How do you Decide What UI/UX Changes to Make

[Terry]

I'm interested in your overall high-level process for implementing sweeping UI/UX changes, such as these navigation updates.

e.g., Are you using A/B testing or other types of usability testing to make these decisions?

What types of users are involved in the testing: new users, expert users, novice users, users at all role levels?

I'm asking because in my experience as a long-time, advanced user, changes to the navigation introduce an unexpected learning curve. Sometimes these changes occur when I'm facing a deadline for a large team project.  Like today.

I shouldn't even be taking the time to make this post, but I thought it might be helpful and essential feedback for whoever is listening.

Thanks,

[Shelley Duncan]

I find being on a Cloud instance with rolling updates very disconcerting. There's no version control, and from the official Release notes, I'm reading the same thing every week but I don't know what has and hasn't been installed on our instance. I want to have control to release new features rather than SURPRISE!! especially when that surprise means a degradation of system and functions. 

I'm not looking forward to the new navigation, nor do I have time to test this at this time. 

[Terry]

I agree, Shelly. We have a cloud instance, as well.

I do appreciate the help pop-ups and the help page links. I also appreciated the banner placed at the top of every page. It alerted us to the new navigation and provided resource links to help us learn.

If I had a month of notice to get up to speed rather than the 2 or 3 days I had for this release, I would have been happier.

Even better, as a cloud instance user, I would have appreciated a preview of the new features and an invitation to provide feedback on them.  That's my Mecca, here

[Barbara Szczesniak]

@Terry You posted this question in the New Navigation group. If you look at the main page of the group, there are several articles describing the process/reasoning/etc. related to the new navigation. There have also been articles and discussions in other groups, webinars about the new navigation, and updates to the Atlassian documentation.

[Terry]

Thank you @Barbara Szczesniak 

I wasn't aware of these "featured" posts. My problem is that I am busy enough not to have time to frequently visit these forums and read all the articles as they become available. 

I don't think I'm in the minority of long-time users (I could be wrong) who feel this way. I have numerous software dependencies, and I can only keep up with a limited number of updates and changes without jeopardizing my ability to do my work. 

I imagine there are people out there with more leisurely jobs who can spend a few hours a week reading forums and posts, as well as keeping up with changes to their software.

Unfortunately, I am not among them.

I DO appreciate the information, though.

So, thank you. 

[James Rickards _SN_]

Also, how does Atlassian measure the level of their customer's "change fatigue", prior to approving changes from the many different product owners? 

In my experience, sometimes users experience death by a thousand cuts where each change is OK in its isolation, but when looked at from further away it is one of a constant barrage of changes that become draining and frustrating.

I have to spend up to 15 minutes each day checking emails from forums for gotchas like the removal of the default renderer with very little notice.