The left-hand page tree nav bar just disappeared from my space, and I can't find any way to navigate other than searching. There doesn't seem to be a page tree anywhere in the Space Tools.
I can't find the admin tools to log a support issue, either.
Hi Liron,
thanks for taking a look at the anonymous user angle. When I talk a bout a parent space, I mean the space where our anonymous users and landing that contains our knowledge base and the links to all spaces where our documentation is located (so "child spaces"): there's one space per product/version.
So when you look at a product documentation inside another space and wants to get back to the landing space, it's now much more complicated, there's nothing in the history and I'd say it's not intuitive to click on a search button to look at the history, I don't think any will do this. Several clicks are then necessary. If I add space shortcuts this will mean they will have to get back from the page they are to the space overview page (they will not think about this and this is of course more clicks). That's why it is at least necessary to give us the option to display the space shortcuts from any page, even if this will add more work because adding a space shortcut is not the same as adding an include macro in the sidebar that points to a common page where I can define all the necessary links I want. Now with this design, instead of updating one common page, I have to update each documentation space, one by one. Worst, I've just been informed the include macro won't work anymore in the header and footer, adding more administration work (I tried to add a shortcut there to the landing space as a workaround)
Regards
Thanks Helen for this feedback. We are looking into this.
Liron
Hey Bruno,
What about setting a landing page as your site home?
This means that when clicking on the Confluence logo on the top left in the blue sidebar, your users will always get to the same page you choose (you basically select a space to be your site home, and we take the overview from that space and display it there always for people to land back into).
Would this solve the above use case?
With the new design can you build a menu like feature so that we can arrange our spaces like an actual website. This will help our users navigate around way better.
We can arrange our site based on projects and and departments.
If you're going to change the design can we at least have a menu like feature so that we can arrange our spaces like an actual website. This will help our users navigate around better rather then going to the space directory.
Liron,
the landing page is defined for all users, including anonymous ones. I have a landing page that points to a portal space where registered users can select to go to our intranet while anonymous users can click on the Knowledge Base and documentation space, plus a link for our partners.
This requires more clicks than a simple link to the documentation space as there's a portal space between.
Moreover, maybe you are not aware of this but the landing space settings has no effect for Confluence-Only users (bug reported). If you click on the Confluence logo or the company logo I've added, you are not sure to go to the homesite page, I mean the "overview" page. It seems there's a cookie placed, even if you're not logged in, that gets you back to the latest page you saw which can be "Activity" or "Spaces" so no more "menu" driven page for them and they cannot "opt out for now", no option for anonymous users (all our customers).
Yes I am aware of this bug and we will fix it.
As for everything else you mentioned in this post - let me talk to the team and get back to you in our morning (its almost midnight here).
Thanks!
Thanks for the feature request.
As for space switching easily, we are looking into it and will provide a solution for it in the new design shortly.
I voted for all the tickets aksing for the page tree back the way it was, or at least an opt-out of the new design. Just adding me too here as well. Page tree open and visible by default is vital to our work and our use of the product. New display is a hindrance and not an improvement at all. Please give us some option.
What use is the page tree available when you view a page if you're on a Space and can't find a page to view because the page tree is missing. Seems a bit like a circular argument.
I'm sure there are some use cases where the page tree might have been distracting on Space pages, so make it configurable, optional. Don't just take stuff away. From the huge outcry I hope you are seeing that there are many,many of us that 100% depend on that page tree visible when a Space is selected.
Please, please give us back the Page tree. I can work around some of this other stuff and adjust to the new design, but this is a complete show stopper on my server instance.
Thanks
Susan
Literally incomprehensible. I'm not sure what the thinking is behind this.
Amen to that!
Yea verily, Amen!
It should be possible to have 'opt out' users just keep running on the current, stable Confluence Cloud codebase and let all thems that wants enter the Brave New World and debug it as Atlassian forges on their continuous dev-ops path...
We currently don't have the cycles to adapt our site to the new "features" and find workarounds for the site structure that the new Confluence experience breaks.
As it seems in the long term we'll have to live with the changes, I'll work with it in coming weeks and months to see how to mangle it to our needs, but I don't want to disturb/perturn/frustrate our users while doing that.
Ditto.
Midnight? Too bad.
My sympathy levels for you guys is at an all-time low. If you hadn't screwed the 'new experience' up you wouldn't have this avalanche of complaints and requests for things to fix.
As you may have noticed, the date for switching all users to the new UI has been postponed. The announcement in the top bar of my Confluence Cloud instance now reads as follows:
«We're giving you more time to prep for the new Confluence experience while we act on your feedback. We'll be turning it back on between Sept 14–23. Opt back in or learn more.»
This is good news for everybody following this discussion. By this Atlassian acknowledges that a significant part of their users/clients are not satisfied with the new Confluence experience. And it leaves a bit more time to discuss issues and hopefully fix them.
On the other hand, Atlassian still plans to switch all users to the new UI, even if they have opted out. I think this is one of the main reasons why the discussion here and elsewhere on Atlassian Community became quite heated.
The best thing Atlassian can do now is to accept that there are users who find the new UI useful and users who don't. Instead of vasting a lot of energy for argueing with frustrated users Atlassian should simply let them choose between the old UI and the new UI as long as they wish. There can be a Confluence Classic Theme and a Confluence Modern Theme side by side – no big deal for Atlassian, but a massive relieve for people who use Confluence differently than the Atlassian UI team assumes.
So I am asking Atlassian: Don't enforce the new UI on us – convince us that it's the better alternative! Leave us the choice between the old and the new theme, contuinue to improve the new theme – and time (and statistics) will show.
