Introducing LikeBack - Quick Feedback from Beta-Testers

[Sébastien Laoût]

Le Samedi 12 Août 2006 22:26, Ellen Reitmayr a écrit :
> Here, I'd really like to know who are the users of beta versions? Is that
> mainly the developers and the community, or also non-technical users?

Yes, users of beta testers are technical users.
But having feedback from them is better than nothing.
We just need to keep that in mind that when interpeting the results.

> They may become frustrated if they realise that after an update, the cool
> feedback buttons are gone ;-)

Frustrated? Really?

If the buttons are gone, they can begin to use the application without 
worrying to think to report theire experience with it.

And it may be a hint for them to understand it's not an "unstable" version, 
but a finished version, that do not need comments anymore because it's now 
improved enough...
Obviously, the quality of that version need to reflect the fact it's a stable 
version. Not so easy (KDE applications often crashes and bug even when they 
are final)...

And the initial message explicitely says it's for a development version.
It's in bold, on the first line of the dialog... and the dialog have 
attractive images in that dialog.
Yes... users don't read messages.

> All in all I really like the idea, but I don't think it should be tied to
> beta versions. Even a big part of the usability people don't use beta
> versions - it would be a pity if we'd miss that cool way of communication
> ;-)
>
> Why not making LikeBack-items permanently available in the Help menu? the
> current bug wizard might even be complemented by LikeBack's easy UI, so
> only power users need to go to bugs.kde.org.
>
> My only concern is that the number of reports might grow too fast when
> LikeBack is shipped with final releases. In this case I suggest to provide
> it as a plugin that is shipped by default only with betas but is
> installable any time.

Having LikeBack as a plugin would raise the same problem: only technical users 
would find it. And even there, they will not search for it.

We could add an option to enable/disable LikeBack in the Help menu.

Not a lot of people goes to that menu, so this reduce the number of feedback 
sent!
Personnaly, I even never thinked to use the "Report a Bug" option. Instead I 
"instinctively" go to bugs.kde.org even if it's longer to enter the bug.

Do we have statistics about how much bugs are entered through the "Report a 
Bug" window compared to those entered on the website directly?

And having the enabling/disabling option in the Help menu could also lead to a 
better ratio of technical / non-techincal users:
- Technical users could open the Help menu for the "About" dialog to find the
  version they have, to know if they should upgrade. There, they will discover
  the LikeBack enabling option.
- Non-technical users will perhapse have difficulties to use the application
  and could open the Help menu to find the handbook.
  Then, in this menu they will find the checkbox "Send Comments to the
  Developers" to enable the LikeBack icons.

PS: Yes, I propose an option to "enable/disable" LikeBack and not the three 
"like"/"dislike"/"bug" icons. This is because people should be able to click 
those options at any time, in any window, dialog, sub-dialog... They should 
not have to interupt theire workflow, close the dialogs in order to reach the 
Help menu and then use the LikeBack options.