Redesigned Approver Experience for Access Requests
Oct 17, 2025
Identity Governance
Overview
September 2025 - Announcing Redesigned Approver Experience for Access Requests
Applies To
- Okta Identity Governance (OIG)
Cause
With this update, Okta has made it easier for approvers to get the key information they need to make decisions quickly, efficiently, and securely for both Request Types and Request Conditions.
This work addresses several Okta Ideas and both internal and external customer feedback.
- Enables faster, more informed decisions: Okta has streamlined the approval process to reduce clicks and surface all critical decision-making information and calls-to-action clearly and upfront.
- Reduces user frustration and questions: The new design makes it easier for requesters and approvers to understand what is happening for a request, which reduces frustration and follow-up questions for IT teams.
Solution
Detailed Approver Experience Updates
| Area | Theme | Change |
| Add relevant context for the approval decision | Access level description is added to the email notification. | |
| Add relevant context for the approval decision | Requester answers to request questions (that is, business justification) are added to the email notification. | |
| Align emails to Okta branding | Okta branding and logo moved to the top of the email. | |
| Align emails to Okta branding | Email sender name changes from "notifications" to "Okta Access Requests" and the email address changes from "notifications@at.okta.com" to "noreply@at.okta.com". | |
| Improve usability | The subject of the email changed (that is, "#13 Susan James - Bamboo HR" is now "Susan James is requesting Bamboo HR (Request #13)"). This change also applies to Access Requests' System Log entries and will impact any downstream implementations that rely on the email subject text, like Okta Workflows or other custom implementations. | |
| Reduce cognitive load | "Request assignee" was removed from the email notification, as requesters were confused about this person with their approver. | |
| Reduce cognitive load | Secondary information, like "task completed count," was removed from the email notification. | |
| Slack | Add relevant context for the approval decision | Access level description is added to the Slack notification. |
| Slack | Improve accessibility | Questions/requests are no longer striked through when completed. Emojis are used to mark completed tasks instead. |
| Slack | Improve usability | All open tasks are consolidated and appear within the "Your Tasks" section of Slack. |
| Slack | Improve usability | Now, only one click is needed to approve/deny requests. |
| Slack | Improve usability | User no longer sees an "Answer questions" button when they don't have questions to answer. |
| Slack | Improve usability | Questions assigned to others no longer show up under the "Your questions" button. |
| Slack | Improve usability | Requester answers to request questions (that is, business justification) are separated from other tasks and can be viewed from a new "View requester's answers" button. |
| Slack | Improve usability | The Slack notification header, which is bolded and in a larger font, emphasizes the next steps for the task. |
| Slack | Improve usability | The Slack notification header is updated with the request outcome (that is, access approved or denied). |
| Slack | Improve usability | The header of the request in the Slack notification changed (that is, "#13 Susan James - BambooHR" is now "Susan James is requesting BambooHR (Request #13)") |
| Slack | Improve usability | Tasks and approver questions collapsed into one module called "View all tasks." |
| Slack | Improve usability | Slack users involved in the request are hyperlinked for easy lookup so the approver can get more information about the requester (that is, their role). |
| Slack | Miscellaneous | Approvers can no longer edit responses to questions in Slack. |
| Slack | Reduce cognitive load | The Request assignee was removed from the Slack notification, as requesters confused this person with their approver. |
| Slack | Reduce cognitive load | Secondary information (like task completed count and public/private status of a request) is removed from the Slack notification. |
| Web ticket | Improve usability | RCAR request details (resource, access level, duration, etc.) are moved from chat to central request details module. |
| Web ticket | Improve usability | Requester answers to request questions (that is, business justification) are moved from the general task section to the central request details module. |
| Web ticket | Improve usability | Requester information is moved from the top right to the top of the web ticket to the central request details module. |
| Web ticket | Improve usability | All tasks and questions are moved into a new task panel in the top right. |
| Web ticket | Improve usability | The new task panel includes banners for the status of each task to keep stakeholders informed. |
| Web ticket | Improve usability | Request headers changed to be "{Requester name} is requesting {Resource or Request Type name}" |
| Web ticket | Improve usability | A new filter has been added to the task panel to filter for only tasks assigned to a specific user. |
| Web ticket | Reduce cognitive load | Less relevant requester information, like location, is removed, but can still be viewed by clicking into the requester's profile. |
| Web ticket | Reduce cognitive load | Chat is moved to the bottom of the ticket to make room for the new task panel. |
| Web ticket | Miscellaneous | Chat and history order reversed so the newest items are at the top. |
