## What is the System Usability Scale? The System Usability Scale (SUS) is a standardized, 10-item questionnaire that measures the ease of use of websites, software, mobile devices, and other technological applications. We send the SUS survey to a randomized selection of GitLab.com (SaaS) users every quarter, as a way to track the perceived usability of GitLab over time. ## SaaS SUS Score **68.1** (-2.7 difference from Q4FY21) - 455 complete responses - Margin of error: +/- 1.3 - Grade: C / Adjective: "OK" ## Summary of findings The data from this quarter highlights the importance of improving learnability, reducing complexity, and fixing inconsistencies. **We saw a significant decrease in the SaaS SUS score due to the following reasons:** - Sharp decrease in multiple individual question scores, particularly those related to **learnability**, **complexity**, and **confidence using GitLab** - Sharp decrease in average SUS scores for **New** and **Free** cohorts - Moderate decreases in average SUS scores for **Paid** and **Mature** cohorts **Every other quarter we also send the survey to a cohort of self-managed users:** - Self-managed SUS score: **71.8 (-0.9 difference from Q3FY21)**, N = 100, Margin of error = +/- 2.8 - The self-managed score was significantly higher than SaaS. The vast majority of respondents in the self-managed cohort were **mature** users of GitLab. Their ratings for the questions about wanting to use GitLab frequently and feeling confident using GitLab were much higher than SaaS respondents. Those questions with very positive ratings contributed to a higher SUS score for the self-managed cohort. **We analyzed open-text responses and learned that:** - Themes were fairly consistent with previous quarters. The top themes this quarter were **Missing features/functionality**, **General usability**, **Documentation/help**, **System performance**, **MR Experience**, and **Learnability**. We also received lots of [general positive](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/uxr_insights/-/issues/1242) feedback. - The complexity of the application comes up often, even though it’s not a top theme. Respondents often share the feedback they hear from their non-engineering team members who struggle to use GitLab. Others wish they could tailor GitLab to their specific needs and not have to interact with additional features. **Going forward, we should continue to focus on:** - Improving system performance, especially for Merge Requests - Identifying and fixing gaps in usability and incomplete workflows - Including more examples and tutorials in the documentation and the UI where possible - Improving documentation of CI/CD features - Simplifying menu structures and helping users find what they need ## To learn more, please refer to the following resources: - SUS Score AMA video: https://youtu.be/8WpG6XnU7ZE - Slide deck with overview of results: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1crS0oQ91Tr895FEk0Qmm3KTe9F_T5y9CDuSIBtFA87M/edit?usp=sharing - Sisense dashboard: https://app.periscopedata.com/app/gitlab/816864/SUS-Survey-Scores - Raw results spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15Td2STDqL5Sz8takJWuslfGDm7Xfk9sUdcRozVax6-A/edit?usp=sharing - FY22-Q2 OKRs: https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-com/-/epics/1416