10.1 Global UI Features: User Defaults, Look and Feel, Announcement Banner & Default Dashboard
Key Takeaways
- User default settings (email format, issues per page, default filter and dashboard access, notify of own changes, autowatch) are applied when a user account is created.
- Changing a user default doesn't change existing users' personal settings, except that an admin can force email format with Apply.
- Look and feel covers the logo, site title, favicon, navigation colors, and date and time formats.
- The announcement banner is either Public (anonymous visitors see it too) or Private (logged-in users only).
- Only Jira admins edit the default dashboard; it can't be deleted and can be shared only with the organization or the public.
10.1 Global UI Features: User Defaults, Look and Feel, Announcement Banner & Default Dashboard
Blueprint objective 7.1 covers the settings that shape every user's experience of the site: user default settings, the site's look and feel, the announcement banner, and the default dashboard. It also asks how defaults relate to each user's personal settings, and what happens to existing objects when you change a default. All of these need the Administer Jira global permission.
User Default Settings
Where: Settings > System > Default user preferences > Edit default values.
| Setting | Options | What It Controls |
|---|---|---|
| Email format | HTML or text | The format of Jira's outgoing notification emails |
| Work items per page | 1–1,000 | How many issues appear on each page of search results |
| Default access | Public or Private | The starting visibility of new filters and dashboards |
| Notify users of their own changes | Notify me, or Do not notify me | Whether people get emails about changes they make themselves |
| Autowatch own work items | On or off | Whether people automatically watch issues they create or comment on |
How Defaults Relate to Personal Settings
This is the part the exam probes:
- Defaults are applied when a user account is created. Atlassian describes them as "applied to user accounts on creation". Each user can then change their own value in their personal settings.
- Changing a default doesn't rewrite existing users' choices. If you switch Autowatch off today, people who already have it on keep it on. New accounts get the new default.
- Email format is the exception you can enforce. Selecting Apply next to email format forces that format on users, who can then no longer change it.
- Default access doesn't share existing items. Switching Default access to Public affects filters and dashboards created afterwards. Existing private filters stay private.
- Anonymous and public users have no personal settings. They inherit the site's default user preferences.
First-time trap: the first time you open the User Default Settings window, Email format shows text. Selecting Update without checking will apply text format. Pick HTML deliberately if that's what you want.
Look and Feel
Where: Settings > System > User interface > Look and feel.
| Element | Notes |
|---|---|
| Logo | Shown at the top left of every page; the image height is constrained to 30 pixels (Atlassian recommends a 57-pixel width). Upload a file or supply an https:// URL |
| Site title | Enable Show on dashboard to display the site name next to the logo |
| Favicon | PNG, 32 × 32 pixels |
| Navigation colors | Change the navigation bar's colors; some colors may not suit dark theme, and Revert restores the defaults |
| Date and time formats | Java SimpleDateFormat patterns used in calendar and timeline views. Other date displays follow each user's language preferences |
The look-and-feel settings also affect date entry. For example, JQL's startOfWeek() treats Sunday as the first day of the week unless the ISO 8601 date-picker option is enabled.
The Announcement Banner
Where: Settings > System > Announcement banner.
The banner shows a message across the top of every Jira page. It's useful for maintenance windows, migrations, incidents, and policy reminders. Two settings matter:
- Message: plain text or simple markup.
- Visibility:
- Public: everyone who loads the site sees it, including anonymous visitors to public projects, dashboards, or portals.
- Private: only logged-in users see it.
Security rule: never publish internal details such as server names, maintenance windows for internal systems, or incident specifics with Public visibility. Choose Private whenever the audience is staff.
The Default Dashboard
Where: Settings > System > User interface > Default dashboard.
- It's the dashboard users see when they first log in. It can't be deleted.
- Jira admins can Add gadget, Edit layout, and view it as a wallboard (Tools > View as wallboard).
- It can be shared only with My organization (signed-in users) or Public (anonymous too), not with specific groups, projects, or people. Switch to My organization to stop anonymous access.
- Gadgets that a user can't use are simply hidden for that user. For example, admin-only gadgets don't appear for non-admins.
- Impact of changes: editing the default dashboard changes it for everyone who hasn't chosen their own dashboards. People who've starred or created dashboards keep those.
Related Site-Wide Interface Settings
Atlassian groups a few more settings with dashboards and user defaults. They're easy to confuse with the ones above:
- Default list view (issue navigator columns): admins can change the default columns shown in search results and list views. Users can still choose their own columns.
- App navigator links: admins can add custom links to the app navigator, for example to an internal wiki or a status page.
- Public sharing switch: a site setting in General configuration decides whether users may share filters and dashboards publicly (with people who aren't logged in). Turning it off stops new public sharing, but it doesn't un-share items already shared publicly. Admins review those separately and change their visibility.
- Default access (user default setting): decides whether new filters and dashboards start as Private or Public. It's separate from the public sharing switch.
A good exam habit: when a question says "for everyone" or "by default", decide whether it means new objects or accounts (defaults) or all existing objects (which usually needs a manual or bulk change).
Choosing the Right Setting
| Requirement | Setting |
|---|---|
| New starters should automatically watch the issues they create | User default settings: Autowatch on (affects new accounts) |
| All notification emails must be HTML, with no opt-out | User default settings: set Email format to HTML and select Apply |
| Tell staff about Saturday's maintenance without telling the public | Announcement banner with Private visibility |
| Everyone should land on a team-status view after login | Edit the default dashboard |
| Show the company logo and name in the header | Look and feel: logo and site title |
| New filters should be shared with the whole organization by default | User default settings: Default access (new filters only) |
A Jira admin switches the 'Autowatch own work items' user default from on to off. A week later, long-time employees still automatically watch issues they create, but people hired this week don't. Why?
A Jira administrator must post a notice regarding an urgent weekend database maintenance window that will impact internal enterprise systems. Corporate security mandates that external anonymous users visiting the company's public Jira Service Management portal must not be able to view internal operational schedules. How should the administrator configure the Announcement Banner?
Anonymous visitors can currently see the site's default dashboard, which shows internal project gadgets. The security team wants only signed-in employees to see it. What should the Jira admin do?