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
