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Redesigning GitHub Repository Page

tonsky.me

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Re: Redesigning GitHub Repository Page

#151

Post by frosted-flakes »

burlesona wrote: post #5

Two nitpicks: 1. Why are the images cropped so strangely on mobile? It makes this article really hard to read. 2. Shouldn’t the title be “Redesigning the GitHub Repository Page”? ^ And a meta question for programmers, what do you do when English grammar calls for a question mark to be inside your quotation mark at the end of a sentence, but you’re literally quoting something that should not include the question mark?…

> what do you do when English grammar calls for a question mark to be inside your quotation mark at the end of a sentence

English grammar doesn't call for it, not necessarily. It's a matter of style, and different style guides prescribe different methods. There's no "officially correct" way, but to me, the only position that makes sense is to put trailing punctuation outside the quotation marks, except in the case where said punctuation is actually part of the source material. Doing otherwise can change the meaning of the quotation.

Re: Redesigning GitHub Repository Page

#154

Post by dc_gregory »

shaki-dora wrote: post #146
scott_s wrote: post #17

> If you are a programmer, you might be surprised but other people normally don’t like hierarchies. Nested structures are hard to grasp, remember, navigate, and grouping is very often non-intuitive. Nested tabs are one of the worst UI patterns out there. GitHub is primarily a development tool, so it should be designed for developers. Hierarchies align very well with development tasks, so it's natural to use them for…

Github is certainly used by developers. But I bet 95%+ of views of repositories’ start pages are made by “consumers” of that code. At least in my workflow, I visit dozens of those pages every week to, for example, choose between alternative libraries. My own projects’ index pages are definitely a small percentage of the total. And for those views, I would still prefer this redesign that gives me a quick overview of w…

However, a lions share of the revenue for github will be from developers, rather than "consumers".

Re: Redesigning GitHub Repository Page

#155

Post by cbsks »

octobanana wrote: post #149
cbsks wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean that your metrics showed that few people were expanding the tree, so you made it expanded by default? I would interpret the data as meaning that most people don’t care about the list of files, so it’s better for them to be hidden by default.

> Do you mean that your metrics showed that few people were expanding the tree, so you made it expanded by default? Correct, after it became expanded by default, the hit rate for project files was dramatically higher, showing that users did care about viewing the files. Perhaps the UI could better indicate that it can be collapsed/expanded, but it could also be that it doesn't match the common UX found on the big sit…

Ah, I misunderstood slightly. I thought you were only talking about the click to expand the tree. If the hits to the files increased, then it makes sense to have it expanded by default.

Re: Redesigning GitHub Repository Page

#156

Post by drusepth »

tedunangst wrote: post #134
grblovrflowerrr wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the two natures of Github as a tool for software development and Github as a social coding site are often at odds. Some ways this could be reconciled: - greater end user customization of the UI layout - an option to enter a different UI(contributor UI) for repositories you contribute to/own - make the contributor UI an enhancement on top of the current UI(perhaps a new darker tab bar) - related to the above,…

GitHub should go full MySpace, completely custom css per project.

Considering:

1) Most GitHub users are more tech-savvy (and often more CSS-savvy) than your average MySpace users, and 2) Most GitHub users put a lot of value in their repo pages,

this actually seems like it wouldn't _inherently_ be the worst idea, assuming the proper precautions were in place versus bad actors. Allowing each org to fully customize their git repo almost encroaches upon (or replaces?) project websites, which already has some overlap with README files (which aren't currently prioritized). Kill two birds with one stone by giving developers what to prioritize on their repos?

Re: Redesigning GitHub Repository Page

#157

Post by octobanana »

tedunangst wrote: post #137
octobanana wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When I'm working with a GitHub project, I commonly want to load up the page and navigate to some files. If not, it's usually not much scrolling to get down to the README. The solution I'm using currently for the git repos hosted on my personal site [0] is to show the projects file tree above the README, but allow it to be collapsed by clicking on the projects root directory. Originally, the project tree was collaps…

Is the front end itself available?

It's all server-side rendered. I've been considering open sourcing the site, but there's some cleaning up to be done first.

Re: Redesigning GitHub Repository Page

#158

Post by vkaku »

Comments:

I like most of it, except adding the 'Statistics' and list of 'Commits' all together; They should be collapsible, if necessary. I'd also like to see the last commit against a file, and maybe modification time.

Re: Redesigning GitHub Repository Page

#159

Post by octobanana »

cbsks wrote: post #155
octobanana wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you mean that your metrics showed that few people were expanding the tree, so you made it expanded by default? Correct, after it became expanded by default, the hit rate for project files was dramatically higher, showing that users did care about viewing the files. Perhaps the UI could better indicate that it can be collapsed/expanded, but it could also be that it doesn't match the common UX found on the big sit…

Ah, I misunderstood slightly. I thought you were only talking about the click to expand the tree. If the hits to the files increased, then it makes sense to have it expanded by default.

> I thought you were only talking about the click to expand the tree.

That makes sense. It would have been an interesting stat to compare, but the metrics only come from resource requests, as those pages don't run any scripts.

Re: Redesigning GitHub Repository Page

#160

Post by deep-root »

userbinator wrote: post #84

But maybe it’s time to fresh it up a little? Get rid of gradients, dirty washed-out colors, unnecessary separators, add a little more air. No, no, no , NO!!!11 I've had it with these "sea of floating text on an expanse of white" redesigns, seeing yet another one follow this mindless trend just disgusts me thoroughly. The lines, subtle gradients, and other affordances of the old design serve to organise and direct you…

Can't tell if the irony is lost that both GitHub UI mocks are by the same designer, Nikita Prokopov.[1][2]

[1] Windows UI satire https://twitter.com/nikitonsky/status/1003593821723267072?s=...

[2] Honest redesign http://tonsky.me/blog/github-redesign/

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