Refine UX Review Guidelines to Align with Technical Review and Enhance Team Efficiency
Why is this change being made?
This MR proposes to update the UX review guidelines to better align with our existing technical review practices and to enhance team efficiency.
The update clarifies that while product designers should aim to "Always review the MR in a live environment, so that you can experience the changes as our users will and review them thoroughly," they should also use their judgment to determine if a live preview is necessary. This approach acknowledges the diverse nature of changes and avoids the inefficiencies of mandatory previews for straightforward updates.
Recently, our team encountered inefficiencies where reviewers either wasted significant time reproducing obvious changes or felt compelled to break the rules. The changes in this MR aim to introduce a little more flexibility to address these challenges.
Author and Reviewer Checklist
Please verify the check list and ensure to tick them off before the MR is merged.
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Provided a concise title for this Merge Request (MR) -
Added a description to this MR explaining the reasons for the proposed change, per say why, not just what - Copy/paste the Slack conversation to document it for later, or upload screenshots. Verify that no confidential data is added, and the content is SAFE
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Assign reviewers for this MR to the correct Directly Responsible Individual/s (DRI) - If the DRI for the page/s being updated isn’t immediately clear, then assign it to one of the people listed in the
Maintained by
section on the page being edited - If your manager does not have merge rights, please ask someone to merge it AFTER it has been approved by your manager in #mr-buddies
- The when to get approval handbook section explains the workflow in more detail
- If the DRI for the page/s being updated isn’t immediately clear, then assign it to one of the people listed in the
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For transparency, share this MR with the audience that will be impacted. -
Team: For changes that affect your direct team, share in your group Slack channel -
Department: If the update affects your department, share the MR in your department Slack channel -
Division: If the update affects your division, share the MR in your division Slack channel -
Company: If the update affects all (or the majority of) GitLab team members, post an update in #whats-happening-at-gitlab linking to this MR - For high-priority company-wide announcements work with the internal communications team to post the update in #company-fyi and align on a plan to circulate in additional channels like the "While You Were Iterating" Newsletter
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Commits
- Refine MR live preview criteria for clarity
The updated guidelines suggest that product designers should preview merge requests in a live environment whenever possible to experience the changes as users would. However, they should use their judgment to determine if a live preview is necessary based on the nature of the changes. If they encounter difficulties, they are encouraged to seek assistance from the help section.