Our feelings about the New Nav

[#1]

After exploring the new nav and discussing it with Atlassian, I'm writing in May 2025 to share observations and links to related backlog items....

TL;DR

We don't love the new Nav. Feel free to stop here if you do :-)

NOTE: As usual Atlassian consider New Nav only partially complete at launch. They will continue tweaking it in the coming months so the list below might be out-of-date by the time you're reading it.

Improvements - Good

We think these changes are good, but none relate directly to the new Nav.

• The top menu bar is thinner - takes up less screen space.

• Marginally less white-space around screen elements on the agile board.

• Removed the sidebar animation on hide/show

• The "add comment" bar is not always visible.

• The heading fonts are clearer & bolder.

Regressions - Not Good

This is a mixed bunch - some are minor and some you might adapt to. Their relevance & impact will depend on your instance (number of projects, apps, etc.). Most relate to Jira since that is the product my teams use most. 

• JRACLOUD-94203 Starred section in Dashboard, Filters and Projects is in Descending order in New Navigation (opposite order to the old Nav)

• JRACLOUD-94282 Option to configure New Navigation side bar The order of items in the new nav (from top left corner) has a jumbled-up order compared to the old Nav, and the default order cannot be changed by Admins:

  • Old Nav : Your work | Projects | Filters | Dashboards | Teams | Plans | Apps

  • New Nav: For you | Recent | Starred | Apps | Plans | Projects | Filters | Dashboards

• JRACLOUD-94358 - Clicking on project in new navigation opens list of boards instead of placing into project
  Switching projects requires more clicks and all my staff work in more than one project. In our case most have one board.

  • Why do we need to click the board after clicking a project when it only has one board?

  • This also means our users will probably leave the left Nav visible in situations where they could previously hide the left Nav (and still access the top menu)

• JRACLOUD-94150 - New Navigation - Issue Status buttons are inconsistent and are hard to read Generally these are a mishmash of different shades depending where you are (browse, board, or admin). They are ALL CAPS in some places and Capitalised in others.

• JRACLOUD-94359 - New navigation - Recent contains less items and less details

• JRACLOUD-94425 - New navigation - no options to dismiss ad banner

• JRACLOUD-94428 New navigation - extend keyboard shortcut ‘z' for non board pages in Jira The new Nav doesn’t have a consistent way to hide project Nav in all project screens (e.g. Reports, All work, Archived Work Items, Releases, Components).

  • In the old Nav the project menu could be hidden using the ‘[' shortcut.

  • In the new nav users must use a combination of two shortcuts '[' and the full-screen 'Z’ shortcut.

• JRACLOUD-94486 New Navigation - Use the whole screen when opening an App After opening some full-screen apps like Tempo Timesheet, the left menu (and sometimes the project menu) are still visible.

• JRACLOUD-94524 New Navigation - Ability for Admins to be able to pin Top-Level Nav items as drop-down menus We think this would reduce friction for existing users AND reduce the number of items in the left Nav, leaving space for the future.

• After opening an issue in full-screen (browse) mode, the Project Nav is no longer available. This is the main view that our team use when working on issues.

• JSM projects

  • Most of the JSM Project Nav in the left menu. Why is this so different from a software project?

  • Some items at the top-level have been nested - e.g. JSM Project > Directory > Organizations

• New Nav is less efficient

  • More scanning and vertical scrolling is required to locate items compared to the old drop-down menu.

  • More clicking is required to show and collapse Nav items - in the old Nav items menus collapse/hide when clicked.

  • The new left Nav shows more items making the overall screen more ‘busy’.

• The new Project Nav fits fewer items on the screen than the old. On our instance my users need to use the “More” drop-down.

  • The Old Nav fitted about 14+

  • The New Nav fits only 11 (with the left Nav visible) - fewer in portrait.

• The old Project Nav arranged/grouped related items making it easier to visually scan & locate them. This aspect is lost in the new variable-width configurable horizontal Project Nav where items can be arranged in any order.

