When a user is not logged into GitLab and visits an open source project, it is not apparent what the value of signing up for GitLab would be. In contrast, when a user is not logged into GitHub, github makes it very easy to navigate to find why GitHub is a valuable piece of the devops toolchain:
You can see from the image above that the user can easily navigate to find GitHub's pricing and ny relevent marketing data. Moreover, it is very easy for the user to register for a GitHub account directly from this header.
In contrast, GitLab simply displays the following:
There is no discernable way to see GitLab's value or the pricing structure in order to know if it is worth hosting my project on GitLab.
Hypothesis
By adding a marketing header to the product that guides users to gitlab's marketing and value pages we will increase the total number of signups and increase the number of valuable signups (meaning that those signups will convert at a higher rate). This channel will capture users that are more developer oriented and are actively engaged in developing software and as a result, the set of users captured from this channel will have an increased SpO and conversion rate in comparison to users from other channels.
Requirements
Add a marketing header to all GitLab pages (that replaces the current header) when the user is on gitlab.com pages and not logged in.
This page should allow users to explore relevent marketing pages, sign in and register.
Users should not be able to sign up for a trial from this header.
We should be able to track these users from header click to registration to conversion and any stages those users might utilize.
Proposed Solution
Adjust the current logged out header to have a height of 72px and Regular Sized Links.
Add in About GitLab + Dropdown, Pricing, Resources + Dropdown Links to the left side.
Move Menu to the right side.
Separate out Sign up and Login into two different CTA.
Emily Baumanchanged title from Create a marketing header when user is on GitLab and not logged in to [UX] Create a marketing header when user is on GitLab and not logged in
changed title from Create a marketing header when user is on GitLab and not logged in to [UX] Create a marketing header when user is on GitLab and not logged in
Hey @jstava - I'll try and pull this one as well as #449 (closed) in next week to my workflow.
Just a few questions before I start on this issue. As this is a GitLab wide experiment, is there anyone from marketing or elsewhere you see us needing to loop in or get involved for feedback? Additionally, when you mention marketing header, do you think there is value in using (or working off) the header from about.gitlab.com for an initial test:
Or are we better off using the existing "logged out" header and adding in some links to make it appear more as a marketing-y. Some of those links could be the following:
Separating register and sign in, so we can make register more prominent
For MVC I feel the easiest would be adding some additional links to the existing logged out purple header and tracking the click through rate of those new links, but I am open to suggestions based on what your expectations for this experiment are. Perhaps for the ideal state, we can work towards showing what is in the about.gitlab header, if we see the links being useful.
is there anyone from marketing or elsewhere you see us needing to loop in or get involved for feedback?
Yes, but I want to have a first set of designs and requirements before we wrap them in.
Additionally, when you mention marketing header, do you think there is value in using (or working off) the header from about.gitlab.com for an initial test?
Yes, If you think that header fits design wise within gitlab.com, I am all for it. That said, I want to run another test that promotes trials so this first test should only include registration and sign in.
For MVC I feel the easiest would be adding some additional links to the existing logged out purple header and tracking the click through rate of those new links, but I am open to suggestions based on what your expectations for this experiment are. Perhaps for the ideal state, we can work towards showing what is in the about.gitlab header, if we see the links being useful.
I don't think this header stands out enough. I think it should be larger and draw the users attention. The purpose of the test is to really draw the user to sign up.
@jstava@emilybauman I think this would be a great experiment! I do wonder what links we want to include in the header. Separate sign in and register links make a lot of sense, but maybe not all the marketing links currently on about.gitlab.com. Also, those marketing links are located on another domain (about.gitlab.com), which might not be a concern, but good to keep in mind, as the page will look very different than where they started from.
Sounds good, if we want to go bigger to start I can work on redesigning the header from what exists now to something that will stand out a bit more. I think we can use inspiration from the marketing site with some tweaks to fit the the design system for GitLab.
I agree with Alex here that we may not want to add in all the current links in the marketing header and stick with a few of the main ones: About GitLab, Pricing etc. Let me know if there are any others we think are important to add, if not my proposal is to start with those two and see if we get traction.
I don't think it's a concern with sending them to about.gitlab.com, but perhaps those links should open in a new tab if we are navigating them off the site?
@matejlatin Do you have any thoughts on this experiment?
For MVC I feel the easiest would be adding some additional links to the existing logged out purple header and tracking the click through rate of those new links,
@emilybauman@jstava I do think this is the right MVC here You can explore a longer term "vision" of what this header could become but adding links into the current one is much less work for everyone involved and can already tell us if we're moving in the right direction. It's what GitHub does as well, they just have a larger header.
I don't think it's a concern with sending them to about.gitlab.com, but perhaps those links should open in a new tab if we are navigating them off the site?
I wouldn't force the target="_blank" behaviour here. I think the users can decide on their own if they want to open something in a new tab.
Good point about the tabbed behaviour, they'd be able to navigate back anyways if all else fails. I agree, I think simple would be best for MVC and perhaps if we do want the banner to show up a bit more than it currently does, we can just adjust the height to be a bit larger to give us more room for a better registration button and play around with how the links appear. Avoiding too much excess work but showing users the information they need.
@alexbuijs Great thought! I like the idea of simplifying. What if we included product, resources and pricing in the header from the marketing site? I think that those best fit what the user may be looking for.
By the way, we should record all of the different clicks to those pages.
Thanks @jstava - I think I have enough info to go ahead and get started now. We can continue collaborating when I get the first designs up. Thanks all for your inputs!
Oh this is interesting @kcomoli - thanks for bringing it to our attention.
I feel like there is still some opportunities here to play around with the content even with it being far along.
