Foundational Research for Global Search
What did we learn?
Results |
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Participants struggled to use the search header and advanced search. Why? They did not know search was dependent upon where they started searching within GitLab. |
Global search did not match users’ mental models for how to conduct a search. Why? They were unsure whether the results were based on exact matches and expected to specify upfront what kind of content they sought. |
Several participants were unaware of the search header in GitLab prior to the study. |
Participants did not know what types of content they could search for through global search. |
Link to research report in Google Slides |
Link to video summary |
Link to Dovetail project |
What’s this issue all about?
- This issue is about researching what gaps there are with our current global search capabilities, so we can better support different user workflows and increase usage of search
- See slide 4 of this research proposal deck for additional context
What hypotheses and/or assumptions do you have?
- Users do not engage with Global Search (header and advanced search) as much as we expect.
- Users have a variety of workarounds when it comes to finding information within GitLab.
- Outside of increasing code search functionality, there are multiple gaps that currently exist with our search capabilities.
What questions are you trying to answer?
Core questions
- How do users find known or unknown content that is within GitLab?
- What are users typically looking for (e.g., code vs non-code content)?
- When doing code search, do users often try the global search, group-level search, or search within a project?
- In what ways do they use GitLab global search?
- Through usage of global search, is it meeting their needs?
- What suggestions do users have to make global search better?
Additional questions
- What workflows do users follow (e.g., web browser bookmarks, Google search, GitLab header search, GitLab advanced search, project board, etc.)?
- How comfortable or uncomfortable are users with our search functionality? Why?
- What is working well with Global Search?
- What is missing the mark with Global Search?
- What could we address to help with learnability of GitLab (e.g., awareness of search capabilities, increasing confidence in using search instead of other workflows)?
- What kinds of information do users commonly search for in GitLab?
- How often do you use GitLab Search? How often is header search and advanced search used?
- How often do users engage with sort/filter options in advanced search?
- How useful is the search functionality in GitLab?
- How long does it take for users to find the information they need?
- Does search functionality save users time? In what ways does it help them?
What persona, persona segment, or customer type experiences the problem most acutely?
- Alex (Security Operations Engineer)
- Cameron (Compliance Manager)
- Eddie (Content Editor)
- Dana (Data Analyst)
What business decisions will be made based on this information?
There are four goals that will come out of this work:
- Uncover natural search behavior of our users
- Learn about users' experience with GitLab search
- Understand users' needs and desired enhancements for GitLab search
- Gather usage metrics to understand the scope of user problems
This research should help the Global Search team and other GitLab teams with the future direction of search (through increasing company knowledge of how users engage with our tool).
Resources
- Handbook Link to Product Demo Videos
- Research Recruiting Screener
- Discussion Guide
- WIP Interview & Survey Data Sheet
- Dovetail Project
To-Do Items
-
Determine/refine research questions -
Finalize participant recruiting criteria -
Recruit participants -
Add Global Search team as observers for sessions (as they are scheduled)
Complete Mural Activity (Part 1)
Instructions: Please click the checkmark button when you have finished the first part of this async exercise.
For PM/UX/Management roles - due date 2022-05-06
For Engineering/QA roles - due date 2022-05-19
Complete Mural Activity (Part 2)
Instructions: Please click the checkmark button when you have finished the second part of this async exercise.
For all roles - due date 2022-06-01
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@changzhengliu -
@JohnMcGuire -
@nickbrandt -
@dgruzd -
@terrichu -
@ebanks -
@tbulva -
@john-mason
Edited by Will Leidheiser