Summary of Project
- Publish: 22-Aug-2024
- Discuss: 06-Sep-2024
- Resolve: 20-Sep-2024
At Team '24, Atlassian announced the System of Work. The System of Work is built on a common Atlassian platform and data model, delivering a connected portfolio of products with clear and discrete value propositions. It helps organizations align their work to goals, plan and track their work, and unleash knowledge across the organization, thereby simplifying product offerings and making them more intuitive for all teams.
As a part of this evolution, Confluence will be updating its navigation to ensure consistency (with some exceptions) with the navigation changes that Jira described in RFC-45.
We believe that a unified navigation will helpâŠ
- Create a consistent appearance and user experience across all our products, making it smoother to switch between Confluence and Jira (and back again).
- Establish a simpler mental model of what each section of the should be used for.
- Make navigation customizable to each of our customerâs unique use-cases.
Proposed solution
Note: This RFC uses the terms âGlobal Modulesâ and âSpace Modules.â Hereâs which extension points are included in each term:
Global Modules:
Web-Item (inline): system.header/left
,Web-Item: system.header/left
Space Modules:
Web-Item (inline): system.space.sidebar/main-links
,Web-Item: system.space.sidebar/main-links
The key changes in the new navigation are as follow:
1. Simplified top bar
Weâre significantly decluttering the top navigation to put the focus on essential tasks like search & create.
2. Relocated product & global navigation
Product-specific navigation and global items, like Recent, Spaces, Starred, and Apps are now listed in the left sidebar.
Additional, lesser-used items like Templates, Teams, Drafts, and Tasks will appear beneath a âShow moreâ menu.
3. Customizable side bar
In this new navigation, individual users will be able to choose which items from the section above should appear in their primary navigation at all times. For example, if you use Tasks heavily but do not use Starred, you can add Tasks to the primary navigation while hiding Starred beneath the âShow moreâ menu.
Note: This is a user-specific preference.
4. Simplified space navigation
The space section of the navigation will remain mostly the same with a few small changes. Namely, we will be adding a new ⊠overflow menu to the right of the space name, and we will move many settings and advanced / admin user features to this overflow menu.
Here is the current list of items we will be moving to the overflow menu:
What do these changes mean for Ecosystem developers and partners?
1. Placement of apps
Current Navigation:
The Global Modules tab and menu items are placed in the top navigation bar:
New Navigation:
Global Modules and menu items are now in the left sidebar:
2. Show/hide apps
Current Navigation:
You canât hide/show Apps as a menu item.
New Navigation:
Individual users can choose to add or remove Apps (or any other item) from their primary navigation. Note: Even when users choose to hide Global Modules from the primary navigation, the navigation item will still exist within the âShow moreâ menu.
3. Popular Apps
Current Navigation:
Popular Apps appears underneath installed Global Modules:
New Navigation:
Popular Apps section is removed. Currently, the Popular Apps section is a simple, hard-coded list of 5 apps (less whichever apps the instance already has installed):
- Slack
- Google drive
- Lucidchart
- Miro
- Invision
We think the user experience here could and should be improved, and we will iterate on it in the future.
4. Manage apps for admins
Current Navigation:
From the top navigation, go to Apps > Manage your apps to access this feature:
New Navigation:
From the left sidebar, go to Apps > 3 dots > Manage apps to access this feature:
5. Side navigation while using Global Modules
Current Navigation:
There is no sidebar for single-page Global Modules
New Navigation:
The sidebar is persistent while using Global Modules. Users can collapse the sidebar if they prefer:
6. Space Modules section of sidebar
Current Navigation:
Space Modules section of sidebar is expanded by default.
New Navigation:
The Space Modules section of the sidebar is collapsed by default to match the behavior of the rest of the expandable items in the new nav.
If a user is viewing a Space Module, then the Apps menu will expand in the sidebar:
Asks
Weâd appreciate any reactions you have to this RFC, and weâre especially interested in learning more about:
- What impact do you see with your APIs/apps due to the navigation menu items changing with respect to their placements?
- How can we help you adopt the new navigation changes with minimal impact?
Rough timeline
- The timelines below are targets based on our current understanding of the work involved. With that said, they could change.
- Designs are still evolving, and we will share final designs at a later date via Product Tech Talks, Community posts, and/or webinars.
- We can enable the new navigation for partners in test environments at the beginning of the Early Access Program to provide as much time as possible to plan for any changes to apps.
- Q4 2024 (Oct-Dec): Early Access Program for new navigation begins â this will be the first opportunity for ecosystem partners and interested customers to test the new navigation.
- Early-mid Q1 2025 (Jan-Mar): Beta start
- Late Q1 2025 (Jan-Mar) or early Q2 2025 (Apr-Jun): General availability rollout start