How We Re-imagined and Simplified Confluence Bit by Bit

Though we called it The Confluence Simplify project, our complete overhaul of the navigation experience in Confluence was anything but simple. With a goal to make the product more accessible, understandable, and useful to every user and every team, we were challenged to do this radical project in an incremental way.

Knowing that large visual changes to products can fail spectacularly, we've done everything we can to validate what we're building, ship fast, and ship often. Come hear how we implemented this change, what we learned while attempting this project, and how you can apply these learnings to your nice big audacious project!

Products covered:
Confluence

1. SAM TARDIF • TEAM LEAD • ATLASSIAN • @SAMTARDIF
How we re-imagined and
simplified Confluence bit by bit

2. •Big cool statistic
•2,56
9
•Add-Ons in Marketplace
fear

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•2,56
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•Add-Ons in Marketplace

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#courage

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•2,56
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framework

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•2,56
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fear

9. Mia Framework Shiny
Outline

10. Resume
Consume
Create
Pages, blogs, questions, … Mia
likes to create some content.
Mia spends a lot of her time
consuming content.
Mia often needs to get back to
things she has seen or worked on.

11. Resume
Consume
Mia spends a lot of her time
consuming content.
Mia often needs to get back to
things she has seen or worked on.

12. Resume
Consume
I saw this the other day and I want
to find it again
I’m interested in what’s happening
I’d like to browse my team’s work
Alana shared this with me last week
I refer to this all the time
I’d like to continue working on
something that I started yesterday

14. Just too complicated for the work style we
do. I like what it does, if it was just simplified
it would be great.
ANONYMOUS NPS FEEDBACK
“
”

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•2,56
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16. Most users live in
space
1

17. Mia

18. Remove features Dashboard Space navigation
Three big rocks

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•2,56
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remove features

20. Removing something
that a team depends on
FEAR

21. Resume
Consume
I saw this the other day and I want
to find it again
I’m interested in what’s happening
I’d like to browse my team’s work
Alana shared this with me last week
I refer to this all the time
I’d like to continue working on
something that I started yesterday

22. Resume
Consume
I saw this the other day and I want
to find it again
I’m interested in what’s happening
I’d like to browse my team’s work
Alana shared this with me last week
I refer to this all the time
I’d like to continue working on
something that I started yesterday

23. !
!
very little
of the time
some
of the time
most
of the time
all
of the time
few
of the people
some
of the people
most
of the people
all
of the people

24. Status updates

25. User menu
Create a status
List your statuses
Lots of prime realestate in the user menu.

26. A simple dialog box for creating a text status.
User menu
Create a status
List your statuses

27. Another tab in the user’s profile.
User menu
Create a status
List your statuses

28. !
!
very little
of the time
some
of the time
most
of the time
all
of the time
few
of the people
some
of the people
most
of the people
all
of the people

29. No brainer, right?

30. Change management

31. There’s still
someone using a
low use feature
Vendors need

love, too
Technical debt can
be a bit
overwhelming
So, we learnt some things

32. •Big cool statistic
•2,56
9
•Add-Ons in Marketplace
new dashboard

33. We don’t know much
about current
dashboard usage
FEAR

34. Resume
Consume
I saw this the other day and I want
to find it again
I’m interested in what’s happening
I’d like to browse my team’s work
Alana shared this with me last week
I refer to this all the time
I’d like to continue working on
something that I started yesterday

35. Resume
Consume
I saw this the other day and I want
to find it again
I’m interested in what’s happeningI’d like to browse my team’s work
Alana shared this with me last week
I refer to this all the time
I’d like to continue working on
something that I started yesterday

37. •Big cool statistic
•2,56
9
•Add-Ons in Marketplace
experiments

38. “My Space”
“Space Directory”
A dashboard that remembers the space you were in last, and
shows you a summary of that space.
“My Stu!”

39. A dashboard that acts as a landing board for navigating into a space,
just like the space directory.
“My Space”
“Space Directory”
“My Stu!”

