Re: [libreoffice-design] User Research

Hi all,

This thread is awesome and almost too much for one thread :D I would like to jump into the deep end 
of the pool now and hopefully not sink to the bottom like a rock. I am relatively new here and look 
forward to helping out where I can. IMHO, the biggest problem I have with researching user's needs 
is - already being discussed in this topic - the analysis of the data received. Forgive my 
ignorance, if I have over-read this somehow, but:

What data mining is being done now?
Where is this stored?
Where are, and who is doing, the analysis of this data?

IDEAS/ENHANCEMENTS
The otrs.org are using ideascale.com for collecting user ideas. Unfortunately, my experience - as 
Community Manager from this project - with this service is less then satisfying. An alternative is 
IdeaTorrent [ http://www.ideatorrent.org/  ]. Again an unfortunate situation here is that the 
developer is currently (AFAIK) not continuing development on this project.

Pro:
Users can give feedback about a product and vote on these ideas.
Lot's of promotion of such system will lead to a good idea of the "real" need of the "active" user 
trying to give LibO feedback.
Users can offer multiple solutions.
Users can comment, discuss, bookmark ideas.

Con:
It can get messy; users do not always describe things pretty
Can lead to high maintenance depending on the amount of feedback.


On Jun 17, 2011, at 12:53 , Sveinn í Felli wrote:

> Has already been mentioned:
> - direct feedback from inside LO
> - online user surveys
> - user polling system (on new/changed features)
> - existing usage data [1]
> - (future?) installation/download data [2]
>
> I can imagine additionally a couple of ways to get user/usage data:
>
> - Usage tests/surveys for institutions/enterprises/other group deployments. That is, something 
> sysadmin/IT-staff can ask their users to participe in, maybe focusing also on their own 
> deployment (being useful for them directly).

This is something that must either be VERY comprehensive (due to differing usage models) - almost 
impossible - or done/promoted at live events.

> - Self tests; e.g "My word processing skills - basic level" or "Test your spreadsheet magic - 
> advanced". People seem to like such tests, maybe it appeals more to the games/sudoku/crossword 
> population.

I like this idea, because we can do statistical research based upon estimated time to preform (see 
below) certain tasks. ..../me dreaming about a google docs like test environment where tools Click 
Monitor Tools can be used to trace users movements ...... At the end of the test, we can then 
survey the users subjective experience and post these on said website for commenting.

> - Timing some defined actions/workflows in differently setup alpha/beta versions could give good 
> indications on whether a feature change is a progression or not. Could be resource demanding 
> (building/comiling several additional branches) but could become relatively easy with a 
> 'skin-enabled' interface.


Go Firefox! :)

Ok, I am done. I hope there was something in my rambling of value. Keep up the good work on the 
thread, and if I can help here I will.

////shawn


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