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GitLab Product Design Manager here Thanks for your feedback! You bring up quite a few great points. We have worked hard on bringing every tool from the DevOps lifecycle into our platform, and I agree with you that quite a few areas have become overwhelming, especially for new users or people who don't use our entire set of features. We are actively working on refining that, but as you can imagine, that's no easy feat, as we have a vast variety of project types, workflows, use cases, user types, etc... One of the most problematic areas, as you perfectly mentioned, is the left sidebar. We already enable project administrators to remove items from there by going to Settings -> General -> Visibility, project features, permissions, and then toggling off the areas you would like to remove. However, this is a project setting, not per user. At the same time, we also work on making that left sidebar better for everyone, in multiple smaller iterations. As first step, we are making some small changes to the visual design (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/322680) and make the navigation easier to understand (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/322687). We are also aware that our left sidebar has become too crowded with too many top-level/sub-level items, and we are validating an idea that would be the first step for us to get out of this (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ux-research/-/issues/1421). There are already a few follow-up ideas (e.g. grouping items into larger groups or pinning most important items per user), but they are a bit further away. I hope that gives you a better understanding how our UX team at GitLab thinks about this. Let me know if you have any other feedback or ideas |
> One of the most problematic areas, as you perfectly mentioned, is the left sidebar. We already enable project administrators to remove items from there by going to Settings -> General -> Visibility, project features, permissions, and then toggling off the areas you would like to remove. However, this is a project setting, not per user.
I can't believe I missed that. Is it a somewhat recent feature? I could swear I could not disable everything a few months ago when I tried it (I remember not being able to hide Operations, Analytics, etc.). Maybe I just went too quickly through the visibility options.
Well I apologize, it is indeed feasible to hide the features I don't use. Thanks for the heads up.
> I hope that gives you a better understanding how our UX team at GitLab thinks about this
Thank you for these explanations. Although I think some pages are too bloated, I like the fact that you act on it. And to be honest, I've always found each iteration of the UI better than the previous one, so there's that.