Your site was enrolled for the EAP from an administrator. This is the reason you're seeing the new navigation for your site.
Re: Is it possible that the release of the new interface version was brought forward?
We've only enabled the new navigation for a small cohort of people who have signed up for the EAP. The General Availability (GA) release of the new navigation is coming in 2025. We can confirm that this isn't brought forward. We'll announce GA release closer to the dates of the actual release in 2025.
Re: How does the Early Access Program (EAP) subscription work?
In October 2024, we announced EAP and asked admins to sign up via this form.
Re: When I subscribe will I receive advance access to the new features?
Yes, you'll have the features available to you in your site after you've signed up and agreed to be a part of the EAP.
I was expecting it to be in the top nav. But Project settings is still in the left nav but you have to click the three dots next to the project's name to see it.
The New Navigation is enabled by Default on a new site that I created a few days back. As per you post we can change back to the old one? Please can you share a link to the steps needed to change back to the old UI?
Also, are there plans of integrating a "Product Link" or Custom link (in my case Confluence) in the left navigation pane?
I wanted to share some feedback on the recent UI changes.
It’s too slow.
Explanation:
As a long-time Jira user (nearly 10 years), I frequently switch between sections like Timeline, Backlog, Active Sprint, Components, and similar items. In the previous design, these options were arranged vertically, with minimal spacing, making switching fast and seamless.
However, the new design uses a horizontal layout, which forces me to move across a much larger distance when switching between sections. This has noticeably slowed down my workflow and made navigation less efficient.
I understand that this change might have been intended to accommodate switching between projects or similar use cases. However, in practice, it has caused a significant decline in the user experience.
I hope this feedback helps improve the usability of the platform.
This looks helpful however when I search the product updates I do not find anything about this new navigation. Can you provide a link or let us know how to find this in the "Product updates"?
This reminds me of what happened in 2018 when Atlassian changed the ‘top’ navigation bar to a ‘side’ navigation bar. The experience was so bad that *after* they rolled it out, they ran focus groups where 95% of users said they preferred the ‘top’ to the ‘side’. Then in 2020 the ‘top’ was brought back as an ‘improvement’ (“we have heard your feedback”) and because it was a “better navigation system”.
Fast forward to today, and the reasons for changing the ‘top’ back to the ‘side’ are the same as when the ‘side’ was changed back to the ‘top’ – “it will make it faster to navigate and easier to find work”.
*The same problems that users reported in 2018 are highlighted on this page as improvements.*
Saying that something is “new and modern” doesn’t beat something that has already proven to be “better”. What would have been better is to allow customisation on the ‘top’ rather than move some of the ‘top’ to the ‘side’ and end up with three navigation bars compared to two. Also, I can’t see where the project settings are so possibly there are now four navigation bars.
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I completely agree with the Administrator. With so many bugs to fix and essential business features to implement, Atlassian seems more focused on playing around with the UI.
Sure, the UI should be modern and easy to use, but Jira isn’t Facebook. These constant changes, made just for the sake of it, actually put off big clients who care more about clarity and usability than flashy updates.
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