Re: [Usability] Some interesting user feedback

[Bryan W Clark <clarkbw clarkson edu>]

On Fri, 2003-11-14 at 13:28, Dan Winship wrote:
> "I just ate your data. Please be my friend."

Yes, this isn't the right time to try to be friends, but I think 
"I just ate you data.  Because I screwed up, take more time out of your
day with a bug report... You do know what a bug report is, right?"

> After an application crashes is not a good time to be asking the user to
> help us. We want to emphasize how filing a bug report will help *them*.

Yes, I think you're right that this is the best method to try to get
them to help out with a bug report.

>         The application "$APPNAME" has crashed.
>         
>         If you would like to send a bug report to the developers of this
>         application, click "Send Bug Report" below to open the Bug
>         Reporting Assistant, which will generate a detailed crash report
>         and help you send it to the right place.

I like this, my only reservation is against the use of the word "Bug",
which I think is an understandable idea to all users.  

Not that I would want to copy this, perhaps embrace and extend...
http://www.windows-help.net/windows98/img/ie-error-tool.gif

I like how they simply say:  
	"There was an error, they are sorry"
	"Please tell us about it"

Then 2 options: ( with ability to restart app )
	"Don't send report / Send report"

> (OK, that doesn't really emphasize how it will help them, but isn't it
> kind of obvious?) The bit at the end tries to address the original "but
> I don't know how to send a bug report" issue. The "help you send it" is
> to avoid implying that clicking the button will make it automatically
> violate your privacy / corporate security policy.

Yes, this is a problem with the other error dialog; this is were we can
extend it to be better.

> Another thing that could be cool would be a "check for a new version"
> button (with associated explanatory text) that would run red-carpet /
> apt-get / rhn / whatever for you to see if there was a new version of
> the package. (libgnomeui would just have stubs, which the various
> packagers could then plug their systems into.)

definitely cool!  Could be a future addition to really enhance this.

> Oh, and the current crash dialog includes the PID of the crashed
> application, which is useful for developers (so you can go to a terminal
> and attach gdb to the right process easily). Keeping that information
> somewhere would be nice, even if it was somewhere less prominent, like
> the titlebar, or in a "Details" pane a la gconf errors.

This is a great idea, and some low hanging fruit we could do right away.

~ Bryan

-- 
Bryan W Clark
Graduate Student
Math && Computer Science Dept.
Human Computer Interaction Group
Clarkson University
Potsdam, NY USA
 
http://www.clarkson.edu/~clarkbw/