Update the Cloud navigation links

[osmanis]

As part of a recent change to bring Cloud navigation links into Kibana (#97308), there are some opportunties to improve and expand.

Preferences link

The account dropdown has a link for Preferences. This takes the user to the Kibana user settings page. For Cloud users, the page says that the email address and password fields are not editable here. But this will likely cause confusion for Cloud users that come across this page since these fields are indeed editable, just not on this page but on the Cloud Profile page. Can we look to hide this link for Cloud accounts? I don't think it provides any value to Cloud users at this time.

Elastic logo link
The link for the Elastic logo is different between Cloud and Kibana. As we move towards a unified navigation pattern, we may want to consider also changing the Elastic logo link in Kibana to point to cloud.elastic.co/home so that (nearly) all links in the header are consistent across the two apps. Having said that, 7.13 does introduce a Manage this deployment link which takes the user back to Cloud. But for consistency purposes we may want to update the logo link.

cc @alexfrancoeur @thesmallestduck @johnbarrierwilson @elastic/cloud-design

[alexfrancoeur]

The account dropdown has a link for Preferences. This takes the user to the Kibana user settings page. For Cloud users, the page says that the email address and password fields are not editable here. But this will likely cause confusion for Cloud users that come across this page since these fields are indeed editable, just not on this page but on the Cloud Profile page. Can we look to hide this link for Cloud accounts? I don't think it provides any value to Cloud users at this time.

@legrego @arisonl is there any benefit for showing this link / fields today for Cloud users? Or was the intent that these Preferences would evolve into more customizable user settings such as personalized dark mode, etc. If all fields are not editable, maybe we do hide until we expand these capabilities.

The link for the Elastic logo is different between Cloud and Kibana. As we move towards a unified navigation pattern, we may want to consider also changing the Elastic logo link in Kibana to point to cloud.elastic.co/home so that (nearly) all links in the header are consistent across the two apps. Having said that, 7.13 does introduce a Manage this deployment link which take the user back to Cloud users will have an easy path back to Cloud. But for consistency purposes we may want to update the logo link.

If I recall, we went back and forth on this a bit. At the moment, we still cannot identify a Cloud user directly, though we may be able to make some assumptions with the new roles introduced. So the audience would be relatively limited initially if we were to provide this experience. The experience of showing these links is currently limited to superusers, assuming they also have access to Cloud and the administrative capabilities. In a world where every user is a Cloud user, but they aren't administrators, what does this view look like? There is already confusion about the home button (#71550) because we offer the ability to customize the landing pages. So before revisiting this decision, I feel like we should take a step back and think about the end to end flows and who they are for. We also wanted to build more features like the ability to quickly select a deployment and switch to it, that are also paused at the moment. Maybe it's a good time to reconnect on this?

[legrego]

is there any benefit for showing this link / fields today for Cloud users?

Not a ton of benefit, no. The one caveat is that we don't know for sure if the current user is a cloud user just yet. We are making an educated guess.

Or was the intent that these Preferences would evolve into more customizable user settings such as personalized dark mode, etc.

Yeah this was the intent behind leaving the Permissions screen intact.

If all fields are not editable, maybe we do hide until we expand these capabilities.

That sounds reasonable to me.

[cristina-eleonora]

we don't know for sure if the current user is a cloud user just yet. We are making an educated guess.

What's that guess based on?

Who will see the Manage my deployment link? All users or only those users which we assume are cloud users? What will the button do if our assumption is incorrect? Will it be a dead click?

As we'll be dropping users into Kibana in the same tab, cloud users will no longer have an easy & intuitive way to go back to the portal or their list of deployments. Once they discover the Manage my deployment link in the side menu (which is not too obvious), it will be at least a 3 click operation.

Since there are still discussions and concerns regarding where the home pag should take users, we could add a Deployments button on the top bar, across cloud and Kibana, which will take users to the list of deployments in cloud. This button, just like Manage my deployment should be displayed only for cloud users.

This button will be eventually replaced with the deployment switcher.

Thoughts @osmanis @alexfrancoeur @legrego @ryankeairns ?

[legrego]

@cristina-eleonora you raise some good questions -- the original issue (#97308) had a lengthy discussion around some of these:

What's that guess based on?

We check to see if Kibana is running in Cloud, and if the current user is a superuser. Users coming in through cloud SSO are always superusers (currently).

