New integrations should be discoverable in the left sidebar

Status 2022-08-30

After completing analysis, it was discovered the solution has some limitations (insight).

Findings:

• Some participants appreciated the visibility of active integrations and quick links into useful functionality. (insight: participants are not aware of active integrations)
• Some participants would expect the integrations to embedded within the functionality of GitLab itself rather than a distinct nav item. (insight: most participants expected to see the active integration contextually in GitLab)
• Some participants were hesitant to add to the navigation as it’s infrequently they would need to adjust the settings of those integrations. (insight: Some participants noted that they do not often need to adjust the settings of their integration).
• Some participants doubted if it would be useful for them to see active integrations as they were not responsible for managing those integrations, or they didn’t have access to manage integrations (insight: Many participants integrations are managed by a separate team. Some participants do not have access to settings.)

Recommendations:

• Understand the problems around lack of visibility around integrations
• Come up with alternative solutions

Problem

We recently implemented new rules around how newly added integrations appear in the left sidebar:

Items related to planning and managing issues should be under the Issues nav item.

• See: https://design.gitlab.com/regions/navigation#sub-menu-items
• Related issue: gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#625 (closed)

There are many benefits to this approach however, in practice this approach also introduces issues around usability and discoverability. In this example below, when activating a new integration, it isn't clear how the user will navigate to it.

Example of activating a new integration
setting-up-jira

Proposal A

No change to existing rules, but display a hotspot pointing to where the new menu item will live.

Proposal A - introduce hotspot

Pros	Cons
Works with existing rule set Less effort to implement	Post installation, new menu item loses discoverability

Proposal B

Group integrations in a separate list.

Proposal B - New grouping

Pros	Cons
New menu item is easily discoverable and always present Scales to multiple integrations Uses a similar pattern to Slack and Jira (example)	Will require more effort to implement Will require updates to Pajamas guidelines

Proposal C

Updates existing success message alert.

Proposal C - Update existing Alert message

Pros	Cons
Less effort to implement Uses already established conventions	May not be as discoverable

Checklist

• If your proposal includes changes to the top-level menu items within the left sidebar, engage the Foundations Product Design Manager for approval. The Foundations DRI will work with UX partners in product design, research, and technical writing, as applicable.
• Follow the product development workflow validation process to ensure you are solving a well understood problem and that the proposed change is understandable and non-disruptive to users. Navigation-specific research is strongly encouraged.
• Engage the Foundations team to ensure your proposal is in alignment with holistic changes happening to the left side bar.
• Consider whether you need to communicate the change somehow, or if you will have an interim period in the UI where your nav item will live in more than one place.

Design source

• ✏ Figma project