5. Apply your branding and make the site user-friendly

Now you’ve added content to the site and shaped the navigation menu, your site should of course reflect your company's culture and identity. The site’s theme and page designs work hand in hand to do just that.

Theme your site to match your brand

Themes determine the general look of your site, including the navigation menu and footer.

Click Themes in the left-hand menu
Click the Create theme button to open the Theme Editor.
Build the theme and save it when you’re done.
Go back to the Site Builder to apply it to your site. Click on the name of your current theme, located in the block with your site’s name in it, and select the theme you created.

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This main site theme applies to your entire site, except for the Refined pages, spaces and projects that have their own specific theme set.

Customize your site’s home page and landing pages

Landing pages make your site come to life. Landing pages are: the homepage, Refined Pages, and the customizable pages of Confluence spaces, Jira Software projects, and JSM projects.

Go to the page that you want to edit on your Refined site.
Click the Edit page button in the top-right of the page.
- Or use the keyboard shortcut E for quick access.
Use the Page Builder to create an eye-catching and user-friendly design.

Three tips to build winning page designs

Use templates. Need inspiration? The Page Builder includes a range of page templates. A template is merely a starting point – after applying it, you can further adjust the page.

Tailor content to the user. Users will be more likely to effectively use your site if the content is relevant to them when they arrive. For example:

Use the text variable $userfirstname in a module’s title to personally welcome users to your site.
Or apply view permissions: for instance, on your home page you can show anonymous users a prompt to log in to file a ticket, while a logged-in user will see an overview of request types and their open tickets.

Export and import. If you like the layout of a page and want to apply it on another page as well, simply export and import it. For example, on help.refined.com we have similar-looking landing pages for our Cloud, Data Center and Server help desks.

Further improve the user experience

Set up JSM customer notification emails

In JSM you can activate customer notifications for each project, so users automatically receive an email every time someone updates their requests. All these emails contain a View Request link, which directs users to the JSM portal on Atlassian’s website – even if the user created the issue on your Refined site.

Set up the emails to direct users to the JSM portal on your Refined site instead

Seamlessly integrate JSM into Confluence pages

Let users create JSM requests directly on a Confluence page. This can simplify HR processes on your intranet, for example: when reading the employee handbook, a user can quickly file a request on-page. When the request is sent, they’re back on the same employee handbook page and can carry on reading or browsing the space.

Use space settings to customize Confluence pages and blog posts

Use Space Settings to further improve your site’s user experience:

If your site only features short articles, you can disable the estimated read time for a cleaner look of the page.
On a public-facing knowledge base, you may want to hide the authors' profile pictures and names to keep them anonymous.
You can help users navigate long pages by adding a table of contents, which lists all headings on a page and moves along with the user as they scroll down the page.
If your space contains many pages, help users navigate it by adding a search field to the space’s left-hand side menu.

You have full control over the settings of each space: use global space settings to decide the default look of your spaces, and customize specific spaces with custom space settings.

Getting started with Refined

We’re always happy to help if you have any questions: reach out to support.