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This (and GitLabs UI in general) does not compare well to GitHub. The most obvious difference is GitHubs better sense of visual hierarchy due to smart usage of

This (and GitLabs UI in general) does not compare well to GitHub. The most obvious difference is GitHubs better sense of visual hierarchy due to smart usage of shadows, shaded backgrounds, and colors. But GitHub also understands which information to emphasise, and what to hide. In contrast, GitLabs UI often feels like they scattered as much information as they could, with no thought to placement and grouping. For example, in the before, why is the number of jobs displayed next to the MR, and then the MR is displayed again further down? They're also often unnecessarily explicit: spelling out "3 minutes, 12 seconds" instead of "3m 12s" and using full sentences instead of definition lists.

chaxor 3y ago
GitHub has been getting far more clunky IMO. It takes a very long time to load almost every time I try to go to any GitHub page. Why does it take 2 mins to show what amounts to an 'ls' command? My guess is the ever increasing feature creep of the web.
viiralvx 3y ago
From what I see, it highlights a difference in design cultures between the organizations. GitHub has an amazing Product Design organization who have really evolved the product from the early days to what it is today. When I look at GitLab's UI, I get a feeling that it's a UI that feels designed by an engineer without much thought about these design principles you mentioned. It would take a huge overhaul of their design team, culture, and code for GitLab to bring their UI up to par.
cschmatzler 3y ago
Using GitLab EE at work and GitHub for side projects, the difference is genuinely shocking. I love tinkering with CI usually but using GitLab I actively try to avoid it.
- andrewstuart2 3y ago
  I mean, CI is probably not where you want people to be getting their dopamine hits. I've found that the absolute simplest CI pipeline is the best CI pipeline. Sometimes just a single make command with the right tools preinstalled into a container image is the best. But the more you feel like you've learned something new or accomplished something complex, the more challenging it's going to be to work with your project in local dev and in CICD, and the more work it'll be to maintain in the future as dependency additions necessitate build changes.
smcleod 3y ago
GitHub has gotten so much worse over the last few years. Actions feels like it was thrown together with little to no thought as to the user or product journey.
andrewstuart2 3y ago
I'm not quite sure how you can say GitHub has a superior information hierarchy when it's flat from first principles. GitLab allows nested groups as you'd expect from any modern filesystem but there's just no equivalent in GitHub. I've found that philosophy has followed to actions output. I can pretty easily follow the DAG shown in any GitLab pipeline view, but GitHub just gives me a sequential list of jobs on the left and I'm left to just remember whether any of them were dependent on previous jobs else go read the code to figure that out. Maybe it's just familiarity, as I've self hosted GitLab and its CI for years before actions were a thing, to the tune of nearly 8 years now. Personally, I was really disappointed in the implementation and the UX/DX of Actions as their own brand new construct rather than a DSL for gluing together the shell commands you already run on your dev machine.
apple4ever 3y ago
I find the GitLab UI far better than the GitHub UI. Not that they can't be improve, but it just makes sense for me. Especially the code review approval, where its mostly hidden on GitHub but easy to find on GitLab.

chaxor 3y ago

GitHub has been getting far more clunky IMO. It takes a very long time to load almost every time I try to go to any GitHub page. Why does it take 2 mins to show what amounts to an 'ls' command? My guess is the ever increasing feature creep of the web.

viiralvx 3y ago

From what I see, it highlights a difference in design cultures between the organizations. GitHub has an amazing Product Design organization who have really evolved the product from the early days to what it is today. When I look at GitLab's UI, I get a feeling that it's a UI that feels designed by an engineer without much thought about these design principles you mentioned. It would take a huge overhaul of their design team, culture, and code for GitLab to bring their UI up to par.

cschmatzler 3y ago

Using GitLab EE at work and GitHub for side projects, the difference is genuinely shocking. I love tinkering with CI usually but using GitLab I actively try to avoid it.

andrewstuart2 3y ago
I mean, CI is probably not where you want people to be getting their dopamine hits. I've found that the absolute simplest CI pipeline is the best CI pipeline. Sometimes just a single make command with the right tools preinstalled into a container image is the best. But the more you feel like you've learned something new or accomplished something complex, the more challenging it's going to be to work with your project in local dev and in CICD, and the more work it'll be to maintain in the future as dependency additions necessitate build changes.

smcleod 3y ago

GitHub has gotten so much worse over the last few years. Actions feels like it was thrown together with little to no thought as to the user or product journey.

andrewstuart2 3y ago

I'm not quite sure how you can say GitHub has a superior information hierarchy when it's flat from first principles. GitLab allows nested groups as you'd expect from any modern filesystem but there's just no equivalent in GitHub. I've found that philosophy has followed to actions output. I can pretty easily follow the DAG shown in any GitLab pipeline view, but GitHub just gives me a sequential list of jobs on the left and I'm left to just remember whether any of them were dependent on previous jobs else go read the code to figure that out. Maybe it's just familiarity, as I've self hosted GitLab and its CI for years before actions were a thing, to the tune of nearly 8 years now. Personally, I was really disappointed in the implementation and the UX/DX of Actions as their own brand new construct rather than a DSL for gluing together the shell commands you already run on your dev machine.

apple4ever 3y ago

I find the GitLab UI far better than the GitHub UI. Not that they can't be improve, but it just makes sense for me. Especially the code review approval, where its mostly hidden on GitHub but easy to find on GitLab.