WIP - Make search bar more visible

Problem

( groupglobal search) has had its GMAU, paid and free, impacted significantly over the last four months, down 42% for free and 39% for paid GMAU on .com from May-August and 15% on self-managed for the same period (calculations here). The new navigation was turned on by default for all users on June 2 and we saw a 23% drop in GMAU for June, and have continued to see double digit drops since then. We believe the drop is most likely due to the new navigation changes, which made search significantly less accessible and discoverable than the previous navigation. For additional context, there was a slight drop in GitLab CMAU over the same period, totaling 5% over four months.

The issues we've noticed ourselves and have been raised by users are:

• Search is a low-contrast button in a button group that shares the contrast level which reduces discoverability
• Search is in a non-traditional location
• When the nav is closed, search is only available through a keyboard shortcut, which the average user is unlikely to know

We're proposing two options for a potential change, with a strong preference for the first option. There are certainly other viable solutions to this problem, but we wanted to lead with a proposal to kick things off.

Proposals

Proposed option 1: Move the search bar out of the navigation back into the header

This is the most conspicuous of the two options, removing the search bar from the left navigation into a more traditional location. Clicking into the box would trigger the global search modal/command palette as happens today when you click the "Search or go to..." button. This is one of the more traditional locations for global search bars, and the same location as GitHub's and Jira's, so users are likely to be very familiar with it.

Proposed option 2: Increase the contrast of the "Search or go to" button and swap its location with icon buttons

This option would keep the existing "Search or go to..." button but move it to the top of the side navigation, above the icon buttons, and increase the contrast

Other locations that were considered

We also considered keeping the Search button in its current location and only increasing the contrast:

Checklist

• Review the handbook page for navigation changes
• Add relevant information to the issue description detailing your proposal, including usage and business drivers.
• List at least two other places you considered to introduce your feature
• Add relevant designs to the Design Management area of the issue
• Ensure your UI suggestion align with the Documentation Style Guide
• Engage Technical Writing. They can help craft a term that best describes the feature(s) you’re proposing.
• 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 mandatory for additions or when restructuring.
• Engage the Foundations Product Manager for approval. The Foundations DRI ( @cdybenko) will work with UX partners in product design, research, and technical writing, as applicable.
• Consider whether you need to communicate the change somehow, or if you will have an interim period in the UI where your item will live in more than one place.
• Ensure engineers are familiar with the implementation steps for navigation.