Re: [Usability] Overthinking things.

[kerberos piestar net]

Quoting Andre Klapper <ak-47 gmx net>:

> Am Mittwoch, den 09.12.2009, 16:05 +0000 schrieb kerberos piestar net:
> > There are generally only forums for support, and then they are
> > generally problem solving.  New ideas and bugs have no real place in
> > any of the forums I have ever visited
>
> Repeating your statements does not make them more true. I've already
> mentioned Brainstorms and provided links to two of them.
>
> andre

Dell recently had a serious issue with a range of it's computers  
causing massive throttling of it's CPU's and a resulting performance  
drop due to even slight thermal issues.  It's first response to  
complaints on the forum was to delete said posts.  I am sure that  
since there are probably proper support channels this is the correct  
behaviour and the people who were angry at Dell for doing so were  
simply misinformed.  Don't you agree?

Anyway brainstorm, as I have said, is largely irrelevant for the  
following reasons:

1: It's fairly well buried.  You will only find it if you look for it  
while the forums are generally a first port of call.
2: They commonly do not understand the problem.  Most people do not  
understand the system well enough to identify the exact usability  
issue they are facing, or even that they are facing one.  Often they  
declare some software 'sucks' without a tangible reason why and you  
then have to get out of them where they are having a problem and  
details to figure out the exact issue.  I actually did a callout at a  
company once where the 'tech guy' claimed that some form fields not  
being autopopulated was due to the 'monitor refresh rate'.  It was  
actually due to the 50%+ packetloss from him using cheap phone cable  
rather than CAT5 for networking.  And that was the companies resident  
techie.  How normal users are meant to do better I have no idea.
3: Even if they do understand where the issue is brainstorm and other  
ideapits require you to understand it well enough to formulate, write  
up and submit a solution.  I would estimate the amount of first timers  
that will ever make it to this point would be astronomically low.
4: Ranting is cathartic.  Once someone has vented about everything  
that is bothering them they will generally be more willing, productive  
and will probably try to meet you half way.  Telling them they are  
wrong, deleting posts, closing posts and banning users just guarantees  
that they will never use your product again.

The great thing about giving people a targeted outlet for general  
complaining is you can identify problems by aggregate.  13.7% of  
people are complaining about video driver related issues - lets look  
into that.  8.7% have difficulties mounting partitions - that must be  
important.  0.2% can't figure out how to set the date/time - lets  
leave that one 'till later.

As I stated Microsoft's development of Windows 7 was probably run in a  
slightly similar fashion - that is getting a massive list of  
everything people complained about, ordering it by priority and then  
taking action.  The massive hate for Vista, generally from people who  
were just looking for a reason to find fault, helped Microsoft more  
than any internal usability test possibly could.  They had half the  
internet forming a massive bug and usability search and report system,  
giving hundreds of thousands of valuable feedback points for them to  
work from.  Desiring to supress criticism is a massive own-goal - just  
because you've got the unhappy people to shut up doesn't mean that  
they are now happy.

---

Just to pre-empt any replies on the issue of the supression of  
criticism, if you think I am wrong go to the Ubuntuforums and let me  
know where discussions of issues I have with the OS can take place.   
As far as I can tell there is no such forum.  The closest match is  
"Ubuntu Testimonials & Experiences", but they then categorically state  
'No Debate'.  The first post is this:  [SOLVED]  Leaving Ubuntu or  
Frustrated? Read This..., which then goes on to list a bunch of links  
to howto's, implying the usual 'There is nothing wrong with Ubuntu,  
you're just are too stupid to work it, (RTFM)'.  I can tell you every  
time I have mentioned something is a problem the answer is invariably  
along the lines of 'You just don't understand it.  You're thinking in  
the Windows way still'. It's incredibly frustrating not to mention  
insulting.

Has anyone read Linuxhaters blog?  Despite having a massive drop in  
quality recently it is probably one of the most popular blogs on  
Blogger, with thousands of posts commonly even breaking Blogger itself  
as it simply can't cope with the volume.  I imagine a large volume of  
the people who post there were people who tried Linux and got the  
usual STFU + RTFM replies, who didn't fancy carefully documenting,  
cataloguing and submitting things which should have (and were claimed  
to be) working in the first place.

Hey, I just think that if people want to rant about problems with  
Linux they should be given an outlet as the very worst that could  
happen is they may point out something useful.  I don't think Linux  
itself could get offended or upset about it as it's just a chunk of  
source code, just like every single other in existance and there is no  
need to get offended on it's behalf.  That's my opinion and if you  
want to believe that everything is hunky-dory and cannot be improved  
that is yours, and we agree to disagree.