40. A dashboard that was more content-focused, surfacing recent
pages, favourite pages, and tasks along with spaces.
“My Space”
“Space Directory”
“My Stu!”

42. Spending too little
time to polish your
experiments can
be costly
You need to
change a lot for
people to notice
Opt-out rates are a
great measure of
preference
So, we learnt some things

43. •Big cool statistic
•2,56
9
•Add-Ons in Marketplace
space navigation

44. Will our fundamental
change to the product
help users GSD?
FEAR

45. Resume
Consume
I saw this the other day and I want
to find it again
I’m interested in what’s happening
I’d like to browse my team’s work
Alana shared this with me last week
I refer to this all the time
I’d like to continue working on
something that I started yesterday

46. Resume
Consume
I saw this the other day and I want
to find it again
I’m interested in what’s happening
I’d like to browse my team’s workAlana shared this with me last week
I refer to this all the time
I’d like to continue working on
something that I started yesterday

47. Get Mia back to her space

48. Make her space clearer

49. Separate navigating and
consuming

50. •Big cool statistic
•2,56
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•Add-Ons in Marketplace
Be bold, but be right.
MATTHEW LAWRENCE, ATLASSIAN“ ”

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•2,56
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simplicity, quanti"ed

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IRL NPS

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NavDex

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•2,56
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experiments, again

55. sidebar #1 sidebar #2

56. Opt-in
OFFON

57. beta testers
50k

58. Quantitative qual
OFFON
Thanks for trying out our new navigation.
What did you think?
Leave Feedback

59. pieces of feedback
2.5k

62. QuestionsCalendarsCustom

63. QuestionsCalendarsCustom

64. QuestionsCalendarsCustom

67. Staged rollout

68. Qualitative
feedback from

A/B testing is gold
Opt-in tests get
you more than just
early adopters
Don’t expect a
de"nitive
measurement of
simplicity
So, we learnt some things

69. •Big cool statistic
•2,56
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70. Takeaways

71. 1. Be fearful, it’s healthy

72. 2. Know who you’re
simplifying for

73. 3. Simplicity is a constant
battle

74. Thank you!
SAM TARDIF • TEAM LEAD • ATLASSIAN • @ SAMTARDIF

75. Credits
https://unsplash.com/search/photos/roller%20coaster?photo=FOsina4f7qM
http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/4d/4de0d2dc9c23c1a41dd87d81fb05fc307d318ab923ca05e94518c62b51b51d61.jpg
http://jasoncrawford.org/2012/04/how-to-cope-with-the-gmail-redesign/
https://i1.wp.com/fusion.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/gettyimages-599936478.jpg?resize=1600%2C900&quality=80&strip=all
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1453806839674-d1a9087ca1ed
http://www.clipartbay.com/cliparts/cute-cartoon-unicorn-clip-art-wzce9ve.png
http://cliparts.co/cliparts/pio/5xG/pio5xG7ET.png
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1465788786008-f75a725b34e9
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1456824399588-844440089f4b
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1444228250525-3d441b642d12
https://blog.intercom.com/before-you-plan-your-product-roadmap/
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1462212210333-335063b676bc
https://hd.unsplash.com/reserve/Af0sF2OS5S5gatqrKzVP_Silhoutte.jpg
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/lossimpson/images/5/55/Desconocido.png/revision/latest?cb=20150614004847&path-prefix=es
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1458040937381-49c067dfd49a
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1434056886845-dac89ffe9b56
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1459478309853-2c33a60058e7
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1468933957718-41745382af9c
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1470848051974-964b789cb6fa
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1446329360995-b4642a139973
https://images.unsplash.com/reserve/wi9yf7kTQxCNeY72cCY6_Images%20of%20Jenny%20Lace%20Plasticity%20Publish%20(4%20of
%2025).jpg?ixlib=rb-0.3.5&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&s=60b4f7d8343a24d40067b0bfd998514e
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1416339306562-f3d12fefd36f
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1469313785555-277fa0c1dc9e
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1461950209984-1ce1f03a1be9
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1464716821973-e1031cfa43dc
https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1468070454955-c5b6932bd08d