Unship: Next badge from navigation sidebar

Problem to solve

The navigation sidebar is a dense region and each element should be thoughtfully evaluated. The Next badge is given prominent positioning, but it's unclear why it should be so clearly visible. It the Next badge was added in 11.1 and I believe it is mostly a convenience benefit to our infrastructure team.

Background

Users that have opted in or those visiting an area within gitlab-org or gitlab-com will be using our canary infrastructure, which means they will see the latest version of GitLab a few hours before it lands in production.

To opt-in users must first open their menu and select Switch to GitLab Next

CleanShot_2024-04-10_at_10.16.13

This will open a new tab ( next.gitlab.com ), then user must adjust the toggle

Next_GitLab

Once they return to GitLab and refresh the page the Next badge will appear.

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Confirming I am using the “canary” stage of an environment #

The best method when using the UI is to enable the performance bar and look at the name of the Kubernetes pod service your page. If it starts with gitlab-cny (and has a baby chicken next to it), you are using the canary stage. There will also be the word “next” in a green box next to the GitLab logo in the top left.

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Fav icon differences

Default Canary
Logo_-_Tanuki Logo_-_Tanuki-1

Proposal

Remove the Next badge from the navigation. Allow users to toggle GitLab Next within the user menu.

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Edited by Austin Regnery