In May 2024, Quickbase introduced new sidebar navigation. In sidebar navigation, the legacy menu bar across the top moves to the left. Sidebar navigation gives you more valuable screen space while keeping tables within easy reach.
This article covers important information for admins so they can smoothly transition their app users to sidebar navigation. For more information about using sidebar navigation, see Guide to Quickbase navigation.
In this article
Admin controls for sidebar navigation
Since October 2024, sidebar navigation is the default for all apps. However, there are two levels of controls for switching back to legacy top navigation:
- Account admins have a setting on the Permissions page in the Admin Console that gives users navigation options in their user preferences
- If the setting is on, users in the account may switch back to top navigation in user preferences
Learn more in How to control access to different navigation experiences.
Legacy navigation availability
Account admins can allow users to switch back to legacy top navigation through the second half of 2025. Learn more in New sidebar navigation rollout plan and timeline.
Quickbase will actively communicate with admins through email and release notes at least 90 days before deprecating the ability to switch back to legacy top navigation.
Set your users up for success
There are several resources to help you roll this change out to your users:
- Guide to Quickbase navigation help article: In-depth information about using sidebar navigation
- Updated navigation guide PDF: Shareable document that gives an overview of how to use sidebar navigation
- Introduction to Quickbase navigation blog post: Provides a basic overview of changes to navigation
- Quickbase's Navigation Revolution webinar: Register for the webinar, and then enter the event from the email that arrives in your inbox to access the recording. Provides a video overview of the changes and the benefits.
- Change management blog post: Provides tips on managing and navigating software changes
We have also provided in-product guides to help users understand the changes. In the product, the following messages will be shown:
- Alerts about upcoming changes—Admins only
- Tailored walkthrough, depending on what you have access to. Shows the first time someone turns on sidebar navigation.
Why Quickbase made this change
We're always looking for ways to improve our platform. We encourage feedback and solicit input to inform how we develop our platform.
Over the past few years, we've received feedback that our top navigation was clunky, and that it had a dated look-and-feel. Our top navigation was also built on an older foundation that prevented us from innovating at the speed we'd like.
We knew this was a big change, and we did not approach it lightly. We conducted hundreds of interviews and spent over 4,500 hours of testing to make sure we provided an optimal experience for our customers. It was important to us that new sidebar navigation reached full parity with top navigation.
This change not only gives Quickbase a more modern look-and-feel, but also allows us to develop new, more powerful features and improve our platform's accessibility.
Provide feedback to Quickbase
We understand that change can be difficult, and we're here to support you. In addition to the resources in this article, you can give feedback directly to our product team. We review every piece of feedback. You can also contact our technical support team if you are having issues with sidebar navigation.
Apps are now in a menu, instead of across the top bar
We invested thousands of hours in research and development to make sure sidebar navigation is as intuitive as possible. One change we made was to move recent apps into our global navigation menu, rather than having them listed across the top bar like in legacy navigation. Two main factors in our research led to this design decision:
- The majority of Quickbase users (90-plus percent) work primarily in only 1 or 2 apps. Switching between numerous apps is not something they do frequently.
- An ever-present bar displaying recent apps takes up valuable screen space. By moving this functionality into the global navigation menu, we opted to keep apps readily available while reclaiming screen real estate.
We continue to improve our navigation. If single-click access to apps is something you feel strongly about, please submit feedback to our product team so we can make sure we prioritize the work correctly.
URL changes
In addition to visual changes, we’ve also made a change to our URL pattern. Learn more in our URL changes in sidebar navigation help article.