How to add color-coding to Incidents in Service Operations Workspace (highlight by state)

[belivyjohn]

Hello Community,

I’m looking for guidance on adding color-coding to Incidents in Service Operations Workspace to improve at-a-glance recognition for our help desk agents. Specifically, we’d like to visually differentiate:

• New vs. In Progress
• On Hold sub-reasons (e.g., awaiting customer, awaiting vendor, pending change)
• Possibly High/Urgent priority vs. lower priority

What we’re trying to accomplish

• Help agents quickly scan work and understand status without having to read the state column
• Keep it lightweight, optional, and non-intrusive—we’re not trying to enforce workflow, just improve clarity
• Ideally apply colors to list rows, record headers, cards, or badges inside Service Operations Workspace

Questions

1. Is there a native feature in Service Operations Workspace to color-code rows/cards/badges based on field values?
2. If not, is there a supported approach (e.g., UI styles, workspace theming, declarative rule, or client script) to achieve this?
3. Are there differences/limitations between classic UI List Color Rules and what’s supported/visible in Service Operations Workspace?
4. Any examples, docs, or best practices to avoid performance or upgrade issues?

Environment (optional but helpful)

• Product: ServiceNow Service Operations Workspace (Incidents)
• Release: [Your release, e.g., Washington/Washington DC]
• Role/Scope: [Your role/scope]
• UI Experience: Next Experience / Workspace

What we’ve tried (if applicable)

• Looked at list color rules (classic) and UI styles
• Checked Workspace record component configuration (no obvious option found)
• Searched for declarative/Styling rules for card/list rows in Service Operations Workspace

Acceptance criteria

• Color-coding displays consistently for agents in Workspace
• Based on specific fields (State, Substate/Hold reason, Priority)
• Low-maintenance and upgrade-safe (prefer configuration over heavy customization)

Thanks in advance for any ideas, examples, or documentation links!

[miftikhar20]

Hi @belivyjohn,

This is achievable in Service Operations Workspace using the UX Highlighted Values configuration. This approach is supported, upgrade-safe, and does not require heavy customization or scripting.

Below are the steps to configure it:

1. Ensure you are in the “Incident Management for Service Operations Workspace” application scope.
   
2. Navigate to Now Experience Framework > Configuration Settings > UX Highlighted Values
   
3. In the Highlighted Values list, apply the following filter:
   • Application = Incident Management for Service Operations Workspace
   • Table = incident
   • Field = <your required field> (e.g., State, On hold reason, Priority)
     
4. If a matching Highlighted Value record already exists:
   1. Open the record.
      
   2. Add or update entries in the Highlighted Value Conditions related list.
   3. Define your conditions (e.g., State = New, State = In Progress, On hold reason = Awaiting Customer, Priority = 1 - Critical).
   4. Assign the appropriate color/style for each condition.
      
5. If no record exists:
   1. Create a new Highlighted Value record for the required field.
   2. Then configure the necessary Highlighted Value Conditions in the related list.

If my response helped, please mark it as the accepted solution so others can benefit as well.