Case Study · UI Revamp

Customer SSO for Jira Service Management

A UI-first rebuild of a dense SSO plugin into a Jira-native admin console for customer identity.

Context

A dense SSO plugin, rebuilt as a Jira-native console

Jira Service Management help centers serve customers, not employees. I rebuilt a dense SAML and OAuth plugin into a Jira-native admin console that covers sign-in, organizations, portal access, and branding in one structure. Six of its areas are recreated below as working interfaces you can operate yourself.

Role: Senior Product Designer
Platform: Atlassian Jira Service Management
Scope: UI revamp, admin console design, interaction design, working prototype
Proof: Six working console areas, recreated below

Confidentiality note

Due to NDA restrictions, the interfaces here are anonymized, white-labelled recreations with fictional companies and data. The product logic and UX decisions are preserved.

Why

The users are customers, so the stakes are different

Admins here configure sign-in for people outside their company, so whatever they get wrong, a customer finds first. Break the same sign-in below for an employee and for a customer, and watch who absorbs the failure.

sandbox / who-finds-the-mistakeInteractive · try it

The stakes, playable

One sign-in configuration, two people who might hit it. Choose who signs in next, break the setup, and watch where the failure lands.

One sign-in configuration

Set up by an admin · fictional model

Who signs in next

The configuration

The admin ships it. Whoever signs in next inherits it.

What happens next

Mistake shipsCustomer hits itCustomer gives up

Help center SSO breaks outside the company. The customer gives up. Whatever the admin got wrong, a customer found it first.

No IT desk stands between this mistake and a customer. That is why the stakes are different.

Workforce SSO fails inward, toward an IT desk. Help center SSO fails outward, toward a customer. Every screen in this console lives with that difference.

Customer and vendor support conversations, support tickets, and stakeholder input were triangulated to separate identity-provider configuration problems from Jira configuration, portal access, mapping, and terminology confusion. That distinction is what shaped the more coherent, Jira-native administration experience.

Ownership

The console I designed, screen by screen

Working one-on-one with product owners and alongside the developers who shipped each screen, I led the UI craft, the console structure, and the interaction design. Every control is keyboard-reachable and every state announced, so an admin using a screen reader can configure identity as confidently as anyone else.

Configurations

SSO ConfigurationJira ConfigurationMultiple Help CenterDomain ConfigurationOrganization MappingPortal Access MappingCustom Field Mapping

Portal settings

Layout & ColumnsPortal Features & ContentBranding & Appearance

Status

Audit LogsTroubleshooting

SSO Configuration

sandbox / sso-configurationInteractive · try it

Identity Providers

Single sign-on across your organization

Configurations

SSO Configuration

Jira Configuration

Multiple Help Center

Domain Configuration

Organization Mapping

Portal Access Mapping

Custom Field Mapping

Portal settings

Layout & Columns

Portal Features

Branding & Appearance

Status

Audit Logs

Troubleshooting

Okta

Okta Login Beta

SAML

Azure AD

Azure AD HR

SAML

Google Workspace

Workspace Marketing

SAML

GitHub

GitHub Developer

OAuth

Showing 1-4 of 8 providers

The first screen answers the operational question: what is connected, and is it working?

Multiple Help Center

sandbox / multiple-help-centerInteractive · try it

Multiple Help Center

SSO per help center

Configurations

SSO Configuration

Jira Configuration

Multiple Help Center

Domain Configuration

Organization Mapping

Portal Access Mapping

Custom Field Mapping

Portal settings

Layout & Columns

Portal Features

Branding & Appearance

Status

Audit Logs

Troubleshooting

IT Support

6 portals

SSO

Customer Care

9 portals

SSO

Partner Hub

3 portals

Jira login

SSO

2 of 3 help centers sign customers in through SSO. Each one can front a different identity provider.

Each help center chooses its own front door. One console keeps them consistent.

Organization Mapping

sandbox / organization-mappingInteractive · try it

Organization Mapping

Sign-in domains into JSM organizations

Configurations

SSO Configuration

Jira Configuration

Multiple Help Center

Domain Configuration

Organization Mapping

Portal Access Mapping

Custom Field Mapping

Portal settings

Layout & Columns

Portal Features

Branding & Appearance

Status

Audit Logs

Troubleshooting

Email domainOrganization

@acme.com

@globex.io

Customers without a match

Preview a sign-in

j.doe@acme.com joins Acme Corp automatically.

A customer's email decides where they land, and admins can read the rule at a glance.

Portal Access Mapping

sandbox / portal-access-mappingInteractive · try it

Portal Access Mapping

Which organizations reach which portals

Configurations

SSO Configuration

Jira Configuration

Multiple Help Center

Domain Configuration

Organization Mapping

Portal Access Mapping

Custom Field Mapping

Portal settings

Layout & Columns

Portal Features

Branding & Appearance

Status

Audit Logs

Troubleshooting

IT Service Desk

All customers

Billing Support

All customers

Partner Portal

All customers

Preview as

Sees IT Service Desk, Billing Support.

Access is something you can see, and the console flags a portal nobody can open.

Branding & Appearance

sandbox / branding-appearanceInteractive · try it

Branding & Appearance

The sign-in customers actually see

Configurations

SSO Configuration

Jira Configuration

Multiple Help Center

Domain Configuration

Organization Mapping

Portal Access Mapping

Custom Field Mapping

Portal settings

Layout & Columns

Portal Features

Branding & Appearance

Status

Audit Logs

Troubleshooting

Help center

Brand color

Welcome message

Changes apply to the customer sign-in page and help center header. The preview updates live.

