Design: Simplify MWPS/MT/MTWPS with just auto-merge
Problem
We have notoriously long button labels for the MWPS and MTWPS strategies: Merge when pipeline succeeds
, Start|Add to merge train when pipeline succeeds
.
The NN Group suggests 4 values of better link labels, that can also be used for button labels:
Write specific links that set sincere expectations and fulfill them, that are substantial enough to stand alone while remaining as succinct as possible.
These 4 values must be balanced. In the case of our MWPS and MTWPS buttons, I believe these values are out of balance: the button labels are overly specific, sincere and substantial, sacrificing succinctness. The thing is, these button labels all do the same thing, which is to automatically merge. Do users really need the added specificity about the merge strategy?
Competition
In the competitive analysis of code review merge checks UX, we discovered that Azure DevOps, Bitbucket, and GitHub all use the “auto-merge” or “automatic merge” terminology.
Proposal
In #299195 (closed) we explored the concept of uniting the MWPS and Merge train strategies under the concept of auto-merge
:
- A specific, sincere, substantial and succinct button label.
- Supplementary information is offered if the user needs it, but it's not necessary to read it to understand what the button will do.
This will also set the foundations for us to expand this “auto-merge” concept to include any kind of merge checks, and not just pipelines. For example, #8128 (closed) proposes auto-merging when both pipelines and approval requirements are met. In the future we could add even more requirements that, when passed, will auto-merge MRs.