Who will see the Manage my deployment link? All users or only those users which we assume are cloud users? What will the button do if our assumption is incorrect? Will it be a dead click?

Only users which we assume are cloud users. If our assumption is incorrect, they will land on the cloud console login page, unable to actually authenticate to the console.

As we'll be dropping users into Kibana in the same tab, cloud users will no longer have an easy & intuitive way to go back to the portal or their list of deployments. Once they discover the Manage my deployment link in the side menu (which is not too obvious), it will be at least a 3 click operation.

Since there are still discussions and concerns regarding where the home pag should take users, we could add a Deployments button on the top bar, across cloud and Kibana, which will take users to the list of deployments in cloud. This button, just like Manage my deployment should be displayed only for cloud users.

I'll let the other folks you pinged weigh in on this question, but IMO that feels like a very prominent location for a feature that I wouldn't expect most users to need all that often.

Would it be simpler to have cloud launch Kibana in a new tab instead, so that you still have an easy way to return to your portal?

[cristina-eleonora]

Thank you for answers, @legrego. These seem like pretty solid assumptions.

Users coming in through cloud SSO are always superusers (currently).

That's true for now, but it will change with phase 2 of the cloud user model which introduces 2 new roles: Editor and Viewer. I assume the logic will adap as well :)

I'll let the other folks you pinged weigh in on this question, but IMO that feels like a very prominent location for a feature that I wouldn't expect most users to need all that often.

We have multiple customers where one person is responsible of managing several deployments. Giving them an easy access is very important. Cc @Kushmaro

Would it be simpler to have cloud launch Kibana in a new tab instead, so that you still have an easy way to return to your portal?

We're moving away from the concepts of launch and cloud, as both Cloud and Kibana are one product - Elastic - in the eyes of the user, and Kibana, in reality is part of cloud, since it's hosted.

[ryankeairns]

Regarding the discoverability of that link, we could also consider moving it to the Stack Management section of the nav which may be a more logical location (think: settings; admin; management).

I'm not entirely opposed to putting a link/button in the header but lean towards waiting for the deployment switcher version. Displaying a discrete button to essentially 'go back' seems to still suggest a division (or jump) that we are trying to avoid... as opposed to a link in the navigation which feels more seamless.

[cristina-eleonora]

Regarding the discoverability of that link, we could also consider moving it to the Stack Management section of the nav which may be a more logical location (think: settings; admin; management).

+++ An option we discussed was to place it under Management:

the only downside is that it's less discoverable, but from an IA point of view, it makes sense for it to be here.

Displaying a discrete button to essentially 'go back' seems to still suggest a division (or jump) that we are trying to avoid... as opposed to a link in the navigation which feels more seamless.

agree

[johnbarrierwilson]

+++++ To putting deployment management under the management area. I'd even argue that it makes it more discoverable because it's in a more appropriate place for our users. Sure, they will have to look around a bit, but once they find, their thought will probably be similar to "Oh! Management. That makes sense."

I'm not entirely opposed to putting a link/button in the header but lean towards waiting for the deployment switcher version.

@ryankeairns Could we add that simple "Manage deployments" button as a stop-gap solution until we get the full deployment switcher? We could also use that as proof through user testing that we need the full deployment switcher to make the experience complete.

If so, @cristina-eleonora we should also explore the naming of that button. For example, "Manage deployments" (as you have it), "View all deployments", or just "Deployment management" all have different pros/cons.

[osmanis]

@cristina-eleonora @johnbarrierwilson This makes sense to me as well. Thanks for following up. I agree it might be a little less discoverable having Deployment management in the middle of the left nav, but it feels more natural IMO to have it alongside the other management links.

Regarding the potential new header link, might feel a little odd to users to have the logo link take the user to Kibana home, but the deployments link take the user out of Kibana. Typically products have the inverse where the logo or left-most link takes you "all the way back".

[ryankeairns]

I propose we split this into two items as I suspect the first can happen sooner and the second needs more thought/discussion (cc:/ @alexfrancoeur ):

1. Move the current nav link into the Stack Management section (repurpose this issue)
2. Continue the discussion for adding a pre-deployment switcher button (create new issue)

The pragmatist in me says to start with 1, see how it performs, then consider 2 (add a button; wait for full switcher UI).