How to display Issue Type in New Jira issue view

[Ian Bucad]

I am trying to have the Issue Type displayed while in New Jira issue view.

I have added the "Issue Type" to the Configure Screen's Field tab but I still can't see in under the Project's issue layout page.

What am I missing?

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

The issue type name is not visible in the new view. Only the icon.

[Wolfgang Seidler]

We have the same icons for several issue types - any suggestions how to know the issue type?

[John Funk]

Change the icons.  :-)

Also, if you hover over the icon, it will tell you the issue type. 

[Wolfgang Seidler]

Sure :-) We need to get more and more creative in compensating missing usability from Atlassian side ;-) Unfortunately we have users who's primary work is not understanding JIRA, but real work :-(

The icons I already changed, but the feedback was not so positive ....

[John Funk]

Not sure that I would classify it as missing usability since you have the option to change a standard icon. 

But regardless, what exactly was the feedback that they didn't like about the different icons for each issue type? We have more than 100 issue types and lots of creativity with the icons so it is pretty clear what the issue type is. 

Can you provide more feedback? 

[Wolfgang Seidler]

If usability means you have to learn the meaning of icons, fine. I would not share this view. If you force me as manager (not the ones permanently working with Jira) to look into a tool like Jira and on top expect me to understand hundreds of different icons - sorry I would refuse to use Jira and require proper reports (back to old school).

So the feedback was simple and clear: "I/We do not want to remember icons, I/We want to read the type, so I know in which level of hierarchy the issue is and what it means."

Hoovering over the icon was unfortunately also not an argument.

We can arrange almost every single field in the screens, but we are not allowed to display the issue type. This remembers me of a paradox situation at a clients new office, where the architect and consequently the purchasing department (!!) refused to organise pinboards with the argument, that we have meeting rooms with whiteboards, and this is sufficient for the new working environment.

I don't want to provide more feedback - for me (or at least for the management I try to convince to look into Jira) it's missing usability.

[John Funk]

If you are on a board, then you can add the Issue Type as one of the 3 fields showing on the board to display the name. 

If you don't like the new detail issue view, then you can use the old issue view that shows the name of the issue type.

[Hubert Seales]

"If you don't like the new detail issue view, then you can use the old issue view that shows the name of the issue type." <-- Only for this to become unavailable to us sometime in 2021?  Seems to me that "switching to the old view" isn't _really_ an option. 

[John Funk]

Well, that was written before the announcement came down. Hopefully, there will be some solution prior to the forced switchover. But for now, it remains an option. 

[Peter]

Just to chime in, I agree that this is an absolutely horrible design decision. I'm seeing first hand how it's incredibly hostile to new users especially, and those are the ones most likely to jump ship if they're not getting the experience they expect (and, frankly, deserve). 

Having to remember a bunch of obscure little icons is ridiculous.  Was anyone really complaining about having the text of the issue type name present before?  This seems like an answer for a question no one was asking.

For anyone else who happens across this, there is a "suggestion" for returning the text of the issue type to the view screen. It looks like it hasn't gotten much attention yet.  Vote! :-)

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-73516

[John Funk]

Just a note - if you hover over the icon with your cursor, it will tell you the Issue Type. 

[Peter]

Yes, I'm aware. But that's not obvious to a new user, so each one needs to be told about that. Also, it's an incredibly frustrating experience to have to repeatedly do that while trying to get acclimated to a new application.  I've watched this play out in real time, and I can feel and understand their aggravation.

[Charles Jamison]

I find this whole thread so amusing.

Atlassian removes functionality (for instance displaying something basic like what issue type an issue is) and then when people complain, instead of admitting functionality is removed the complainer is gas-lit!  "Oh, we added ICON FUNCTIONALITY! Why are you complaining!".

Oh my god it is so rich.

[John Funk]

So I am curious who was gas-lit and which comment was made about not complaining? Also, which comment said functionality was not removed? 

It's a new view, so you can adapt or you can complain. I simply choose to adapt in this case. I was simply pointing out that you can still see the Issue Type by hovering because it seemed to me to be implied by comments that the user do no longer see the issue type name period. That's simply not the case. 

I fail to see any complaints attacking the complainers, but I am certainly open to light being shed about that. 

[Charles Jamison]

OMG.

This is the best.

Look, Atlassian took a product that everyone is stuck with due to institutional lock-in.  Then they decided to totally revamp it without asking admins or other stakeholders whether they even WANTED a revamp.  Then they decided to do the bizarre changes by rolling it out across different users at different times to use them as guinea pigs.  And without acknowledging that they were removing a ton of functionality (Tabs, etc). They also forced it to be opt-out on a user-level purposely keeping admins from shutting the horrible thing off. 

