Iterate on navigation proposal process
Background
Since starting last month, I have been meeting folks across the company. During that time, I have heard feedback on the navigation, design system, and processes we have in place. This issue is intended to iterate on the nav proposal process based that feedback.
Internal feedback
Resources
- Some teams do not have a UX resource to conduct the requested research, and our process is essentially a brick wall for them
- Two months is way too long for this process. I want something that takes 2 weeks max.
- This process prevents community contributions to the product since we require such explicit, time-intensive research.
Guidance
- There’s no paradigm in GitLab for content existing on a page and not being in the nav
- No option for stating that we followed existing guidelines and recommendations (from Pajamas)
- It's not clear what kind of research we're actually asking for. I want a script to give to my UXR.
- It's not clear why we have this process in the first place
- It's not clear how to initially engage the Foundations team in conversation. Should we assign it to the PM?
@mention
them? Something else?
Conflict
- Process doesn’t allow for reasonable judgment
- There’s no way to counter Foundations’ decisions
- Saying "no" to a navigation proposal is essentially saying no to the feature itself
- Foundations team comes across as not willing to work towards success
- The pushback I received from my initial nav proposal did result in a much better overall solution
- We are expected to work with Foundations for nav changes, but Foundations does not work with our designers for changes to our pages (Same for UX paper cuts). [Out of scope for this issue]
Action items
-
Document why this process matters (gitlab-com/content-sites/handbook!3989 (merged)) -
Document guidelines on level of rigor we expect (gitlab-com/content-sites/handbook!4893 (merged)) -
Document reviewer responsibilities -
Include suggestions for teams without a designer -
Update nav proposal template (gitlab-org/gitlab!146120) -
Create exception / reconciliation process (gitlab-com/content-sites/handbook!4056 (merged)) -
List explicit alternatives to adding an item to the nav [needs design]
See scratch work for potential revisions in https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zYHX7kyfbBiB2-u3DEATRbFPeIyMDkbA5gT2ha8dYvY/edit#heading=h.gx1g2zbm4jfp (internal)
Edited by Jeff Tucker