Navigating the UI: Apps, menus, and modules - ServiceNow Tutorial

- [Instructor] As a ServiceNow administrator, you're going to spend a lot of time in the interface. So the faster you feel at home here, the better. In this video, I'll guide you through the three main areas of the ServiceNow interface, the banner, the application navigator, and the content frame, all through the lens of the next experience UI. Understanding where things live and how to move through them isn't just helpful, it's foundational, especially if you're preparing for the Certified Systems Administrator exam. Let's start at the top. Moving left to right first, we've got the ServiceNow logo, which when clicked, can quickly take us home, followed by five navigation menus that include the All menu, which opens the full list of applications and modules you're going to use on a regular basis. The Favorites menu, which allows us to quickly navigate to your bookmarked modules. History, showing recently accessed items. Workspaces, which is an entry point for experiences like CSM, ITSM or my new favorite Process Mining. And finally, the Admin menu, which may show up if you have elevated roles. These options help you move quickly through the areas of the platform. For example, click History to quickly jump back to something you might have just worked on. The center of the screen shows the current module and record you're working on so that you can always get your bearings. Moving right, you'll find the global search bar. This is your go-to for finding anything. Either click it or hit Control+Alt+G and type in a record number. And you can instantly search from live tables like incident, problem, task, and request. The Global by icon allows you to access helpful configuration options like your application scope and update set picker. This tells you which application scope you're working in. When developing or configuring apps, changes are saved within the scope. If you accidentally work in the wrong scope, your updates could end up in the wrong place or not apply at all. Use this to ensure you're working in the right context for custom applications or update sets. Next up is the sidebar, A powerful real-time collaboration tool. You can start a discussion tied to a workspace record, mention colleagues with at, share files, link knowledge base articles, and even favorite or PIN active discussions. I'm not really that popular, so it says I have no current discussions. The sidebar discussions is new for Yokohama, it's perfect for fast contextual teamwork inside ITSM, CSM or HR Workspaces. The help icon shows you articles ServiceNow thinks may be relevant to the current page you're on, including definitions, instructions, and best practices. If you're new to ServiceNow, you can pin this menu open and receive live contextual help and get great tips. I'm going to keep it unpinned for now, however. The bell icon represents notifications which allow you to stay informed and engaged about important events and activities within the system. And finally, the user menu has a couple of different icons, including Profile, where you can update details and passwords, Preferences, where you can update theme colors and access a host of fantastic accessibility options, Keyboard shortcuts, which I recommend you try to memorize from time to time to make your journey easier. And then there's two other unique features for admins. One is Impersonate user, which allows you to test access or troubleshoot the system as if someone else, and elevate roles, which allows you to perform a similar task by granting security admin access. Let's try impersonating a user. For this, I'm a pretty honest guy, so I'll choose Abraham Lincoln because why not? Now I'm going to see the interface exactly as Abe would. You'll notice that the screen is red and the main user icon is also red to show that we're browsing as someone else. To exit, we just open the menu again and click End Impersonation. In a similar manner to impersonating a user, you can also temporarily elevate your role to give you extra privileges for critical admin tasks. This might be managing access controls or executing background scripts. Now let's move on to the application navigator, also called the All Menu. This is located on the left side. It's minimized by default in the next experience. And if you click it, you'll find icons for all modules and functions, including some icons for favoring quick access modules and editing modules, which allow you to customize the module name, visibility, ordering, and the roles that it shows for. Inside this menu, apps are grouped by function. You can click one, like for example, Incident, and it'll expand its modules. And if you click it again, it'll collapse. If you prefer, you can use the pin icon to keep the menu open while you work. To find something quickly, just type in the filter field. For example, typing in change pulls up all modules under change management. Hover over any module, and click the star to add it to your favorites. Once done, see how it'll show up here under the Favorites menu. You can also directly remove something from favorites from this menu by clicking the X and agreeing to the prompt. Let's unpin the All menu for a moment so I can show you one of my favorite ways of accessing this menu. It's by using a keyboard shortcut. You hit Control + Alt and A, and then tab to navigate directly to the filter menu so you can quickly type in the module that I'm looking to access. You can find other helpful keyboard shortcuts like these in your user menu. The content frame is the large workspace area in the middle. When you select any module from the navigator, it opens here. Let's, for example, click on Incidents. If I click on the open incidents in the All menu, it now shows me a list view. Mastering the layout of ServiceNow, the banner, the application navigator, and the content frame will make everything you do easier. If you're also prepping for the CSA exams, you now know exactly what they mean when they ask you about navigating the interface.