Then when people complain the complainers need to prove their complaints are valid and even prove that there are complainers!

You are too much man.  I am not saying you are to blame.  Or that you are doing anything wrong.  I am just saying your response to ANYONE complaining about this new view fiasco should be "Well sorry you got the carpet yanked out from underneath you, being an admin is HARD and even harder when everyone around you is stressed out doing their normal job, and now you have to learn bizarre work-arounds that are only temporary anyway, because atlassian will FORCE you to use their junky new view whether you like it or not on March 31st, and even worse yet, many of the work-arounds require training the END USER on how to use the gee-whiz-look-at-my-slick-GUI-changes-that-DO-NOT-HELP-ANYONE-DO-ANYTHING-BETTER-THAN-THEY-USED TO... so yeah, sorry about all that, but now having admitted that, how can I help you out?... oh yeah, you can hover over that icon to find out something that you used to be able to see at a glance and you can train your WHOLE COMPANY TO DO THE SAME HOVERING B.S. - I can see how that would be super annoying... AND THAT IS JUST ONE SMALL CHANGE THAT IS ANNOYING, there are so many more you will have to overcome, but that isn't the price of progress that is the price of a company that doesn't care about its end users trying to make their product look cool on mobile phones and making the poor choice of forcing every bad design decision that entails become YOUR PROBLEM as an admin, and yeah that is not something anyone should have to do but here we are..."

The whole thing is hilarious.  If I didn't have vendor-lock-in I would get my organization the hell outta here.  But here we are.

My overarching point here is:
A) People have a right to complain and there is a lot to complain about!

B) Don't act like explaining how to do a workaround is anything other than an embarrassment for anyone involved including yourself.  FACT:  There was a field that told users what type of JIRA issue they were on.  FACT: That field is now gone.  FACT: That is ridiculous but whatever!

Please don't take this personally.  It isn't an attack on you.  I am just admonishing you to acknowledge that the new issue view causes problems.  LOTS OF THEM.  And then go from there.  I am sure you are super nice and helpful and, no sarcasm intended, you are making the world a better place by helping everyone out.  So sorry if I sound like a jerk.  But oh my, I just can't even.  This has been a fun ride.  Thanks Atlassian!  I can't wait until March 31st!

[John Funk]

Look, I feel your pain as much as you do. I dislike the new view as well. In fact, I will be using it up until the day they take it way from me. 

My point is just that you know it's coming and that's not going to change. So until there are updates there are ways to use the tool as it is. Doesn't mean that we like it. 

And nobody is saying you can't complain. I have done plenty of complaining myself. This just isn't the place for it in my opinion. Atlassian is rarely looking at these posts. Especially ones that are months old. So I view this arena in the Community as a way to help people get stuff done with what we have. 

Feel free to vent away, but you aren't really reaching anyone that can do anything about it here - sarcasm or not.  :-)

[Charles Jamison]

"My point is just that you know it's coming and that's not going to change." - that is what people said about a Trump presidency in 2024.  The new issue view is so garbage that I bet they back down once March 31st arrives, or a few weeks or months later.

Also, if you are right and they don't keep their toe in their own community forum during the biggest major overhaul of their software ever then they are one sad sack pathetic company doomed to implode much sooner than we all think despite the pain of vendor lock-in that we all think is going to keep us chained to them.  JIRA is NOT FORTRAN.  It can go bye-bye in the span of a year if they piss all their customers off simultaneously. Which is probably why they did the unethical rolling user-level optout switchover over the COURSE OF AN ENTIRE YEAR.  They were hoping to sneak it all in and then flip a switch once everyone got used to the cold water thrown on them, while spreading the pain out so people never complained en masse and instead in trickles as each was jolted into the world of the great "new issue view".

Do you know how much work it would be for me to yank my organization from JIRA?  A LOT.  And yet, yesterday I began researching how to do it.  That is how badly they botched it.  And I am NOT the kind of guy who creates extra work for myself.

So I must disagree, they probably DO read an occasional angry screed sitting around here, and if I am lucky I can win that cranky old dude lottery.  Hence my venting on top of your honest attempt to help others out.  I am not in the habit normally of getting drunk and knocking over the Girl Scout Cookie Table at the local supermarket.  But good god I cannot stop myself. 

In this post-covid-world where everyone is AT HOME ON THEIR LAPTOP - do they REALLY need to go through with their ridiculous overhaul designed to make JIRA look good on mobile phones?  I hope to god not.  WAKE UP ATLASSIAN.  YOU ARE MORE OUT OF TOUCH THAN A BUNCH OF NUTTY QANON FOOLS.

[Ian Bucad]

hovering doesn't even work now for me. I get this icon when I have the issue opened

[John Funk]

You should put in a support ticket with Atlassian:

https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

[Mya.Hauck]

@Ian Bucad Did you put in a ticket to support? Have you received an answer? We have started getting this symbol as well.

