Discover the New UI
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- List the five guiding principles that Salesforce used to develop the new UI.
- Describe some key elements of the new design.
- Explain who can access the new UI and when.
- Disable and enable the new UI.
What Is the New UI?
In 2015 we launched Lightning user interface (UI), the visual design of the Salesforce Lightning Platform. Lightning UI is what you interact with to use Salesforce applications and data.
The new UI is a set of visual style enhancements to the Lightning UI framework. This refreshed, modern design of Salesforce delivers easy navigation, improved page load speed, and approachability for every job function.
So why did we refresh the UI? A lot has changed since 2015. Salesforce products have grown beyond CRM to include AI, Data Cloud, Einstein Trust Layer, and much more. User and customer expectations are growing. And AI has ushered in a new era. These changes require a refreshed UI to support fast, easy, and compelling experiences.
The new design enhancements:
- Align with the expanding Salesforce product portfolio.
- Provide a cohesive user experience across all Salesforce clouds and features.
- Match customer expectations for modern UI.
Now let’s take a look at our guiding principles for the design.
Our Guiding Design Principles
In developing the new UI, the Salesforce User Experience (UX) team focused on these key principles.
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Seamless. The UI is connected and unified across all experiences.
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Responsive. It reacts appropriately and responds quickly.
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Intuitive. It’s easy to learn, use, and navigate.
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Trusted. It’s reliable and stable as it guides and supports you.
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Delightful. It’s enjoyable to use.
We keep these principles top of mind as we continuously learn from feedback on our #True to the Core Trailblazer Community channel (login required).
And, as we developed the new UI, we conducted research with external end users to identify and design it. Those customers report two key benefits of the enhancements.
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Productivity. Study participants found that the new UI exceeds their expectations for a clean, productive experience.
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Task completion. Participants found that they completed tasks more efficiently and with more confidence using it.
Explore Key Features
Next, let’s check out some key elements of the new design.
Circular Motifs
Circular shapes and rounded edges convey friendliness and smoothness: They make you feel welcome. Rounded corners in the new UI indicate that an element is interactive. Elements in the interface with square corners aren’t interactive.
Legible Icons
Icons are more legible at varying scales, which creates uniformity across the UI. The icon improvements provide visual clarity so that users can more easily see when a button is active, for example.
Legible Fonts
We also improved legibility through type and font scale. These improvements help bring to the forefront the data and insights that benefit users.
Higher Contrast Colors
UI colors are grounded in the Salesforce color system, with cleaner, brighter, higher-contrast selections. Our updated, accessible color theory improves contrast in innovative ways.
Inviting Cues
The new design welcomes you to navigate through your tasks with buttons and other interactivity that mimics real-world experiences. Cues like drop shadows and gradients on buttons define what actions you should take when.
How Do These Enhancements Help You?
We think the refreshed design will delight our users. But it also offers significant productivity benefits. The new UI helps you work faster and more efficiently because:
- With streamlined navigation, simplified icons, at-a-glance views, adaptable spacing, and intuitive cues, your work is organized and harmonious.
- Intentional use of color contrast, space, and icons provide clear indicators of success and priority.
- Optimized Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) code improves performance and load times.
- Adherence to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) means the UI is approachable and accessible.
Work with the New UI
We started our rollout of the new UI on June 5, 2024, to new and existing orgs. For more information on availability, read the Enhanced Lightning User Interface article.
If you’re working in a new or existing org that has the new design enabled, enjoy the experience. If you need to turn it off and revert to the original Lightning Design System UI, here’s how to do that.
- In your org, click and select Setup.
- For Starter orgs, click Open Advanced Setup. For all other orgs, skip this step.
- In the Quick Find box, search for and select User Interface.
- Uncheck Turn on an enhanced Lightning user interface.
- Click Save.
To turn the enhanced Lightning UI back on, follow steps 1–3, and then check Turn on an enhanced Lightning user interface. Click Save.
Resources
- Blog: We Are Refreshing Our Visual Design – Here’s How It Helps You Work Faster
- Blog: What Developers Need to Know
- Help: Enhanced Lightning User Interface
- Help: SLDS Architecture Update FAQs
- Help: User Interface Settings
- Salesforce: Salesforce Lightning Design System
- External Site: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: WCAG 2 Overview