Improving the Board View experience in GitHub Projects
During my internship at GitHub, one of my goals was to refine usability by introducing item descriptions on board cards to optimize task list visibility, while ensuring that the interface remained intuitive and scalable. These enhancements aimed to improve workflow efficiency, especially as GitHub Projects became more widely used by non-developer roles.
MY IMPACT
Restored a highly requested feature
Introduce task lists and image previews
Pitched two new board views
TOOLS
CONTEXT
What is GitHub Projects?
Projects is GitHub's one-stop-shop for organizing and prioritizing work, serving as a single source for hubbers to integrate, plan, and track issues and pull requests.
During the course of my internship, I touched many corners of the interface, pitched new ideas, and saw several projects to completion. Below, I highlight one key improvement I led.
THE CHALLENGE
Board View wasn't keeping up with user needs.
Balancing familiarity with flexibility
GitHub Projects serves a diverse set of users, from engineers tracking bugs to product teams planning features and roadmaps. However, Board View limitations hindered scannability and efficient interaction.
A significant user request was bringing back item descriptions (a legacy feature) to board cards.
Image previews were internally debated—unhelpful for technical boards but valuable for planning and non-developer teams.
Higher levels of workflow complexity is associated with a greater need for a customizable workspace.
ITEM DESCRIPTIONS
Prioritizing scannability in restored item descriptions.
Why do teams want item descriptions back?
Through user feedback analysis, I identified that many teams relied on item descriptions for quick context. Without them, users had to click into each item, slowing down workflows.
To address this, I:
Designed a compact but readable layout for cards that displayed a preview of descriptions effectively.
Worked with engineers to ensure that longer text was truncated gracefully to maintain scannability.
Validated with users what features they wanted. The ask was originally for item descriptions, but I surfaced that task list previews would be beneficial, too.
Introducing a preview mode for text and task lists
IMAGE PREVIEWS
Striking a balance between clarity and customization for image previews.
A double-edged sword
Image preview usage would be nuanced. They were great for visual-heavy workflows (e.g., marketing, product roadmaps), but were clutter for technical teams who mostly dealt with text-based tasks.
After designing what an image preview would look like, to make this feature adaptable, I:
Researched user needs across different team types to understand when image previews added value versus when they caused clutter.
Introduced a toggle option, allowing users to enable/disable different previews based on their needs.
Customizing image previews: introducing description, image, and task list previews and the ability to toggle them
Users can understand what a card is about at a glance without needing to click in.
Users who rely more on narrative and less on card titles can quickly scan a board's contents.
Even with previews, users still have to click into a card to see all of its details. Is there a way to surface the content without having to click away from the current page?
An important factor is speed
Users wanted faster access to common actions (like expanding/collapsing columns), 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.
An expandable board card via a caret in the top right corner
A NEW OPPORTUNITY?
Refining the interaction model.
Packing more power into the Board, without the bloat
Initially, I was exploring ways to improve scannability on Board view. But during testing, I uncovered a deeper behavior: users often ignored entire columns when boards became dense or shared across teams, but didn't want to hide it completely.
I reframed the opportunity — users didn't just need better scannability; they needed control over board complexity.
So, I:
Designed ways for users to (1) collapse and (2) compress columns to focus only on what mattered to them without losing context.
Pushed for compress and collapse as quick actions, minimizing friction in fast-paced workflows.
Pitched collapsed and compressed views as a step toward improving board triage workflows, setting the stage for more scalable boards as they grow more complex.
Pitching different column views: collapsed and compressed
TAKEAWAYS
What I'll keep in my back pocket.
A few new North Star design principles for my toolkit
Don't just listen — watch
User interviews told me what people said they wanted, but it was up to me to uncover what they actually needed.
Pitching the "next step" matters
Framing new features as steps toward broader workflows made it easier to get buy-in and energize collaborators.
A big THANK YOU! to my mentors Jannes Peters, Manuel Solera, and Matt Pence, and to my intern cohort :)