UX Resources

This page provides quick access to tools, workflows, playbooks, and resources used by the UX department. If you believe something useful is missing, please submit an MR.

Quick links

Workflows and operations

• Product Designer Workflow - Day-to-day design processes and collaboration
• Product Design Operations - Issue management, labeling, and scheduling
• UX Researcher Workflows
• Technical Writing Workflows
• UX Operations - Headcount planning, procurement, labels, calendar

Design System

• Pajamas Design System - GitLab’s product design system
• Pajamas UI Kit on Figma
• GitLab Design project - Documentation of workflows and processes
• SVG repository - GitLab SVG assets

Research and analysis tools

Dovetail

Research repository for managing and analyzing research findings. Request access if needed.

Gong

Conversation intelligence tool to record sales conversations and provide analytics. Search calls for topics of interest or identify customers to speak with. Request access for “Collaborator” role.

Highspot

Go-to-market information including sales enablement and competitor research. Available through SSO. Request access if needed. See the Highspot handbook page for more information.

UX Research Archive

UX Research Archive contains all research undertaken by GitLab’s UX researchers.

Jobs to Be Done (JTBD)

We use the JTBD framework for viewing products and solutions in terms of the jobs customers are trying to achieve. JTBD is used throughout the design process to determine scope, validate direction, evaluate existing experiences with UX Scorecards, and journey mapping.

Collaboration and sharing

UX Forum

The UX Forum is a recurring meeting for UX team members to share and discuss their work.

Design Studios

Design Studios are regular meetings for product designers to connect and work together, providing casual time for socializing, sharing work, and getting feedback.

UX Calendar

The UX Department Google Calendar is the SSOT for UX team meetings and events.

Tools

Figma

We use Figma for designing and prototyping. Our Pajamas UI kit contains design assets, components, and styles for GitLab’s design system, Pajamas. Additionally, there is a Figma plugin available that allows designers to upload design files directly into a GitLab issue. Every product designer should receive access to Figma during onboarding. If you don’t have the access you need, reach out to your manager. If you are not a product designer but want View access (including the ability to leave comments), create a free Figma account and ask your stage group designer for a link to the relevant files.

Figma admins and their role scope are defined as:

Figjam

We use Figjam for collecting design feedback, mapping workflows, brainstorming, affinity mapping, and anything else where we need a visual, whiteboard-like workspace.

Everyone in the UX department and all Product Managers can get a Figma account with the ability to create new Figjam boards. If you want to share your Figjam board to get feedback from members of your team who do not have a Figma account, you can send an anonymous link through the Share dialog.

AI tools

See AI usage in UX to learn when to use AI, best practices, what to avoid, and how to keep users at the center while using AI as a helper.

Dovetail

We use Dovetail to manage and analyze research findings. If you need access, please submit an Access Request.

Gong

A conversation intelligence tool to record sales facing conversations and provide analytics and insights into those conversations. It can help UX team members identify customers to speak with, or search calls for topics of interest. It is available to UX team members upon request. Create an access request if you would like to use it. You can request the “Collaborator” role.

Highspot

Contains information about Go-to-market including sales enablement and competitor research. Highspot can be accessed through SSO and is available upon request. Create an access request if you would like to use it. For more information, see the Highspot handbook page.

Tutorials

• Technical tutorials for Product Designers - Video playlist for best practices
• Step by step guide to make code changes

YouTube channels

• UX Team
• UX Scorecards
• UX Forum
• GitLab Design Talks - Iteration
• GitLab Design Talks - Collaboration
• GitLab Design Talks - Design Leadership & Career Development

User personas

User personas represent the people who actually use GitLab. The UX and Marketing teams use personas to inform decisions around user experience and design.

Playbooks and guides

• Dark Mode Rollout Playbook - Expectations, workflows, and guidance for implementing dark mode
• Data for Design Decisions - Tools for finding data to support design decisions
• Experimentation for the User Experience Team - How to plan, design, and evaluate experiments

From the GitLab team

Team members have created industry resources to push our craft forward:

• Building Design Systems: Unify User Experiences through a Shared Design Language - by Taurie Davis and Sarrah Vesselov
• Hemingway - Figma plugin by Michael Le
• GitLab-ipsum - by Patrick Deuley and Jeremy Elder

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