their own screen — but some things have to look the same for everyone.
- Users supported
- 80
- Companies
- 2
- UI requests
- Weekly
- Odoo experience
- 5 years
Goals
- Set sensible company-wide defaults
- Decide which options users may change
- Roll changes back safely
- Fewer interface tickets
Frustrations
- Every UI tweak needs a developer
- No middle ground between "everyone" and "no one"
- Custom CSS breaks on upgrades
- Hard to undo a bad change
Responsibilities
- Configure apps and access rights
- Manage users and companies
- Plan and test upgrades
- Support colleagues day to day
Traits
Technical skillHigh
Need for controlHigh
Wish to personaliseLow
Anjali Mehra
Business Owner
Same company · leadership
We invested in Odoo. It should look and feel like our company.
- Time in Odoo
- < 1 hr / day
- Main use
- Reviews & approvals
- Devices
- Laptop & tablet
- Cares most about
- Brand & adoption
Goals
- A backend in the company's colours
- Staff who actually enjoy using it
- Quick access to approvals
- No extra development cost
Frustrations
- The system looks generic
- Branding quotes from developers
- New staff find it overwhelming
- Too many clicks for simple checks
Responsibilities
- Approve budgets and purchases
- Review sales and performance
- Decide on tools and vendors
- Drive adoption across teams
Traits
Technical skillLow
Brand sensitivityHigh
Time in the backendLow
Kavya is the primary persona; Vikram and Anjali are secondary.
What this meant for design
Kavya needed fewer steps and a calmer screen. Vikram needed control over who changes what. Anjali needed the brand. One way of handling settings had to serve all three.
04The Problem
Powerful apps. One-size-fits-all interface.
Odoo's default backend treats every company and every person the same: the same home, the same menus, the same look. And there's no way to change that without code.
The people who use Odoo the most have the least say in how it looks and works.
Challenge → business impact
The problemWhat it cost the business
A flat, ever-growing app gridTime lost hunting for the same apps every day.
Lists and records on separate screensQuotations, orders and contacts take longer to get through.
No branding beyond the logoThe tool feels generic, and branding costs paid custom work.
All-or-nothing settingsAdmins can't set defaults, and users can't adjust them.
Light mode onlyTired eyes across long working days.
Problem statement
How might we give every Odoo user a faster, more comfortable backend they can shape themselves, while letting companies keep a consistent, branded experience?
05Research & Discovery
Where everyday Odoo work slows down
I wanted to find the friction a theme could genuinely remove, not just repaint, and to work out which choices belong to the user, the company and the administrator.
Understanding the domain
The home screen and finding apps
Menus and getting around
Lists and records
Settings, and who can change them
Company colours and branding
Dark mode and easy reading
Stakeholder interviews
Daily Odoo UsersSales & operations
Odoo AdministratorsRun the system
Business OwnersOwn the brand
Odoo ConsultantsSet it all up
Support TeamHear complaints
Key questions I asked
Finding your way3 questions
- Which apps do you open every day, and how do you get to them?
- Where in the menus do you most often get lost?
- What would you put on your home screen if you could choose?
Working through records2 questions
- How do you work through a long list of quotations or contacts?
- When has an automatic save changed something you didn't mean to?
Look & feel2 questions
- Should the backend carry your company's colours?
- When and why would you switch to a dark screen?
Control2 questions
- Which settings should each person decide for themselves?
- Which should the company or administrator lock for everyone?
What we found
Small frustrations, repeated dozens of times a day. Paraphrased from the interviews:
“I use four apps, but I scroll past thirty to find them.”
“Every time I go back to the list, I lose my place.”
“Changing a colour means raising a ticket with a developer.”
Users and admins wanted different things, and both were right.
“Autosave saved my edit before I'd finished checking it.”
“On late shifts, I'd love a dark screen.”
Key insight
Nobody wanted a prettier Odoo for its own sake. They wanted fewer steps to their daily work, and the right person in control of each choice.
06Competitor Analysis
Themes repainted Odoo. None reorganised it.
I compared the ways companies change how their Odoo backend looks and works. Most changed the colours; few changed how people move through their day, and almost none let users and admins share control.
| Approach | Good at | What's missing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default Odoo backendBuilt-in | Clean and reliable. | Choice. One flat app grid, one look, and only basic personal preferences. | Generic |
| Colour-only themesApp store | A new colour scheme. | Anything beyond paint. Layout and menus stay the same, and it's the same for everyone. | Cosmetic |
| Custom codeDeveloper | Exactly the brand you want. | Staying power. It breaks with each Odoo upgrade and needs fixing again. | Fragile |
| Odoo StudioBuilt-in tool | Changing fields, forms and reports. | The overall look, the home screen and the menus. It does a different job. | Different job |
| ARC Backend ThemeThis project | App-drawer home, 13 colour themes, icon styles, menu layouts, split view and dark mode. | No code, and nothing all-or-nothing. Each setting belongs to a user, a company or everyone. | Opportunity |
Opportunity
The gap wasn't another colour scheme. It was a backend that rethinks how people get around every day, and puts each choice in the right person's hands, with no code.
