Remove product tier indicators from docs site global nav
Issue Description
The docs site currently has two places that people can visit to determine what product tier the product documentation they're accessing applies to:
- On the product doc pages directly, next to the page title or header relating to that feature.
- In the global nav, as a hover-over icon.
These two methods are separately maintained, which doesn't honor the concept of SSOT. It also represents an opportunity for tier assignments to become "out of sync," potentially confusing readers into thinking that a feature is available in a tier it's not really available in.
Mentioning tiers in the headers is a potentially better experience than that of the global nav, as well, as there's no need to mouse over or interact with the page to view its tier information. With the global nav, the user has to mouse over an icon to view a tool tip with the tier information, and that information doesn't cover situations where some of the information on a doc page actually applies to a higher tier level.
From asking around, it appears that badging was added to the global nav to help users understand which features were CE-related, as compared to EE-related (!483 (merged)), and that the product tier mentions were an organic growth of the feature over time, and weren't driven by explicit requirements.
Based on a duplication of information, a potential for tier references to get out-of-sync, a better tier badge user-experience on the doc pages, and a lack of clear requirements as to why tier badges need mentioning in the global nav, I believe that tier reference icons should be removed from the global nav, and that users should rely on the badging on the documentation pages themselves. Keeping things in one place will help with our content creation style, and will create a simpler system for us to maintain.
Proposal
Remove all tier icon references from the doc site global nav menus, and rely only on the in-page product tier badges to help readers know what features are associated with which tier.
Implementation should be straightforward, in that it involves only modifying the global nav data files to remove the ee_tier lines.
I'd be interested in the team's views on this, as this is something we've been doing for a bit, and I want to be sure we're all aligned on this. If there are ramifications or issues that haven't been mentioned yet, please list them and we'll ensure everything is covered. I do want to get this change put into place sooner than later (if we determine there aren't any notable problems or issues) to allow for better management of tier names, if that becomes necessary at some point.
Mentioning @gl-docsteam re: this proposal to remove product tier icons from the global nav.