@jstava@alexbuijs@eugielimpin - What sizes of headers would be most helpful for me to design out now that we have the base one mostly complete. I was thinking one mobile, one tablet and one desktop, but open to suggestions.
@emilybauman Those sizes would be great! Currently there are several breakpoints where more and more items disappear. I suppose we should keep those intact.
@christinelee Would love to get your thoughts on this test. We are ready to run this next milestone (14.6).
Our hypothesis is that this channel will capture users that are more developer oriented and are actively engaged in developing software and as a result, the set of users captured from this channel will have an increased SpO and conversion rate in comparison to users from other channels.
So we are going to record the channel at signup and compare these users to other channels to see if users from channels that capture active developers should be treated differently within our onboarding.
@jstava - This is super exciting! Tagging in @mpreuss22 and @cmestel as FYI and for their thoughts as well.
Just one clarification - when you say test, are we doing an AB test where we split not logged in users and show some of them the new header and some the old header? Or are we turning on the new header for all not logged in users?
I wasn't aware you were working on this and had the same project teed up as a stretch goal for my team in Q4: Add Marketing Header And Index Opensource Projects. We were hoping to pick this up in January but now we don't have to!
@jstava we know that Free Trial is our most effective conversion path (@statimatla has done an analysis on this). Could we include a direct link to Free Trial in this version rather than waiting to run a test against it as you mentioned here:
That said, I want to run another test that promotes trials so this first test should only include registration and sign in.
If possible, could we expose it at the top level rather than putting it in a dropdown?
We're focusing on increasing Large First Orders (new Enterprise customers) and the "Talk to an expert" button has been increasing views of our Contact Sales page resulting in more engagement with potential customers. Could we work "Talk to an expert" into the navigation as well?
Small one here but the Explore GitLab link takes you to a list of projects that don't appear to be in any discerning order (you probably know more about this than I do). If possible, removing the explore paths and focusing on conversion paths would be ideal.
Maybe an option could be: About GitLab + Dropdown, Pricing, Free Trial, Talk to an expert (removing Resources + Dropdown and moving links to Docs, Get Started, and Learn into About GitLab + Dropdown)
Thanks so much for the feedback @christinelee and @mpreuss22! I'm super excited for this experiment.
I'll let @jstava talk to points 1 and 2 here, as I believe he has the best background information, but I can chime in around point 3.
I'm very open to changing what the links are in the proposed design based on what we think is best, and what we see performing well. I like the idea of simplifying it to About GitLab + Dropdown, Pricing, Free Trial, Talk to an expert - with the caveat of Jensen's opinion around the free trial test. Less links, and more surfaced to the top.
If possible, could we expose it at the top level rather than putting it in a dropdown?
So this test is about measuring the performance of this channel. I want to see if these users (who we can assume are more technical, and more than likely developers) utilize more stages than other channel or convert at a higher rate. As a result, I don't (yet) want to skew the data with trial usage as those experiences are very different. We have a follow up to add trial here.
We're focusing on increasing Large First Orders (new Enterprise customers) and the "Talk to an expert" button has been increasing views of our Contact Sales page resulting in more engagement with potential customers. Could we work "Talk to an expert" into the navigation as well?
For sure. Would you like that added in this test or can we add in a future iteration?
Small one here but the Explore GitLab link takes you to a list of projects that don't appear to be in any discerning order (you probably know more about this than I do). If possible, removing the explore paths and focusing on conversion paths would be ideal.
Fine with me @emilybauman Can you make that update?
when you say test, are we doing an AB test where we split not logged in users and show some of them the new header and some the old header? Or are we turning on the new header for all not logged in users?
This will be an a/b test where 50% of non-logged in users will see this some will see the old header. I want to be able to measure the difference between the two.
@jstava@mpreuss22@christinelee Thanks all for the feedback here, I went ahead and made the changes to the design. Feel free to jump in with any comments:
Changes include adding the talk to an expert link, removing the resources link and coupling things into the About GitLab drop down. If this works for everyone, I can update the issue with the new design.
Apologies @emilybauman@jstava I should have reviewed GA data when I gave my last feedback. After taking a look, what do we think about the following in the About GitLab dropdown? The number beside is the percentage of traffic received over a 17 day timeframe with homepage visits removed.
What do we think about removing Signup and only having Get free trial and Login? My thinking is, why would I as a potential customer sign up without using the product for free first? Simplifying reduces cognitive load and may make it easier for someone to take an action.
What do we think about removing Signup and only having Get free trial and Login? My thinking is, why would I as a potential customer sign up without using the product for free first? Simplifying reduces cognitive load and may make it easier for someone to take an action.
@mpreuss22 I think that by splitting these tests into two parts, we can see the percent of traffic and the effect of our trial option has on MQLs and usage. Previous tests that we have run show that when we force users down the trial path we get more trials but not more MQLs and not more free to paid conversion. That said, I am happy to test that option, but I think that we should move forward with these two tests first.
Sounds great to me @jstava - I'm definitely interested in testing the option I mentioned at a later date. Can you point me in the direction of where I should write that issue up please?
And if there's any thing I can do to continue supporting this please let me know. I have a couple engineers set up on the product codebase so could contribute engineering resources if needed.
@jstava really interesting work so far! I worked on the marketing nav redesign so thought I would add my 2¢ here. I agree with @mpreuss22 that the Free Trial CTA would be valuable so looking forward to seeing that test! We find most people click on "Login" on the marketing site even if they are creating a new account, so if space is a concern, you could probably just say "Login" and people will use that tab for both purposes. I'd be curious in a future iteration to break out the marketing side of this nav with the account side. Here are some examples from Lululemon and Hackerone, where they have the larger marketing nav with the smaller account nav above.