07Design Decisions
Why it works the way it does
Each decision came from a finding: fewer steps to daily work, a calmer screen, and the right person in control of every option. Here's what we noticed, what we could have done, and what we chose.
Every setting has an owner
We noticed: users and admins wanted different things. So each preference (dark mode, list density, menu bar, favourites bar, comment panel position, company logo) can be set for one person, one company, or everyone. Admins set the defaults; users adjust within them.
Instead ofOne theme the admin sets for all
We choseUser · Company · Global for each setting
A home that remembers you
We noticed: people used a handful of apps but scanned the whole grid to reach them. So the home screen became an app drawer, like a phone's, with All, Recent and Favourite tabs, putting daily apps one click away.
Instead ofA longer, recoloured app grid
We choseAn app drawer with Recent & Favourite tabs
Lists and records side by side
We noticed: going back and forth between a list and its records broke concentration every time. So a split view shows the list and the open record together, like an email inbox with its reading pane.
Instead ofList → record → back again
We choseA split list-and-record view
Choose by seeing, not by reading
We noticed: theme names like “curved” or “glassmorphism” meant nothing to most people. So settings use colour swatches, icon previews and layout thumbnails, plus Apply, Cancel and Restore to default so nothing changes by accident.
Instead ofDropdowns of theme names
We choseVisual pickers + Apply / Restore
One design system behind every option
We noticed: 13 colour themes, 3 icon styles, 2 modes and several layouts multiply into hundreds of combinations, far too many to design one by one. So every screen draws from shared colour scales, one type scale (Inter) and one set of components. Any combination stays consistent, and dark mode comes from the same building blocks rather than a separate design.
Instead ofDesigning every theme screen by hand
We choseOne token-based system for all themes & modes
The hardest part
No single screen was hard. The hard part was deciding who controls each option, and keeping hundreds of possible combinations looking consistent.
08The Solution
A backend that adapts to each person
ARC brings Odoo 17 a new home screen, flexible colours, settings with clear owners, and faster ways to work through records, all in light and dark mode.
The same day, with ARC
Fewer clicks, calmer screens
- 9:00 amHome opens on her Recent and Favourite apps.
Sales is one click away.
- 9:05 amSplit view: the list on the left, the quotation on the right.
She works through all 40 without ever losing her place.
- 11:00 am“Prevent auto save” is switched on.
The discount isn't saved until she says so.
- 2:00 pmThe company colours are already in place.
The admin picked them from a swatch and applied them company-wide. No code needed.
- 6:00 pmDark mode switches on automatically for the evening.
Her own setting, just for her.
LightDark
Key features
01 · App drawer home
Your apps, one click away
A welcome header, search, and an app drawer with All, Recent and Favourite tabs. Icons come in three styles (frosted glass, solid and gradient), with an optional background image behind them.
Fixes“I use four apps, but I scroll past thirty to find them.”
02 · Theme settings
Make it look like your company
Pick a boxed or curved style, one of 13 colours, an icon style, a background image and where the menu sits. You see each option before it's applied.
Fixes“Changing a colour means raising a ticket with a developer.”
03 · Scoped settings
The right person decides
Every setting, from automatic dark mode and list density to the menu bar and company logo, says who it applies to: you, your company, or everyone. Apply, Cancel and Restore to default keep changes safe.
FixesAll-or-nothing settings
04 · Faster working views
Stay in the flow of the list
A split view keeps the list and the open record side by side, a slim icon sidebar keeps every app in reach, and a “Prevent auto save” switch lets people decide when edits are saved.
Fixes“Every time I go back to the list, I lose my place.”
Product screens
09Impact
One theme, many ways to work
What shipped: a backend that companies can brand and people can tune, without a single line of custom code.
13
Interface colour themes
Plus boxed or curved styles and an optional background image. Branding without custom code.
3×3
Icon styles × menu layouts
Frosted-glass, solid and gradient app icons, and three places to put the main menu.
2
Modes from one system
Every screen in light and dark, both made from the same colours, type and components.
Remember Kavya? “I'm in Odoo from nine to six. I just want it to get out of my way.” Now it does.
10Reflection
What this project taught me
ARC turned Odoo's backend from one fixed interface into one people can shape: a faster home, calmer screens and working views built around how people move through their day, rather than a new coat of paint.
Customisation needs ownership
Options only help when it's clear who sets them. User, company and global turned a long list of settings into something people understood.
Show, don't name
Swatches and thumbnails made choices obvious. Nobody needed to know what “curved” or “glassmorphism” meant before picking one.
Systems scale, screens don't
With 13 colours, 3 icon styles and 2 modes, designing every combination was impossible. Shared building blocks kept them all consistent.