By the way: I would like to thank @Liron for participating in this discussion. While we don't agree in many points regarding the new UI I really appreciate that she is taking her time to explain the reasoning behind it and to forward our complaints to the developers.
Opt out creates a mess
Also not a fan of new UI, in-particular losing the page navigation bar.
I selected the link to Log out and the page now doesn't render properly at all (looks like broken CSS) so I can't navigate or edit pages.
Reluctantly my only option is to opt back in but Opt In button links to an empty anchor (#).
Does anyone know a URL or similar I can use to force opt in so I can keep using Confluence?
Well it seems someone from Atlassian does read this page.
I base my comment on the lack of response to the bug report mentioned several times on this page, and its associated bugs, with a total of :- 90 upvotes- 59 comments from other users
but which had not (and still have not) even had assignees allocated by Atlassian:
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-56841
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-50405
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-51524
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-51627
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-54618
This much negative feedback should be seen as quite a significant response in anyone's books. Hence the strong feeling expressed by users that they are just being ignored.
Reading through "thousands of good and bad comments every single day" is all very well, but it's doing something about it that gets kudos.
I am a Confluence (Atlassian Tool set) Fan and evangelist... One of the things I liked about Atlassian Tools is they are NOT flashy and they don't mess with non-functional unnecessary "whatevers" .... AND it always works easily... Until now...
The new UI is something right out of the pages of Microsoft UI Development. (Remember the Windows 8 UI failure)... We previously used SharePoint for all our documentation and Project Management when it was logical and almost text-based (Version 2007) it wasn't all that pretty but pretty much ANYONE in our organization could find stuff and figure out how to use the tool... Then Microsoft went crazy and created all these LARGE icons and messed up all the features we used before the upgrade of 2010 & 2013... Then EVERYONE, including the executives, and young people alike dropped SharePoint like a rock... So we switched to a professional tool set - Atlassian... Everyone was able to figure it out in almost no time at all.
And now Atlassian appears to have adopted the same short-sighted UI improvement approach that all the kool kids use for their video games and shopping sites... I hate to mention it but Confluence is not a liesure time application or a shopping website... it is a tool to get stuff done quickly without having to take a 40 hour course to figure out how to do simple tasks...
Off soap-box.
Thanks for listening... Atlassian is a top notch tool suite (we use it for lots more than just software development)... please don't mess it up for us users...
Thank you...
Hey Russell, do you mean you can't opt out of the new uI ?
Hi Bruce and thanks for your post and the links. We are indeed aware of this pain some customers are experiencing with the page tree not being there on Overview pages.
Because we are listening, we have decided to extend the period customers can opt in and out of the new experience and we will only be bringing customers back into the new experience by default (with no option to opt out) in mid September.
Taking this time means two things:
1) More time for you to adjust and learn the new experience, train your team, etc.
2) More time for us to address issues exactly like the one you mentioned. We are working through this and trying to find the right balance of solutions with you - our customers - at top of mind.
I apologize if the feeling has been that you have been ignored. The team (me included) are working through improving the experience every single day and are reading through everything including the above tickets you mentioned. Your voices are not unheard, even if not every single request is fullfilled. We are taking this time to respond and ACT on your feedback, I will soon give an update about what exactly it is we are improving/bringing back etc.
+1 for Robert Quinns comment.
+1 for the Sidebar. I prefer it expanded, but happy if it's an option to be collapsed or expanded. And customisable.
please explain me how anonymous users can "opt out". This new shiny UI has broken many things in our online documentation. I need an option as an admin to "opt out" either the whole instance or some spaces. This will let us time to find workarounds to the features you've removed in this new concept of "regression software".
I'm also shocked by the fact you can't switch to the old UI. As a UX Researcher and Usability Engineer the abolishment of the old Page Tree is probably the biggest Backward-Leap I've ever encountered. The whole concept behind the old UI was the hierarchy which is now killed by disabling the classic tree which exactly showed you the order and dependencies of the respective knowledge.
I also don't see an Opt Out Option. As a paying customer I think, that the customer itself should be able to decide what UI Layout to use and which not.
Please note, the dates have shifted -
We are indeed aware of this pain some customers are experiencing with the page tree not being there on Overview pages.
I hope this helps adjust, meanwhile we are taking the time to respond and act on this feedback , and will improve the experience between now and then based on this.
L
Hey,
There is an opt out option in the UI both from your profile menu (bottom left, where you see your picture), or from the blue sidebar under 'New Experience' there's an opt out button.
You can opt out between now and mid September by which date we will be switching everyone back onto the new experience.
Please use this time to adjust and also let us know of anything you find in the new experience that is holding you back.
The page tree, is still there, just not on overview pages. Please let me know if you can't find it?
Anonymous users cannot opt out. We could opt out your whole instance but then how will you go back and forth in order to adjust to the new experience?
Let me know how you want to proceed. Either way everyone will be opted back in mid September.
How clear can anybody be? Seriously!
I want the page tree there by default.
NO looking around for it. NO clicking here and there. NO need to explain to new users how they get it. It just should be there. Because it is arguably Confluence's most useful identifyable UI feature.
Overview pages are secondary, and for those who actually have a use for 'overviews'. Only a very small number of those who use Confluence in our organisation actually do. I suspect this also is the case in most other instabces.
Is that so difficult to understand? People look for information about specific things. Or they want to add information about specific things. The number of those who want 'meta information' is minuscule in comparison.
Hi Till,
We do understand this request.
Thanks for explaining it again, trust us that we are considering ALL angles and seeking to find the best solution for our customers.
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