Some Cosmetic Issues

• JRACLOUD-94401 New navigation - Chat button is hard to see - we use a custom title bar color (theme).
• When hovered, the left Nav items change to ">" and Project Nav icons change to “…”. This is distracting for everyday use. In the project Nav this is required to provide customization but degrades the everyday function of the Nav. Perhaps there should there be an option to “disable editing” to reduce the visual distraction?
• The new "work type" (issue type) avatars are harder to distinguish than the old ones. We decided to manually upload custom "work type" avatars (for continuity and readability) but note that Atlassian have still not fixed JRACLOUD-43512 Support for custom SVG avatars

• Icons are smaller and harder to distinguish

  • On the top bar (bell, help, cog)

  • In the new left sidebar (project avatars harder to distinguish)

  • In the new horizontal project Nav

  • User avatars in Agile boards

• Mix of styling on deadline, fix version, parent

  • different font sizes

  • different padding

  • different appearance (outline vs filled)

• Agile board layout is worse

  • shows "Due date" on a separate line (increasing the height of each card)

  • doesn’t show the current sprint name (instead show the board name in larger font!)

  • doesn’t show the number of days remaining in the sprint

  • Some apps are hidden under the “…” menu

[Sami Shaik]

I totally agree with @Dwight Holman 

Here are my reviews on the new nav.

New Navigation Positives:

• Powerful Search Functionality: The new navigation system incorporates a powerful search capability, enabling users to efficiently locate desired information or features.
• Enhanced Typography: The implementation of new fonts contributes to improved readability and a more refined visual aesthetic.
• Modernized Iconography: The introduction of new icons enhances the system's visual appeal and provides clearer visual cues for navigation elements.
• Clear Visual Status Indicators: The use of distinct status colors allows for intuitive and immediate understanding of system states or item conditions.

Areas for Improvement:

• Horrible Sidebar Usability: The current sidebar implementation presents usability challenges and may require redesign to optimize user experience.
• Information Overload: The extensive list of options within the navigation can be overwhelming and confusing for users, potentially hindering efficient task completion.
• Excessive Click Depth: Users are required to perform too many clicks to reach their desired destinations or complete tasks, indicating a need for streamlining navigation pathways.

And most of other areas covered in your points.

[Yatish Madhav]

Thanks for this article, @Dwight Holman 

Agree with most of it ... i have been so busy administering the tool (amongst other priorities) that I have not been able to focus on these changes.

Looking forward to Atlassian looking into the pain points introduced and the teething issues with this.

Overall, I love the refresh but not entirely a huge fan of the sidebar structure, hover and consolidation dynamics ... Or it just needs more use to be comfortable with.

Thanks

Yatish

[Jaime Escribano]

I fully agree on the information overload front. Having used it for a few days i've gotten over some of the basic pet peeves, yet I often become overwhelmed if I navigate through a filter, a project and later on look at dashboards. I feel like i need to click to hide elements constantly.

The Filters tab is the worst ofender. Having so many default filters which you may not want to see feels bad.

[Kristian Klima]

Update of the comment about labels.

The shortcut is CTR-Option/Alt-A .... for any page. And you need to enter it from EDIT mode.

Instead of hittig L and jumping to the bottom of the page to see the labels, you need to use a non-sensical complex shortuct and/or navigate to the info menu.

https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/keyboard-shortcuts-markdown-and-autocomplete/

Shortened version of the original comment:

There seems to be no way to add (or remove) a label to the space's home page in Confluence.

Previously, you could do that from the edit mode. Not anymore:

Now, that option is gone and the only method I found is using a marketplace app

• Variants for Scroll Documents by K15t
• Panorama by Kolekti

Details modal does not even show the existing labels.

This looks like a major oversight to me.

[Johannes Wiedmann]

Fully agree with @Dwight Holman 

My teams primarily use JSM for customer service, working across multiple projects and relying heavily on queues.

While the new navigation is arguably a visual improvement in terms of aesthetics, it clearly violates the “form follows function” principle.

The common theme I see in the feedback from many community members is that this change does not reflect real-world Jira usage patterns. A few specific points we’ve encountered additionally:

• Queues—the core of JSM workflows—are now buried among many other menu items, making it difficult to quickly grasp what’s going on.
• While the new navigation aims to offer flexibility, it lacks practical flexibility within a project. Even in its default state, the new menu is mentally taxing to navigate. Adding marketplace apps only amplifies the clutter, making it even harder to maintain orientation and efficiency.
• Queue ticket counts are no longer immediately visible. You only see them after actively clicking into a queue, which breaks the quick-glance overview many of us rely on to assess workload.
• The “Starred” and “Recent” lists don’t scale well. If you star multiple “Unassigned” queues from different projects, they all appear with identical names—no context, no differentiation.

