GitHub

Improving the Board View experience in GitHub Projects

TEAM

1 design mentor, 1 PM, dev team

ROLE

Product design intern

TIMELINE

3 weeks

TOOLS

OVERVIEW

100 million people use GitHub. Projects is its one-stop shop for organizing and tracking work. I made using Projects Boards faster and more flexible.

I first focused on understanding how different user groups experienced Boards.

Crowdsourced feature requests from public discussion threads

Identified recurring issues from support cases and user tickets

Gathered workflow insights from user interviews

WHAT I DISCOVERED

Designed for engineers, Board View lacked the flexibility required by its growing non-developer audience.

My team plans and tracks with Boards, but it doesn't help me. I only use it to keep track. I only use it to keep track.

User Interview

We've seen many internal requests for notes on project boards and similar features. We've seen many internal requests for notes on project boards and similar features.


Project boards and similar features.

Support Case Ticket

GitHub Discussions Member

Without this feature, I will not begin using the new Projects.

13

My team plans and tracks with Boards, but it doesn't help me. I only use it to keep track.

User Interview

GitHub Discussions Member

Without this feature, I will not begin using the new Projects.

GitHub Discussions Member

Without this feature, I will not begin using the new Projects.

13

My research boiled down into three key user frustrations:

GitHub Discussions Member

Unformatted oneliners are next to useless to me…

110

Support Case Ticket

We've seen many internal requests for notes on project boards and similar features.

GitHub Discussions Member

Without this feature, I will not begin using the new Projects.

13

My team plans and tracks with Boards, but it doesn't help me. I only use it to keep track of what other people are doing, but it isn't helpful to integrate into my own workflow because it's just too much.

User Interview

1

Not scannable at a high level, forcing users to click into every card

2

No support for image previews, making visual workflows cumbersome

3

Overwhelming column density in large, complex, or shared boards

item descriptions

My first move was to help teams that relied on scanning Boards for quick context.

Designed a preview layout that showed the first few lines of each item’s description

Worked with engineers to ensure that longer text was truncated gracefully

Validated and added task list previews alongside item descriptions

IMPACT

Reduced click-depth by surfacing key context on the card itself

original board card

item description (task list preview)

No quick context available, just the title / tags

Poor scannability = workflow bottlenecks

Created a more visually informative and differentiated card layout

Reduced back-and-forth clicks

Provided narrative context

image previews

Image previews helped visual workflows (eg. marketing) but were clutter for technical teams who mostly dealt with text-based tasks.

Identified the divergent needs between dev and non-dev teams

Proposed a toggle setting for enabling / disabling previews

Designed card visuals that maintained hierarchy even with image content

IMPACT

Enabled richer workflows for product teams without cluttering dev boards

CUSTOMIZING IMAGE PREVIEWS: description, image, and task list preview OPTIONS

Understand what a card is about at a glance without needing to click in

Can quickly scan a board's contents

Users still have to click into a card to see all of its details. Is there a way to view content without leaving the current page?

An important factor is speed

Users wanted faster access to common actions, and wanted all information without having to click away from the main Board view. To address this, I prioritized expand/collapse as a quick action, making it immediately accessible.

original board card

EXPANDABLE BOARD CARD

Full details are buried so require modal or page navigation

Poor scannability = workflow bottlenecks

Surface more info inline, on demand

Let users scan or deep-dive without leaving the board

a new opportunity

Testing revealed that users ignored entire columns when boards became dense or shared across teams

Designed two interactions: collapsing and compressing Board columns

Pushed for both as quick actions, minimizing friction in fast-paced workflows

Pitched both views as a step toward enabling boards to scale with complexity

IMPACT

Allowed users to triage Boards more efficiently and customize their workspace. This wasn't just about visibility, it was about manageability.

CUSTOMIZING IMAGE PREVIEWS: description, image, and task list preview OPTIONS

takeaways

Here are a few North Star design principles that I'll keep in my back pocket

Don't just listen…watch. Users don't always explicitly say what they want.

Pitching the "next step" matters. So does framing features in a larger workflow narrative.

It's a big balancing act. Flexible tools are those that are simple until you need more.

a big "THANK YOU" to my mentors jannes, manuel, and matt - and to my intern cohort :)

NEXT UP

Couplet

You made it to the bottom! Don't be shy,

say hi

You made it to the bottom! Don't be shy,

say hi

You made it to the bottom! Don't be shy,

say hi

You made it to the bottom! Don't be shy,

say hi