Merge Request Widgets - Workflow Interviews
What’s this issue all about?
In the internal async critique of the Merge Request interface, the majority of feedback was related to the MR widget.
We learned from #1099 (closed) that the intended audience for most sections of the MR widget are Software Engineers and DevOps Engineers. We want to better understand how well the current design of the MR widget is serving the needs of these users.
We'll consider these high-level user goals:
- Understand the impact of changes introduced into an MR
- Resolve issues that block an MR from being merged
Goals and objectives
- Understand how users consume information from the MR widget and identify opportunities for improving the design.
- Understand the most important actions users need to take in an MR and improve the information hierarchy.
Methodology
This effort will primarily focus on workflow interviews. There may be a short usability testing portion in the interview sessions.
Target Users
Software Engineers, DevOps Engineers
Note: There are studies that have previously focused on specific sections of the MR widget (e.g. #530 (closed), https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ux-research/-/issues/386). This study will focus on the overall experience for the primary audience.
Research Questions
- When and how do the different audiences use each widget?
- How do users utilize the MR widget in their workflow?
- How do users consume the information?
- What do they look at first?
- What actions do they take based off of the information they learn from the widget?
- What works well or doesn’t work well in the design of the widget?
- How do users consume the information?
- What are the most important actions to take in the Merge Request?
- What information is considered essential?
- What information is not essential but still useful?
- What information is not useful?
- Which parts of the MR widget are interacted with the most? (Review of telemetry data)
- How does the intended purpose of each widget compare to the actual usage by the target audience?
What hypotheses and/or assumptions do you have?
- The MR widget has grown to an overwhelming size
- Users have difficulty finding the Approve and Merge CTA due to the amount of information in the widget
What decisions will you make based on the research findings?
We will identify ways to improve the information hierarchy and design of the MR widget.
Progress
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Draft the discussion guide. -
Create the screening survey in Qualtrics or launch a Respondent project -
Recruit and schedule participants. -
Conduct the interviews. (Deadline: Fri Apr 30th) -
User 1 - Tues, 1pm PT (Software Engineer) -
User 2 - Weds, 10am PT (Software Engineer) -
User 3 - Fri, 12:30pm PT (Software Engineer) -
User 4 - Fri, 11:30am PT (Software Engineer) -
User 5 - Tues Apr 27, 11:30 am PT (Software/Data Engineer) -
User 1 - Thurs Apr 22, 10:15am PT (DevOps Engineer) -
User 2 - Fri Apr 23, 9:00am PT (DevOps Engineer) -
User 3 - Tues Apr 27 10:30am PT (DevOps Engineer) -
User 4 - Thurs Apr 29 3:30pm PT (DevOps Engineer) -
User 5 - Fri Apr 30 9:00 am PT (DevOps Engineer)
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Pay participants. -
10/10
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Synthesize the data and identify trends in Dovetail, resulting in insights (Deadline: Fri July 2nd) -
Update the Problem validation
research issue. Link to findings in Dovetail. Unmark asconfidential
if applicable. Close issue.
Links / References
- Insights in Dovetail: https://dovetailapp.com/projects/ef522421-7e82-4b54-9712-9f2c51465cdf/insights/present
- Interview notes: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ttcffyg2rwM7wxnTeAueU1-jqdERGfl1l6oHArV0yPo/edit?usp=sharing
- MR widget research synthesis: Docs / Slides
- Async critique: https://dovetailapp.com/projects/14109fbc-dfdd-4204-a54e-9c80ba8b7bba/insights/present/a1112f0e-06c6-4486-bad3-0477c503c5a0
- MR widget states in Figma: https://www.figma.com/file/jEUIZa5W0JvsR6lwgxwOYn/MR-Widget?node-id=0%3A1
- Misc feedback in Dovetail