Acme Support

How can we help?

Single sign-on through your organization

The sign-in experience carries the company's brand end to end.

Portal Features & Content

sandbox / portal-features-contentInteractive · try it

Portal Features & Content

Configure what end users see and can do in the portal

Configurations

SSO Configuration

Jira Configuration

Multiple Help Center

Domain Configuration

Organization Mapping

Portal Access Mapping

Custom Field Mapping

Portal settings

Layout & Columns

Portal Features

Branding & Appearance

Status

Audit Logs

Troubleshooting

These settings apply portal-wide. Changes take effect for end users immediately after saving.

Knowledge Base Search

Let customers search and browse knowledge base articles while raising a request.

Dynamic Form

Allow external customers to access the dynamic form associated with a request type.

Default Organization Sharing

Auto-select the customer's organization while raising a request.

One screen decides what customers can see and do in the portal.

Impact

What changed

Before

After

Before

A plugin that looked bolted onto Jira

After

A console that follows Jira's patterns and chrome

Before

One identity provider assumed

After

Search, filters, and pagination for a fleet

Before

Access rules hidden in configuration fields

After

Organization and portal access readable at a glance

A native console

The product stopped reading as a third-party tool, following Jira's patterns, chrome, and behavior.

One structure for two protocols

SAML and OAuth share the same console language, so the second setup already feels familiar.

Customer-first controls

Organization rules, portal access, and branding decide what each customer sees, previewable before rollout.

Customer feedback
Direct appreciation for the interface and workflow clarity of the Jira-native customer SSO console.

Judgment

Built in the room, judged twice

The hard part was what native actually means: matching Jira’s look took a component library, matching its manners took most of the design work. Product owners sat with me one-on-one for every section and developers were behind each screen while it was still taking shape, so feasibility was resolved in the design far more often than after it.

The plugin already had the depth. The new console made it operable.

Frequently asked questions

How do you design SSO for Jira Service Management help center customers?: Start from the stakes: when help center SSO breaks, a customer gives up instead of calling IT. In this case study, Senior Product Designer Subham Singh Bhainsora rebuilt a dense SSO plugin into a Jira-native admin console covering sign-in, organizations, portal access, and branding, so admins can configure, test, and preview customer identity before a customer ever hits it.
What makes an admin console feel native to Jira?: Native is a behavior standard more than a visual one: matching Jira's look takes a component library, while matching its manners takes most of the design work. The brief for this Customer SSO console was that an admin should not be able to tell where Jira ends and the plugin begins, so it follows Jira's patterns, chrome, and behavior throughout.
Should SAML and OAuth SSO setup share the same admin UI?: Yes. In this Jira Service Management case study, SAML and OAuth/OIDC share one console language instead of two different experiences, so the second protocol setup already feels familiar. The design also treats identity providers as a fleet, with search, filters, and pagination, and replaces save-and-hope configuration with test actions that show visible results.
How do you control which customers can access which JSM portals?: Make access readable at a glance instead of hiding rules in configuration fields. The console maps customer sign-in domains to JSM organizations with a safe default for everyone else, lets admins decide which organizations can open which portals, flags a portal nobody can open, and offers a preview of the help center as a customer would see it.
How can a product designer show enterprise security work under NDA?: Recreate the interfaces instead of screenshotting them. This case study presents six working, white-labelled recreations of the shipped admin console, with fictional companies, providers, and data, while preserving the real product logic and UX decisions. Recruiters and design leaders can operate the screens themselves, which demonstrates UI craft more directly than static images.

Next Project

SCIM Provisioning for Jira →

Frequently asked questions

How do you design SSO for Jira Service Management help center customers?

Start from the stakes: when help center SSO breaks, a customer gives up instead of calling IT. In this case study, Senior Product Designer Subham Singh Bhainsora rebuilt a dense SSO plugin into a Jira-native admin console covering sign-in, organizations, portal access, and branding, so admins can configure, test, and preview customer identity before a customer ever hits it.

What makes an admin console feel native to Jira?

Native is a behavior standard more than a visual one: matching Jira's look takes a component library, while matching its manners takes most of the design work. The brief for this Customer SSO console was that an admin should not be able to tell where Jira ends and the plugin begins, so it follows Jira's patterns, chrome, and behavior throughout.

Should SAML and OAuth SSO setup share the same admin UI?

Yes. In this Jira Service Management case study, SAML and OAuth/OIDC share one console language instead of two different experiences, so the second protocol setup already feels familiar. The design also treats identity providers as a fleet, with search, filters, and pagination, and replaces save-and-hope configuration with test actions that show visible results.

How do you control which customers can access which JSM portals?

Make access readable at a glance instead of hiding rules in configuration fields. The console maps customer sign-in domains to JSM organizations with a safe default for everyone else, lets admins decide which organizations can open which portals, flags a portal nobody can open, and offers a preview of the help center as a customer would see it.

How can a product designer show enterprise security work under NDA?

Recreate the interfaces instead of screenshotting them. This case study presents six working, white-labelled recreations of the shipped admin console, with fictional companies, providers, and data, while preserving the real product logic and UX decisions. Recruiters and design leaders can operate the screens themselves, which demonstrates UI craft more directly than static images.