Add lightweight feedback option to docs pages
During the discussions for removing Disqus comments on docs pages, we talked about adding a lightweight option for users to provide feedback on the docs - https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/marketing/inbound-marketing/growth/-/issues/1135#note_1264438714
Was this page helpful - yes/no. Selecting "No" pops up a text box where you can provide feedback. Behind the scenes, this could either create an issue that is automatically populated with the docs url, plus the correct labelling and automation to alert the TW for that group. Or, it could ping the docs-comments Slack channel as a lighter-weight solution.
Related issues and MRs
- gitlab-org/gitlab-docs!3682 (merged)
- gitlab-org/gitlab-docs#1574 (closed)
- https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/marketing/inbound-marketing/growth/-/issues/1135
- https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/issues/1691
- gitlab-org/gitlab-docs#805 (closed)
Current implementation plan (updated 2025-06-18)
We'll capture 3 areas of information:
- Was this page helpful -> a yes/no button (this tracks satisfaction)
- Optional: A set of radio buttons. Users can choose one and give us more of the ‘why’ behind their yes/no decision:
- What did you like?
- Easy to find information (findability)
- Easy to understand (usability)
- Solved my problem (usability)
- Other
- What went wrong?
- Could not find what I needed (findability)
- Difficult to understand (usability)
- Out of date (usability/accuracy)
- Incorrect information (usability/accuracy)
- Other
- Optional: Provide additional written feedback with more details.
- What did you like?
We're exploring using Firebase to capture this info.
The written feedback can be collated and used to create issues in GitLab. We'll have to figure out a mechanism for this.
Suggest we track the feedback for a quarter on an experimental basis and tweak the feedback form at the end of the quarter if needed. I would avoid adjusting it too regularly, as it makes it harder to track trends over time (like when we change page URLs and lose the page views).
Suggest we also keep the existing mechanism in the footer to create an issue for written feedback, in case we need to turn off the freeform feedback due to spam etc.
Designs
See #385 (closed)