Make the idea of a `Project` more clear for users
Resources
Users are often confused about the difference between the Project and Repository tabs. It came up recently in a comment on HN and is something I struggled with myself when I first started here at GitLab.
In a conversation with @jschatz1 about where this confusion stems from, we came up with the following:
-
In the current navigation, the
Projecttab sits right beside theRepository Tab. This creates a sibling relationship rather than a parent-child relationship. -
This confusing hierarchy is compounded by the fact that the
Projecttab can be configured to show theRepositoryinformation under settings. This make the two seem interchangeable when they are not. -
Users coming from GitHub and BitBucket are not familiar with the idea of
Projectsas they operate on a model where users navigate directly to repositories. This can make the idea of navigating to a project, then looking at the repository tab, a little disorienting.
Proposal
The Project can exist with or without a repository. The project tab itself serves as a cover letter of sorts, holding information related to the project. To make this more clear, we should rename the Project tab to something more appropriate. There is a good opportunity to introduce and test this change with the new navigation implementation.
Here is an example showing Projects renamed to About and the Home tab relabeled Details. I believe that this better establishes the GitLab-ee is the project and that you can learn more about it in this section. It also delineates that the sidebar is contextual by removing the confusing paradigm of having Project in the sidebar and Projects almost directly above in the header:
Other naming options are Overview, Synopsis, etc.
Design
Rename Groups to About and Home to Details
Rename Project to About and Home to Details
