Global vs. contextual navigation
Problem
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One of our research tasks took users directly into a project, exposing them to the project navigation. However, the project navigation isn’t memorable. Users who failed to visit the project navigation again during testing, never mentioned or attempted to try and find this level of navigation again. Therefore users weren’t only lost within the navigation, they had no concept of the different types/areas of navigation that GitLab has.
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Similar to the 'Global' notification menu within projects. The ‘Global’ notification menu at a group level was also mistaken as a filter. Users do not read the text beyond the bold headings which means they do not understand its context.
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There were two extremes of user behaviour when interacting with the sidebar: 1) Some users didn't instinctively interact with the sidebar as it isn’t open by default. For example, it took User 3 9 minutes to spot there was a menu available. Those that did find the sidebar easily, typically proceeded to treat it as their primary method of navigation during the testing. Subsequently, this meant they often failed tasks where the content couldn't be found within the sidebar.
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There is a lack of understanding that the content in the global navigation applies to them.
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Users do not realise that the tanuki is interactive and will take them to their default dashboard when clicked. Multiple users adjusted their URL to return to their default dashboard.
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Side note: The ‘Global’ notification menu found within projects was mistaken for project settings so the hamburger menu may not be a clear distinction of a global menu when placed next to the project name.