IT Teams Love JSM’s Modern UI A Look at What’s New vs. Cherwell

When IT service teams move from Cherwell to Jira Service Management (JSM), one change stands out immediately: the user interface. Atlassian has invested significantly in making JSM clean, intuitive, and consistent across user roles. For IT admins, support agents, and even requesters, the UI alone changes how service delivery feels making work more manageable, not more complicated.

This post explores what’s different about JSM’s modern UI compared to Cherwell and why that matters in practical, everyday terms.

Why UI Isn’t Just About Aesthetics

The interface is where people interact with the system. It affects:

• How quickly agents can resolve tickets
• How easy it is for users to submit requests
• How efficiently admins configure workflows and automations

Cherwell’s UI, while customizable, was often criticized for being dated, heavy, and inconsistent. Many customers ran into steep learning curves—especially for new users or non-IT stakeholders.

In contrast, JSM offers a cleaner, more responsive design, with usability patterns drawn from decades of collaboration, product management, and issue-tracking tools used by millions globally.

Let’s break down the specifics.

1. Portal Experience: Requesting Support Feels Familiar

Cherwell: Cherwell’s portals often required custom work to make them feel user-friendly. Layouts varied depending on configuration, and design responsiveness (across devices) wasn’t always reliable.

JSM: Jira Service Management’s portal is built for clarity. Users are presented with a clean request catalog. Each request type is tied to an intuitive form, auto-categorized, and can show dynamic fields based on context.

What teams love:

• Category-based request grouping
• Predictable forms with dynamic field logic
• Mobile-friendly interface out of the box
• Confluence knowledge base articles show up in search automatically

These changes reduce internal support ticket volume as users find answers or submit better tickets the first time.

2. Agent Experience: Everything in One Place

Cherwell: Cherwell’s agent console offered deep functionality—but also complexity. Tabs, pop-up windows, and multiple nested views created a high mental load, especially for agents managing large queues.

JSM: JSM’s agent view is consolidated. Tickets, comments, linked issues, SLAs, and assets are all visible in a single scrollable pane. Comments, internal notes, and transitions are front and center.

Key improvements:

• Minimal clicks to transition tickets or change fields
• Smart SLA timers with color-coded urgency
• Auto-suggestions for knowledge base links
• Inline commenting and tagging (using @mentions)

Teams switching to JSM report faster onboarding for new agents and higher ticket resolution speed due to the simplicity of the layout.

3. Admin Configuration: Visual, Modular, Predictable

Cherwell: Cherwell’s admin backend gave teams full control over business rules, workflows, and data structure—but often with a steep learning curve. Managing forms or workflows typically required specialized training and close attention to configuration dependencies.

JSM: JSM takes a visual, modular approach. Workflow editors are drag-and-drop. Custom fields, form builders, and automation rules follow standard UX patterns used across other Atlassian products.

Admins can:

• Build or adjust workflows without scripting
• Preview form behavior in real-time
• Set up automation rules through visual triggers/actions
• Reuse project templates for faster service creation

Less time is spent figuring out how to configure the platform—and more time is spent improving how it works for users.

4. Global Search and Navigation: Fast Access to What Matters

Cherwell: Finding specific tickets, KB articles, or configuration records in Cherwell often required navigating through multiple views or using filters with a learning curve.

JSM: Jira’s global search bar is powerful and immediate. It allows agents and admins to search across issues, assets, forms, and knowledge content—all from one place.

Features include:

• Smart filtering (by project, request type, status)
• Saved filters and dashboards
• Natural language search support (e.g., “open tickets assigned to me”)
• Search across comments, attachments, and field data

The improved discoverability makes daily work feel less procedural and more responsive.

5. Personalization and Accessibility

JSM offers users a tailored experience. Theme preferences (light/dark), keyboard shortcuts, and language support help make the interface accessible and user-friendly.

Compared to Cherwell:

• More keyboard shortcuts
• Better support for accessibility standards
• Easy navigation on touch devices
• Personalizable dashboards and quick links

Whether you’re an IT agent, a facilities manager, or a requester from HR, the interface adapts to your workflow—not the other way around.

6. Mobile Experience: No Extra Work Needed

Cherwell: Mobile access often required configuration or third-party tools. The desktop-centric nature of Cherwell’s design made it harder to support fully mobile operations.

JSM: Jira Service Management works seamlessly in the Atlassian mobile app. Agents can view, update, comment, and close tickets from their phone. Notifications are native, and performance is consistent.

For field technicians, mobile ticket management is especially useful—whether they’re handling IT requests or facilities issues.

7. Asset and Configuration Visibility (via Assets)

JSM’s Assets module (formerly Insight) brings visual structure to CMDBs and asset relationships. Unlike Cherwell’s object-oriented database, which could be powerful but complex, Assets offers a visual, structured model.

Teams using JSM’s Assets enjoy:

• Visual dependency maps (ticket → affected asset → upstream/downstream impact)
• Custom schemas for tracking anything (hardware, software, services, vendors)
• Easy linking of tickets to assets
• Audit trails for changes

The integration into the agent view means assets and their relationships are no longer tucked away they’re part of the ticket flow.

8. Consistent UI Across Atlassian Ecosystem

JSM inherits its design language from the broader Atlassian ecosystem (Jira Software, Confluence, Bitbucket). That means:

• Common navigation across tools
• Shared user management (via Atlassian Access)
• Unified visual language for workflows, forms, automations, and reporting

For organizations using Jira Software or Confluence, moving to JSM feels like an extension—not a whole new product to learn.

What IT Teams Say After Migrating

“Agents spend less time searching through tabs everything’s in front of them now.” IT Support Lead, Higher Education

“Creating workflows and forms in JSM is 5x faster than Cherwell. We don’t need to call in a specialist for every tweak.” IT Admin, Financial Services

“Our self-service portal is actually being used now.” Service Desk Manager, Healthcare

Common Wins After Migration

Should You Move for the UI Alone?

While UI isn’t the only reason to migrate, it is often the most immediately visible. Teams notice right away when a system feels easier to use, more responsive, and less frustrating to manage.

For organizations planning their transition from Cherwell, the interface isn’t just cosmetic—it changes how users interact with support, how agents work through queues, and how administrators respond to evolving needs.

Final Thoughts

Cherwell’s platform served many organizations well for years. But with end-of-life approaching and expectations around usability evolving, modern tools like Jira Service Management bring fresh approaches to day-to-day work.

The UI improvements in JSM aren’t bells and whistles—they’re productivity drivers. They support faster onboarding, cleaner interactions, and more scalable service delivery. Whether you’re submitting a ticket, resolving one, or configuring the workflow behind it, JSM’s interface is designed to help you focus on the work itself—not the tool.

📧 Contact us at sales@clovity.com or visit 🌐 atlassian.clovity.com to get started today.