New Status Button Placement Makes Updates Harder, Not "Easier"
Dear Atlassian Team and Community Members,
I'm writing to offer a counter-perspective on the recent change to the Status button's location, which was announced under the ironic title "Easier status updates for work items".
While I appreciate the stated intention to make Jira more intuitive, for many experienced users and administrators, this change has unfortunately achieved the exact opposite. It has made status updates more difficult and has disrupted established, efficient workflows. The claim that the previous location was "tricky to find" feels disconnected from the daily experience of power users.
Here is a breakdown of why this change is a step backward:
It Makes Updates Slower, Not Faster: The primary issue is the constant need for scrolling. In any realistic issue with a decent description or a few comments, the status button is now off-screen. To perform one of the most common actions in Jira, I now have to scroll to the very top of the page. This new friction stands in direct opposition to the goal of making updates "easier and faster".
It Makes Jira Less Intuitive, Not More: When linking directly to a comment from an email, the user arrives without any context of the issue's current state. They cannot see the status. This forces them to break their concentration, scroll up to find the status, and then scroll back down to the comment. This is the definition of an unintuitive workflow and directly contradicts the goal of "smoother onboarding". For new and old users alike, hiding a key piece of information is confusing.
It Breaks a Logical and Consistent UI Pattern: Your announcement suggests user testing found the old location confusing. I would argue that for seasoned users, its placement within the right-hand details panel was perfectly logical. The Status is a core field, just like Assignee, Priority, and Reporter. Removing it from this group breaks a long-standing, predictable UI pattern that users have relied on for years. It’s possible the feedback gathered was skewed towards brand-new users, while overlooking the muscle memory and efficiency of your long-term, expert user base.
A Call for a More Flexible Solution
I have read the update from Ahmud, the Product Manager, stating that a rollback is not planned due to positive A/B testing results. I understand that decisions are made based on broad data. However, the passionate feedback from many experienced users in the community highlights a clear divide in preference. A one-size-fits-all approach is clearly not working here.
Since you stated you are "listening closely" and will "explore ways to address the feedback," I strongly urge you to consider options that cater to different user groups, instead of forcing a single layout on everyone. For example:
A User-Level Setting: Allow individual users to choose between the "new" and "classic" position for the status button in their profile settings.
An Admin-Level Configuration: Provide project or site administrators the ability to configure the layout for their projects.
This approach would honor the findings from your A/B tests for one user segment while restoring efficiency for the other, thereby truly "addressing the feedback" you are asking for.
356 comments