Navigation Issue

Now flow looks like this: Project list --> Project but if you want to go back it will be project --> group--> project list. We need to eliminate the replace Back to group with Back to projects

@sytses @JobV I would like to hear your opinion on this. For me it makes a lot of sense since I usually come to project page from projects page. And going up to group to go up to projects list makes no sense to me.

That'd be confusing as well if you came in through another way. I propose we do one of two things:

1. create two or more buttons (link to respective page) / dropdowns: "Groups" and "Projects" for fast navigation. Otherwise the inverse argument of @dzaporozhets's is also true.
2. actually introduce the hierarchy (levels) in the menu

I think the only way to consolidate the problem with navigating hierarchy is by adding levels to the menu. We currently already represent hierarchy:

• back to group (Group level)
• bunch of links (project level)
• Settings (jumps in to sub-level)

But our UX does not represent this at all, besides in semantics and a single line. This is confusing for everyone.

@JobV makes sense. But nested menu will be really hard to implement:

• limitation on size of sidebar
• problems with collapsing sidebar

Another idea is to have sidebar static with navigation from dashboard. So when I visit project or dashboard I still have same menu on the left. In this case all other navigation is placed on content block with vertical hierarchy

@dzaporozhets I'm afraid we're adding complexity with that way because of different navigation elements.

@JobV yes we are basically trapped with 3 layers of navigation and no easy way of solving it. I will wait till @sytses comment but I think the best way is to close this issue and forget about it for a while. I dont see win solution here

If you want to go back to the list of projects you can click the GitLab icon above the menu. This is not obvious but the option is there.

The most obvious hierarchy we have is dashboard (all) / groups (list of projects and people) / projects

1. I think our menu should reflect that and keep it the way it is.
2. An alternative would be to get rid of 'Back to group' and completely since people can click the link to the group on the right side of the icon, in that case we should also remove 'Back to Dashboard'.
3. Another alternative is to rename the links. We don't know where the user was coming so we don't know if the user is going back at all. It could be 'Go to group', 'Go to dashboard' and 'Go to Project'.

I'm starting to like option 3.

3 doesn't address @dzaporozhets concern that he is not interested in going there.

It is a good change though for the current implementation. It doesn't fix the other issues with the navigation.

Yes lets start with 3. At least its improvement. In future I would rather go with 2 because:

• link to dashboard already exists on logo
• link to group already exists in header.

An alternative would be to get rid of 'Back to group' and completely since people can click the link to the group on the right side of the icon, in that case we should also remove 'Back to Dashboard'.

Yes lets start with 3. At least its improvement. In future I would rather go with 2 because:

• link to dashboard already exists on logo
• link to group already exists in header.

The fact that the links are already there is false reasoning. That doesn't solve the issues we have with the UX right now.

The navigation bar is not working well because it doesn't represent context. The context is placed outside of the navbar, on the top bar.

One way to fix this, is by simply moving group / project to the place where the back to group is now. Then we introduce the context to the sidebar and remove duplication.

I don't think that's the best solution, but it's a step closer to where we want to be.

@JobV I don't think that will fit.

If we agree on 3 let's do that.

Milestone changed to 8.2

I will just change from "Back to .." to "Go to ..".

mentioned in merge request !1736 (merged)

Status changed to closed by merge request !1736 (merged)

mentioned in merge request !14785