[Ian Bucad]

No, I haven't put in a support ticket yet

[Tamara_Blake]

This happens when the issue is in an Epic. When you go to the Epic the issue type shows and is you hover on an issue in the Epic list it also shows. Definitely a bug. I'll put in a ticket

[Jon F. Nebenfuhr]

Work around is to create a Custom Field List with your issue types as the values, best to name it something like "ISSUE-TYPE" to differentiate it from the default "Issue type" field. Set the field in the View Screens, and others as needed.

In the workflows "Create" transition for when an issue is created, add in a Post Function to "Copy Value From Other Field" to make the Custom Field match the Issue type.

You may want to add in an Automated Action that verifies the Issue Type and the Custom Field List value match, and if different will update the custom field again, on issue updates, as someone may move the issue at some point and change the issue type.

[Peter]

I wouldn't create a select list for this, but rather use a simple text field. You correctly advised to only add this to the view screen so that it can't be manually edited, so there's no risk in using a text field to display the information and, by doing it this way, you don't have to keep a select list updated every time you add a new issue type.

[Jack Bellanger]

This new Jira view is a hot mess. What a horrible design decision for one of Jira's most important fields. Please restore text visibility to Issue Type and trash the icon mouseover baloney. 

[Chris Zawadzki]

I've just lost a day of work looking for issue type on the screen. Found the dot-size icon only thanks to this post.

I reviewed all the settings, screens, fields and so on to no avail.

As I am setting the project for people who will work on multiple issue types, the issue type is the most important information regarding the issue.

As the people who will work on this are neither Jira experienced, nor they will use Jira full time, the icons will be meaningless to them, at least during critical period of adapting Jira.

So what's the user instruction? "Once you open the issue, locate a dot-sized icon towards the top of the screen, located along some other meaningless icons, hover the mouse over there, read and remember the text, which will disappear, then you can start working on the issue." Any better options?

Not sure this design will help with the successful application of the tool.

[Erik Hummel]

Same here. Trying to get marketing, training and a few other groups involved to product rollout plans and get out of emails and spreadsheets. And this situation has been consistent feedback that they don't know what issue type they are on.

[Lauren Smith]

Clarification on Hovering to see Item Type

• For Jira SAAS Hovering for Item Type data is only available in the Backlog or Active Sprint views...... when globally viewing items in the Backlog or Active Sprint views.
• No data is available at the individual item level when the item is open; that produces a circle with a line through it

[mruttan]

Another workaround, which we should not need, is to toss a field on each issue and run a small automation in the background to update the field based on issue type.  Add that new issue type field to your view and tada!

[Rilwan Ahmed]

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-73516

[Kevin Frey]

I have just gone through the same process of trying to work out how to display the Issue Type (Name) on the Issue screen, rather than just an Icon.

The problem is not with showing the icon, it's the fact that the JIRA software specifically denies allowing you to display the Issue Type as a regular field. Someone has actively gone to the trouble of preventing you showing that field in a conventional manner.

I will vote for this to be fixed -- since we have moved to the cloud version of JIRA we are finding numerous backwards steps, although we really had no choice in the matter given the on-premise version is being discontinued.

[Keiran]

Just in case anyone else is looking for this, although you can't see the text for the "Issue type", you can include the "Request type", which I find is often the more "user friendly" name anyway:

[Karie Kelly]

Agree with the comments.  Creating icons that are all different is challenging for accessibility and readability.  Chores and Tasks - you might say why would these be different types? Well, they can have different workflows and fields because the persona is different.   However, how we would want to convey in a UI and at glance, is using the same icon. 

It's not intuitive to have to hover, especially when you have it in your configuration to show on your screens. 

Why take on the battle of not providing customers the ability to have it on their view screens or not?  Jira provides alot of configurability for that reason and to take that away on certain fields, creating these 'exceptions' is the frustration. 

[Ian Bucad]

I've created a Suggestion over at Atlassian Support. Feel free to vote for it by clicking "More" > "Add vote"

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-21528

[John Funk]

Thanks for doing that - voted!

[Peter]

This already existed - I linked to it earlier in this thread. By creating a second one, you're simply diluting the perceived interest in restoring this visibility.

[Bogdan Tenea]

Note: the initial request to add this is here: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-73516

[Kevin Frey]

Easy: Vote for both. No dilution takes place.

[Vikrant Yadav]

Hi @Ian Bucad Issue type is always visible on the view screen, even you add it on view screen or not. 

thanks

[Ian Bucad]

I'm not seeing it unless I hover over the icon. 

For reference, this is the old view: 

And below is the new jira issue view where I have to hover on that itty bitty icon