Will JIRA FIX the Aministration Menus?

Question

Okay, the admin system is crap. Half of the menu items don't do anything, and just lead you around in a circle. All of the important stuff is hidden and hard to find.

I'm a consultant, I recommend systems to customers. I haven't used JIRA in a while, and was very surprised to find out just how much it now SUCKS. I can tell you right now, that until you FIX the admin system I will NOT recommend this product again. It used to be easy to admin it, now it is next to impossible. Who came up with a menu system that has three different paths (from the top menu) to an item that DOES NOTHING?

Really, it is a disgrace. FIX IT.

Norman Abramovitz · Answer

Atlassian UI design philosophy seems to be moving in the direction of put everything on the page. Look at the project issues page as an example. You got filters, issues classified in different ways, etc. I am not saying it is good or bad, it is what it is. As Atlassian moves more into the flexible designs for different devices, hopefully they will allow users to organize pages the way they want.

The potential feedback from allowing people to design their own pages would be invaluable.  I am not saying do user feedback groups since that is artificial. I am saying get feedback from users on live systems as they use the product.

Would it not be ‘nice’ to ‘move’ some links to the top of the page or to a side bar because they are your current hot issues to deal with? Would it not be nice to have some controls that float with the page, so you do not lose sight of them?  Pages would not be static in design but more dynamic based upon the user’s needs. This is one of the future steps to flexible page design.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

Indeed - I'm curious, as I can't find any menu items that do nothing, and although I can see there's a point about going in circles, it's not that illogical.  It's more "if you go from A, you want to see B, but the are then links on B that take you back to A, which are there because you might have started at B".  It's trying to be helpful, which does mean you get a lot of links on a page.

When you raise the support ticket, I'd be very clear - what three paths lead to an item that then does nothing?  (I'd be curious to see what seems to do this to you, but understand if you only want to share it with Atlassian)

My personal opinion of the recent changes to admin is mixed - I liked how simple and plain the old side-bar with everything was, but found it very disorganised.  The new system is better organised, but somehow harder to find things on.  While I like the separation into "You are in admin mode", and we still have one big page with links to everything on it, I really don't find the menus of any use, and find myself going back to the main page every time.  But that's all minor, my opinion, and I don't find anything that doesn't work.

And, be patient and positive - Atlassian do listen.  I think we all know administrating Jira is complex, because flexibility and power leads to complexity.  But they do listen and postively welcome ideas on how to improve things.

LucasA_ag1oiy · Answer

Hi John,

I believe this discussion could be very much productive if you raise a support ticket at https://support.atlassian.com, appointing the errors and explaining better the issues. Please keep in mind that Answers is our community forum, not a support platform.

Cheers,

Lucas Lima