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Description
The System Usability Scale is a quarterly initiative that helps us understand the needs, challenges, and pain points of GitLab users.
In this series, Katherine Okpara (UX Researcher, Create) will discuss the top themes we’ve gathered from the SUS surveys conducted thus far and highlight opportunities for improvement.
Learn more about the insights and action items from the SUS here: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/227688
A
So
the
key
issue
that
we've
discovered
through
collecting
feedback
through
the
sus
survey
is
that
users
experience
difficulty
in
remembering
where
the
items
they
need
are
located
in
gitlab.
So
we
constantly
hear
feedback
from
users
that
express
trouble
with
maintaining
context,
understanding
where
you
are
in
the
instance,
getting
back
to
the
place
you
last
were
and
navigating
throughout
get
lab
using
the
various
menus,
breadcrumbs
and
landing
pages.
Some
of
the
top
areas
that
users
tend
to
mention
include
the
left
side,
navigation.
A
A
The
reason
why
this
was
an
issue
and
a
point
of
frustration
for
users
was
the
fact
that
it
required
users
to
click
into
each
setting
to
understand
what
it
is
that
they
should
be
looking
for
in
the
first
place.
So,
instead
of
going
into
a
section
and
seeing
an
overview
of
all
the
possible
things,
they
could
potentially
need
for
their
task.
Users
would
have
to
scroll
below
the
fold.
A
So
this
is
an
important
area
for
improvement,
and
we
have
created
a
research
issue
to
better
understand
how
users
expect
settings
to
be
categorized,
and
those
key
questions
for
us
is
how
do
where
do
users
expect
to
find
settings
in
the
first
place?
Do
they
expect
to
find
them
within
the
sidebar
or
in
other
locations
and
additionally,
how
they
would
categorize
that
information,
so
questioning
whether
our
existing
categories
are
sufficient
or
whether
we
need
to
expand
or
reduce
the
categories?
A
Ability
to
search
settings
was
also
proposed
by
several
users
in
the
sas
survey
and
in
a
previous
research
study,
some
users
state
that
making
settings
searchable
is
more
important
to
them
than
reorganizing
the
pages.
The
reasoning
for
this
is
that
gitlab
is
a
large
product
that
caters
to
several
different
roles
and
workflows.
This
means
that
users
often
search
through
settings
that
are
not
relevant
to
their
daily
work
and
that
they
will
never
need
to
use.
A
So
the
next
area
to
consider
is
how
we
determine
where
to
place
settings.
So
currently,
we
primarily
group
settings
into
one
consolidated
area
such
as
project
settings
or
group
settings
or
the
profile
settings
or
admin
settings,
but
several
users
have
expressed
concern
over
the
fact
that
they
have
to
leave
the
context
of
their
work
to
go
change,
a
preference
or
get
a
feature
to
start
working.
A
clear
example
of
this
issue
are
the
are
the
preferences
in
profile
settings
in
addition
to
other
areas,
such
as
protected
branches
and
merge
request
approvals.
A
You
can
change
your
default
dashboard,
so
in
that
case
it's
you're.
Basically
your
home
page.
It's
the
information
you
see
when
you
first
land
in
gitlab
you're
also
able
to
change
that
in
this
area,
and
you
can
also
change
your
project
overview
content.
So
there's
many
different
things
you
can
change
in
these
preferences.
A
However,
you
have
to
know
that
you're
able
to
change
them
and
you
have
to
be
able
to
discover
that
so
a
common
trend,
I've
seen
in
from
users,
is
wondering
whether
they're
able
to
turn
off
features
in
the
left
side,
navigation.
So
that's
a
common
request.
We
see
in
the
system,
usability
scale
survey
and
the
reasoning
behind
that
is
when
they
first
when
they
come
into
get
lab
and
they
look
at
the
left
side
navigation.
A
There
can
be
an
overwhelming
amount
of
items
in
this
sidebar
and
you're,
not
sure
where
you
should
get
started.
Oftentimes
users
ask:
how
can
I
turn
off
these
features
that
are
not
relevant
to
my
daily
work
and
there's
actually
a
location
in
which
they
can
they
can
make
that
change,
but
it
lives
within
the
visibility
project,
features
and
permission
setting,
and
you
must
expand
it
to
find
out
that
you're
able
to
actually
interact
with
these
spot.
These
features
and
turn
off
things
like
issues,
repositories
and
various
items
in
the
left
side,
navigation.
A
This
is
an
area-
that's
particularly
suffering
from
discoverability
and
important
to
consider
in
the
context
of
improving
the
placement
of
settings,
and
we
do
have
an
open
research
issue.
That
is
all
about
this
topic,
and
this
research
issue
considers
whether
we
should
move
settings
into
spaces
where
they
are
closer
to
the
feature
they're
related
to,
and
also
will
tackle,
the
question
of
whether
we
should
have
settings
in
duplicated
places.
So
should
they
in
should
they
exist
in
the
context
of
the
workflow,
but
also
in
a
dedicated
area
or
how
we
should
handle
this
problem.
A
Our
ux
design
team
is
working
on
identifying
top
areas
needing
improvements
for
settings.
This
effort
is
being
coordinated
by
hayana
verissimo
from
the
ux
department.
Settings
is
currently
an
area
that
is
not
owned,
which
has
made
it
difficult
to
prioritize
improvements
related
to
this
area
in
the
class.
So
I
think
this
is
a
great
area
where
we
can
do
a
lot
of
discussion
and
cross-stage
collaboration
to
improve
the
experience
for
users.