AEM Sidekick v7 – The Story Behind the Latest Release
As we are releasing Version 7 of AEM Sidekick, this seems like a good time to tell the story so far.
AEM Sidekick started as a collection of project-specific bookmarklets (scripted bookmarks in your browser), and over time got consolidated into a single bookmarklet invoking a toolbar with buttons – the first Sidekick UI. But after about a year of watching authors struggle with installation issues (adding a bookmarklet is no easy feat!) we decided to try turning it into a more manageable browser extension. Since its release in late 2021, the extension has been running circles around the bookmarklet, but the user experience has evolved ever so slightly.
When Edge Delivery Services for AEM became generally available, we decided to also give Sidekick an overhaul to align with Adobe’s design principles. But we didn’t want to simply make a few cosmetic changes to the styling and call it a day – we thought that this was a unique opportunity to take a closer look at the usage data and also perform a user experience study with some of the most active authors to learn more about how users were interacting with the tool in their daily work. The combined learnings from these two sources then inspired the first design mockups.
Early v7 mockup
Side by side
We soon realized that the outcome would be quite different and potentially disruptive for existing users, so instead of evolving the current version, we decided to make it an entirely new browser extension to give users time to ease into the new experience while always having the ability to fall back to the existing one. Also, if your company invested into author training, it will have time to update it at their own pace.
Being there, but not in the way
Our data showed that the close button was among the most clicked ones, but we didn’t quite understand why until we observed authors interacting with the sidekick: as a full-width bar covering the top part of the window, it was simply often blocking important things like top menus and editor functionality and therefore users were forced to hide it multiple times throughout their editing flow. That is why we decided to adjust both size and position in order to make it a less obstructive tool which users would be inclined to keep around for longer periods of time.
Dark by default
Making dark mode the default was a consequence of the new smaller size and placement, combined with the fact that the majority of environments you use the sidekick in have dark text on a light background. During early tryouts, we noticed that users sometimes had difficulties finding the light sidekick when hovering on a light backdrop, and vice versa. So instead of continuing to follow the system settings, we decided to keep it dark by default, and give users the ability to freely switch between dark and light mode to match their individual contrast preferences.
AEM Sidekick v7
Keeping it tidy
Sometimes the number of actions in the toolbar can be quite overwhelming, so we thought of new ways to keep actions manageable. Overflowing actions are now dynamically moving between the toolbar and an action menu depending on the available space, and less frequently used actions can even stay tucked away in the menu permanently to keep your workspace uncluttered.
Going public
On December 10 2024, after incorporating feedback from close to 200 Adobe users, we decided it was time to present the all-new AEM Sidekick v7 to the world. You can upgrade at your own pace: run both versions side by side and import your existing project configurations at the click of a button from within the onboarding experience or by using the context menu. Also browse our updated user documentation for a full walkthrough.
Your feedback matters: We hope you love the new sidekick as much as we do and look forward to hearing from our community. Tell us what you think either on Discord or directly via GitHub issues.
PS: Those of you who have been in the game long enough to remember AEM’s Classic UI will remember the floating companion assisting them in managing and publishing content. It, too, was amicably called Sidekick, inspired by Batman’s Robin. When introducing the first authoring UI in early iterations of Edge Delivery Services for AEM, we intended to pay tribute to our roots.