The new Amplify experience is a landmark update to the Amplify software that addresses key interface and experience issues expected of growing and evolving software. The core goals are:
- Clear site positioning and navigation
- Function and tool visibility
- Consistency
The update consists of three rollout stages:
- Soft launch - most of the features are available and can be applied to instances on request. This stage offers the chance for real users to trial the new experience.
- Voluntary experience - the complete experience can be opted in by users through their profile settings.
- Mandatory experience - all instances will be updated to use the new experience.
Updating all instances to the new experience ensures that development can remain focussed on new features and improving current ones without managing an ageing system.
Read on for an introduction to the biggest changes:
Voluntary Experience
Once launched (announcement will be made via release email and notes) the new Amplify experience can be enabled by users through the 'My Account' page. During this stage, users can enable or disable the experience whenever they like. Once this is enabled, users can start exploring the changes introduced with the new experience.
New Layout
The new Amplify experience brings about a complete redesign of the Amplify software's layout. The new layout involves three distinct areas: top navigation, side navigation, and content.
Top Navigation
The top navigation has already been introduced in previous releases and remains unchanged functionally.
Side Navigation
This new method for site navigation represents the largest innovation for the new Amplify experience. This area completely replaces the navigation originally presented horizontally across the top of the page content. The side navigation provides more visibility to menu items as well as more space to accommodate any amount of menu items.
The side navigation consists of three sections: a hide/show button, a menu title and properties item, and the site navigation.
The side navigation can be hidden or shown by clicking on the Amplify icon. Hiding the navigation will reduce the menu to just icons and allow more space for content on the screen. The menu items still behave the same in this mode.
The side navigation displays a different menu depending on where you are on the site. To identify where you are, you can look at the menu title section.
The arrow on the left navigates up the menu tree and software (if applicable) e.g. project > program > enterprise.
The pencil icon will navigate to the properties of the current level (if applicable).
The menu itself has been redesigned to group more relevant items together and provide more logical ordering for easier navigation.
Items with an arrow next to them contain sub navigation and can be expanded by clicking on them. Click them again to collapse them.
Content Area
The content area has been updated to take advantage of modern, popular screen resolutions as well as the increased space created by the new side navigation. Each content area contains a consistent title, however in some instances this is replaced by a view title and selector.
The majority of the functionality has been retained with most of the changes to the content being purely aesthetic in order to improve the experience. Any functional changes will be announced in the release notes.
Tool Bar
A major change to the site has been a reallocation of the current hamburger menu functions. Items in this menu that were primarily navigation, now exist in the side navigation e.g. history, properties.
Other items that were primarily functions now exist in a tool bar located near the top of the content area.
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