Instructions on disabling usage ping are convoluted and unhelpful
Problem to solve
The documentation on enabling or disabling the usage ping is very unclear on how to actually get to the setting.
Starting at the privacy policy, follow the link in the "Information About Your Use of the Services We Collect Automatically" section to Services Usage Data.
This contains the sentence "Here describes how you can also opt-out of the usage ping.", where only the word "Here" is hyperlinked to https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/admin_area/settings/usage_statistics.html#usage-ping. That's poor from an accessibility point of view, as a screen reader will just read the link as "here". The sentence isn't particularly grammatical, either. The link should be on the words "opt-out of the usage ping", and the rest of the sentence should be reworded.
Following the link does not tell you how to opt out of the usage ping, but merely gives you the sentence "See Usage Ping guide.", which is hyperlinked to https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/usage_ping/index.html. This is an unnecessary step.
On following the link, you are not immediately given instructions on disabling the usage ping, which is what you would expect to find when clicking a link labelled as such, but must scroll through multiple paragraphs on why you should not, in fact, do the thing that you have come to this page to find instructions for. The links to instructions on opting out of the usage ping should link to https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/usage_ping/index.html#disable-usage-ping rather than https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/usage_ping/index.html, or the page should be rewritten so that these instructions are at the top.
Under the heading "Disable Usage Ping" are the instructions "To disable Usage Ping in the GitLab UI, go to the Settings page of your administration panel and uncheck the Usage Ping checkbox."
Firstly, the administration panel does not appear to be accessible when accessing GitLab from a mobile device (no spanner icon appears) and the user must know to append /admin
to the URL, but that is probably a separate issue.
The main problem with this instruction is that there is no Usage Ping checkbox on that page, and even if the user expands each of the fifteen collapsed sections, there is no checkbox. It turns out to be under the Usage Statistics section of the Metrics and Profiling area. As the instructions under Usage Ping Payload, immediately above Disable Usage Ping, manage to give full navigation instructions to find the section, they should be repeated under Disable Usage Ping. It is unreasonable to expect someone who is trying to find this control to know that the instructions under Disable Usage Ping are wrong, and they should follow the instructions in the section above.
Further details
This whole experience leaves the user with the feeling that GitLab has intentionally made the documentation difficult to follow in order to dissuade people from disabling this setting.
“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”
Proposal
The documentation should at least be updated so that the items in bold above are addressed.
Ideally, on first run, GitLab would ask for consent, and not enable the usage ping unless it is given; that is not a documentation issue, though, and is beyond the scope of this ticket.
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The link should be on the words "opt-out of the usage ping", and the rest of the sentence should be reworded. -
The links to instructions on opting out of the usage ping should link to https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/usage_ping/index.html#disable-usage-ping rather than https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/usage_ping/index.html, or the page should be rewritten so that these instructions are at the top. -
As the instructions under Usage Ping Payload, immediately above Disable Usage Ping, manage to give full navigation instructions to find the section, they should be repeated under Disable Usage Ping. It is unreasonable to expect someone who is trying to find this control to know that the instructions under Disable Usage Ping are wrong, and they should follow the instructions in the section above.