UX review of new Docs search

We're in the process of replacing the search engine on docs.gitlab.com (epic).

Once we have an MVC, it would be helpful to get a review from a product designer if possible.

We can use the review app on this MR for testing: !3589 (merged)

User experience & design questions

  • Is it clear how to use search?
  • Is there anything we should do to improve the visual appearance?
  • The "Sections" filter options come from the top-level items in the global navigation for the site. Do they make sense in the context of search results? (Edit: we have since changed these labels a bit and are going to monitor how they get used in production.)
  • Results currently include a page title and excerpt with the query bolded. Should we include any additional metadata (e.g, breadcrumbs; sub-page links; other ideas in #1370 (closed))? (Edit: We're holding off on this for our initial implementation.)
  • We're considering different approaches for how to steer people to older versions of pages when needed. Any thoughts on this from a UX perspective? We have an MR for version handling up here: !3584 (closed) (Edit: We are not going to do version-specific searches and instead continue to solely use the per-page Versions menu. See closed MR for details.)
Edited by Sarah German