Prolonged busy states in GitLab

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Problem

• Similar to empty states, how can we optimize prolonged busy states in GitLab?
• A prolonged busy state could be a period of unavoidable time, even if performance is already optimized. Examples include:
  • Importing a project from GitHub.
  • Waiting for a build and/or deploy in the merge request widget.
• This is different from time periods where we do expect a user to wait, like regular page loads or async comment loads.
• In addition to informing the user that there is some background processing taking place, what type of affordances should we provide the user?
• Should we provide some type of progress information? (We already do that with pipelines. Probably can't do much more.)
• Should we tell the user to navigate somewhere else, and then come back? If that is the case, do we need some way to notify them to return? In the web UI? In another channel, i.e. email notification?
• Should we encourage the user to look at other information on the screen while they are waiting? Is that good UI?
• Some other apps / services may have unrelated content / functions on the screen.
  • A simple game to keep somebody occupied.
  • Some nice graphic to tell the user to sit back and get a coffee.
• How can we strengthen there brand affinity to GitLab during these times?
• This is similar to a branded 404 page.