Thanks @lpb and @AnnaPapiernik for the feedback on the new page switching behavior.
This is an intentional design choice (Larry, the difference between your two environments is because we’re still in the process of rolling out the new version to everyone). When you switch to a different sidebar rail for the first time, you will be navigated to the first page within that rail. After that, you will navigate to the most recently visited item there.
We decided to link the sidebar rail to pages within it for a few reasons:
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To keep the sidebar rail from drifting out of sync with the page you’re on, which was a common source of confusion in the earlier feedback we heard. For example, users were getting stuck in the wrong rail (like “People”) and were struggling to figure out how to get back to their projects (in “Work”).
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To save a click by dropping you back on your most recent page (1 click instead of 2)
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It follows a pattern that’s common across apps with layered navigation like ours, so it should feel more familiar and predictable to people using other tools
In our testing of the new behavior, we are indeed seeing that users are getting lost less often and are better able to find the work they’re looking for. At the same time, I completely understand there can be differences in what feels best here (the same behavior that keeps some people from getting lost can feel disruptive when you clicked the rail just to see the menu and didn’t expect your page to change). It even took me some time to get used to this myself!
We’ll keep listening here and are still actively exploring ways to reduce friction in the new navigation experience. I’ll keep posting as we have more to share. Thanks again for the feedback!