Pragmatic Redesign for GitLab

What this post added

This post details the redesign of GitLab's UI navigation for version 7.7. The redesign addressed specific problems: limited space in project navigation, two stacked navigation levels consuming screen real estate, navigation being only at the top, lack of space for icons, and complex settings pages with a third navigation level. The solution involved moving navigation to the side, which also provided more vertical screen real estate and eliminated the need for scrolling. The redesign also improved icon usage and removed the third navigation level. The development process included prototyping with web inspector, gathering community feedback through tweets and a staging server, and incorporating community-submitted merge requests.