Removing the "Fluid" preferences option
Background:
In https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/design.gitlab.com/issues/47 we went through existing pages to determine the container width that those pages should use. Along the way, a question arose:
do we have any stats on people using the
fluidwidth setting (at least for .com)? removing this would simplify pages that do use containers — https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/design.gitlab.com/issues/47#note_55024516
From Looker data, 98% of GitLab.com users have the default value: fixed layout. (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/design.gitlab.com/issues/47#note_82181985)
This led us to think about removing the "Fluid" preferences option. But there are somethings to consider before doing that:
I advise caution here. The stats may show that 98% on .com are using fixed but that does not take into account everyone else. I would also add that this number may reflect a lack of knowledge about the option, not a lack of need/want for that option. The most common HN criticism I answer is about our fixed layout. Each time I have pointed out the fluid layout option and gotten an immediate, "thanks, I had no idea. This fixes my issue." — https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/design.gitlab.com/issues/47#note_82308909
What questions are you trying to answer?
- Does the lack of usage have to do with discoverability? Or knowledge of the effect?
- What percentage of users prefer the fluid layout when shown directly? And the fixed layout?
Are you looking to verify an existing hypothesis or uncover new issues you should be exploring?
Verify an existing hypothesis.
What is the backstory of this project and how does it impact the approach?
What do you already know about the areas you are exploring?
What does success look like at the end of the project?
We should be able to know if removing the "Fluid" preferences option is a good decision.