We’re excited to announce the rollout of a new sidebar in ftrack Studio, now accessible across all views. This update marks a big step in our ongoing effort to refine the ftrack Studio user interface, streamline navigation, and simplify your post-production workflows.
In 2022, we revealed that our engineering team has been hard at work, leveraging a robust foundation of components and a new modern front-end development stack to build the new look-and-feel sidebar for ftrack Studio. Drawing on feedback from numerous customer interviews and analyses and recognizing the sidebar’s role as a daily touchpoint for users – for accessing tasks, feedback, launching applications, and more – we understood the clear need for an improved sidebar and user experience. We prioritized its enhancement to offer better navigational capabilities, an updated UI, and increased flexibility.
We’re pleased to say that the sidebar has been battled-tested and is fully ready for production. It’s now live in all ftrack Studio accounts, new and existing.
Highlights of the new sidebar include:
- Enhanced design and navigation: The redesigned sidebar emphasizes flexibility, presenting essential information at the top and adapting effectively to display data clearly. Navigating your projects and getting the latest information is easier than ever.
- New viewing modes – docked and modal: To prevent the sidebar from obscuring other views, we’ve introduced a docked mode. This feature allows the sidebar to coexist with the current screen view, enhancing usability without compromising screen real estate. A modal option is also available for those using smaller screens or tablets.
As previously, the sidebar intelligently displays information based on user roles and permissions, so only users with access will see what they should do, keeping the sidebar tailored and secure.
We’re committed to continuously improving ftrack Studio. We’ve been working on updating our codebase and UI component library, and this sidebar is just one outcome from this effort.
Our goal is to make more gradual, meaningful improvements to ftrack Studio. This approach helps us keep the platform up-to-date, ensuring we can add new features more smoothly and maintain a clean, functional design across the product. It’s all about making ftrack more user-friendly and enhancing how different parts of the platform work together.
Rounding everything off – another UI update
You may also notice some other UI changes as you navigate ftrack – everything looks a little rounder at the edges! It’s not as significant a UI change as the sidebar, but it’s a small step toward making ftrack a more attractive option for your production tracking needs. We hope this small tweak makes things feel a little more attractive as you use ftrack day to day!
We’re committed to continuously improving our platform, enhancing features, ease of use, and overall experience. With the new sidebar, we’re laying the groundwork for a more sophisticated and user-friendly ftrack Studio.
We know this is a significant change, so should you have any questions or feedback about the new sidebar, please contact us at support@ftrack.com.