I’ve exchanged quite a few emails with Atlassian. While the tone was open and collaborative at first, it doesn’t seem like the feedback has led to any meaningful change.

With rollout now around the corner, it feels like a missed opportunity to make this truly user-driven.

We’ll adapt, of course—but I’m concerned we’re losing both efficiency and clarity in the process.

[Jaime Escribano]

Adding to what @Johannes Wiedmann mentions about queues:

There is a big inconsistency on how a user accesses a Business project and a JSM project. You can go to a business project by clicking on the project name, yet clicking on the JSM project will open what used to be the sidebar menu. If you want to go to a queue you have to:

Click on the Project - Click on Team Priority - look through your queues - click on your queue - load up the project.

Not only that, but the number of tickets in a queue will load up after you have clicked on it but not before, causing another inconsistency.

This is probably becouse the business logic underneath has not changed and that information is calculated in opening a project.

I don't see a clear reason as to why you shouldn't have a default queue you navigate to when clicking a project.

Another pain is that the option to open queues on a sidebar is unavailable until the project has been opened, causing another inconsistency. 

Except of course you have opened the queues on the sidebar and open another project. Then the icon will show up, but it won't do anything (A minor bug, still annoying)

[Takayuki Hirota]

Thank you for the helpful article.

Regarding the Agile board layout:

• doesn't always display the current sprint goal, duration, or remaining days.

As a Scrum team member, I’d like to see these more consistently.

Or am I missing something?

[Ariel Kauan]

Perfect!

Finding Boards and Dashboards is more difficult.
And when accessing the project settings, we no longer have the main menu (so we need to use CTRL+K or open another tab.

[Mark B Wager]

Two things need to be clearly identifiable and handy in the navigation:  the Selected Project and its boards. 

BOARDS:

The project boards need to be moved from the sidebar to the top project bar. They are a critically important part of our work process and so should clearly stand out. 

The new nav is top bar driven, great. When I’m in a project, I want a consistent use experience. So when I’m looking for a Jira project board, I expect to click a project-related top bar drop down along with the other project-specific selections available in my top bar.  

It is much too confusing to have users get 99% of their project navigation at the top, but then require them to scroll down in the sidebar to locate the project and locate the boards in the left side busyness and clutter. 

PROJECTS:

In the left side bar, the currently selected project should appear pinned at the very top.

Currently, the selected project appears somewhere, inconsistently in the list on the left side — this is very confusing.

And even in that, currently in the “recent” list, the current project may appear somewhere far down in the list, not at the top. This makes it REALLY hard to identify the current project and board that is selected. Especially if you have a long list of starred and recent items. 

Thank you 

[Rafa]

I've ranted about this disaster in other threads, but here's another example of the terrible status colors and streamlined redesigned I just stumbled upon, on Jira Releases...

It's almost impossible to see the color of the thin lines, and you need to consciously read the text to know what status it is, instead of using the colour as a quick reference.

And the absurdity of this is that they could have worked on moving the navigation to the sidebar without having to touch a lot of unrelated aspects of the UI. This is what is called a "big bang release", and it's the absolute opposite of being agile, and an textbook example of poor project management.

[Debbie Jolley]

Thanks for the time and effort pulling this together @Dwight Holman - I've added my Like to a number of the linked tickets.

This is a really clear, non-emotive summary of the many pain points the new nav has introduced.

Please Atlassian can someone listen to the many real concerns people are raising about the product

[Cindy Schick]

I agree with all that has been said on this discussion. 

As a user, I want to be able to arrange my top tabs to the order that works for me. Having to click into "more.." repeatedly in order to get to easeRequirements a number of times a day is frustrating when I rarely use dashboards and many of the other tabs that appear on screen full time. 

I'm also finding it particularly painful trying to move from Jira to easeRequirements and back again. It's taking an increased number of clicks than when easeRequirements was simply available in my left navigation bar. I spend most of my day bouncing back and forth because editing in eR doesn't always work to what I need versus opening in full Jira. 

Maybe it exists, but I haven't found a clear easy way to go between Jira and eR without revisiting the parent project space again, which I shouldn't need to do.  For now I guess I'll have to rely on making myself some additional bookmarks in my browser, or switching back to the old appearance for as long as it's available. 

Update: I found I have to open up Apps in the side bar to get back into eR. 

[Bill Goetz]

This isn't completely new navigation related, but for each item in a Starred section, it needs to match the order of the starred section in For You. That's the way it worked in the old navigation.