Update to Service Desk emails, and customize with existing avatars
Description
Service Desk emails are threads between the reporter and the Service Desk email bot, but they are far too casual and perhaps a bit confusing to unsuspecting users. New users are unaware of the process of reporting an issue and what to expect afterwards, and they may not remember what they sent the email for in the first place if the ticket takes more than a couple days to complete.
The following proposed update of the Service Desk emails will allow users to be more comfortable with the chain of emails relating to their issue, and the reporters will more readily interact with said emails, as opposed to just sitting around watching them fly by. By updating the text, and adding a couple avatars (that are already in the system), the external users (reporters) would be more easily scan the emails and understand their contents and context. Anything that makes the user feel more confident that their problem is being handled properly, and in an easy and intuitive way, is a win for any project, and that project's team.
Proposal
I propose that we enable the use of the customizable project avatar, and perhaps a link to the issue page (provided the entire issue tracker is open to the public), and a couple small text changes/additions to the body of the emails being sent by the Service Desk feature. There are a few simple updates that would resolve many of the issues with these emails:
- Project avatar (example) embedded in the email to show which project this email is about (already exists in general settings, so why not use it here?)
- Add the title of the ticket to the email body, not just the subject line
- Add a blurb about what to expect/how the process works to the initial "Thank you" email
- When a team member responds to the ticket, include that person's name/username in the email body, not just as the "sender". Include user avatars with each reply so you know who is saying something to you (like @victorwu's profile image)
- (Optional) Include a link to the issue in the GitLab GUI if the entire issue list is set to public. A logged in user is already directed there when he/she unsubscribes, so why not also provide a normal link?
Please note that these are all existing assets in the project's/user's settings, with a bit of added text that is easy to create. Many of the features work well with HTML and raw text-based emails (project and user avatars would be removed, but text could easily take their places). The work to implement these changes would be minimal given the return, while also enabling many projects and companies to take advantage of minimally expanded emails.
Links / references
Possible design inspiration (credit to Venture Harbour on Dribbble): https://dribbble.com/shots/3246607-Support-Emails
service_desk_thank_you_email.html.haml the primary file that I wish to change
Out-of-scope
Any project-level editing of the email templates would be out of scope for the moment, but could come up at a later time. As this wouldn't be a quick win, this isn't necessary for current implementation.
Adding additional image sizes/formats for project logo might be nice in the future, but would put Service Desk too close to being a CRM, and might not be desirable.
#2460 (closed) Would be a much greater expansion of my request. Would be great to see in the future, but not within the scope for right now
#4141 This ticket is asking for the user to get access to only their ticket, but my request is only if the entire issue list is open to the public, not just this one ticket.