For GitLab.com to be one of the best places for open source, we need to ensure that contributors can quickly find their way to projects they're both passionate about and that meet their skillset. In order to do this, we should improve the Explore page. This page is intended to help match users with projects they're interested in. We should allow users to explore projects without requiring a specific query. We should: - [x] Improve the design for an unfiltered `/explore` viewer - [ ] Adjust empty states for the presented tabs to be compliant with current design guidelines - [ ] Ensure that only groups/projects that the user is not a member of are listed in Explore (discovery use case), to compliment `Your Work`, which is focussed on member access ## Design vision ### Groups  ### Projects  <!-- STATUS NOTE START --> ## Status 2026-06-18 <!-- Create a high level summary (optional but encouraged) --> :clock1: **total hours spent this week by all contributors**: 2 :tada: **achievements**: - **Ready to close** the [Retire the Trending tab from Explore > Projects (&18493)](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/work_items/18493) epic — all 15 child issues are now resolved, including the feature flag rollout and cleanup - **Progressing** on [Trending projects removal cleanup (&22322)](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/work_items/22322) — the remaining technical cleanup is actively being worked on and should be completed within the next three milestones :arrow_forward: **next**: - Complete the remaining cleanup tasks in [&22322](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/work_items/22322): drain Sidekiq queue, delete worker class, and drop the database table - Execute cleanup work across milestones 19.2 and 19.3 following the safe removal process _Copied from https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/555#note_3467363606_ <!-- STATUS NOTE END -->