UX: Workspaces at project level (design exploration)

MR: Pending

Description

Recommendation originating from UX Scorecard

Problem 1

Users have trouble understanding workspaces and how they relate to GitLab projects. The side nav is one of the first places they look. Combined with how the Workspace brand means something different to different people it can lead to the interpretation that a workspace spans multiple projects.

From UX Scorecard :

• “If I had just clicked Edit and seen workspaces I would not have been particularly drawn to use it just because I’m entirely unfamiliar with it”
• "Initially, I imagined ... that it will be just a general thing accessible through GitLab somewhere where I would click a button and it wouldn’t be directly attached to a project. I think it makes a lot of sense to attach it to a project. It's just not what I expected.”
• "I think just the name Workspace suggests to me, this is where I work, and when I personally work, I work on everything (not just one project) at the same time. That’s just where the name led me.“

Problem 2

Launching from the Edit button in a project is not as engaging as it could be.

From UX Scorecard :

• “If I had just clicked Edit and seen workspaces I would not have been particularly drawn to use it just because I’m entirely unfamiliar with it”

Problem 3

Clicking Create workspace from the Edit button in a project direct the user to Your work > Workspaces > Create workspace page. This is unexpected at best and confusing at worst. Users who are new to GitLab and don't fully understand the difference between Your work and Project in the navigation are especially confused.

From UX Scorecard :

• “Oh this tab wasn’t here before” (Viewing Your Work > Create Workspace page after clicking New Workspace in Edit button)

Problem 4

Could we improve workspaces usefulness by allowing users to see all members workspaces in a project? Needs more investigation but this could be a useful collaboration feature.

From UX Scorecard :

• “It would be cool to see other people’s instances”
• "We had something like this (collaborative dev environments) at my last job. It was really useful"

Acceptance Criteria

TODO: Fill out (required)

• Alignment on proposed solution
• Split into individual issues

Proposed solution