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There are downsides to saying “this button doesn’t work” — there’s a follow up question in some cases, which is “what makes you say it doesn’t work?” Asking the

There are downsides to saying “this button doesn’t work” — there’s a follow up question in some cases, which is “what makes you say it doesn’t work?” Asking the question acknowledges that there may be a lack of understanding of the intent of the button. Maybe to you it doesn’t work, but to the person who designed it, it is working as intended, and your mental model is the incorrect part. Asking the question as framed directly in the way you experience the world (action not leading to an expected reaction) makes the problem statement more clear.

hinkley 7y ago
What do you think is more reasonable? Asking hundreds of thousands of users to learn to give better feedback, or for hundreds of developers to learn better listening?
- loopz 7y ago
  The problem here is a meeting of minds: The user can't possibly know what is expected behaviour, especially with the modern lack of GUI standards. A tester might be able to read a user manual, but the manual might be wrong. As dev, you're the vendor. Some maturity is expected and that you're able to figure it out. What helps is reaching out to users earlier and agree on behaviour together. You know, using agility.
  - hinkley 7y ago
    It’s a pretty sophisticated skill to hear aggression in others and be able to hear what is causing them pain instead of just “I wanna fight.” But aren’t we problem solvers by trade? Problems make people upset. If you can only treat polite customers you’d make a terrible health care professional or even plumber. Someone once gave me the advice that part of why developer salaries are so high is because they include hazard pay. I suspect the same is true for plumbers. $300 to get my plumbing unplugged on a Saturday night can probably smooth a lot of feathers with his family. And that was a slight discount, probably because I was pleasant, instead of railing at his whole profession for a problem he didn’t create. It’s hard to remember this sometimes, but I do think it provides some perspective.
- ironmagma 7y ago
  I actually think the tendency is to ask questions since they are simpler. It’s an extra leap to say “this button doesn’t work” because you have to make a judgment. On that note, sure, you can’t expect most of your customers to give great feedback, but that’s why finding those few customers who do is so rare and valuable.

hinkley 7y ago

What do you think is more reasonable? Asking hundreds of thousands of users to learn to give better feedback, or for hundreds of developers to learn better listening?

loopz 7y ago
The problem here is a meeting of minds: The user can't possibly know what is expected behaviour, especially with the modern lack of GUI standards. A tester might be able to read a user manual, but the manual might be wrong. As dev, you're the vendor. Some maturity is expected and that you're able to figure it out. What helps is reaching out to users earlier and agree on behaviour together. You know, using agility.
- hinkley 7y ago
  It’s a pretty sophisticated skill to hear aggression in others and be able to hear what is causing them pain instead of just “I wanna fight.” But aren’t we problem solvers by trade? Problems make people upset. If you can only treat polite customers you’d make a terrible health care professional or even plumber. Someone once gave me the advice that part of why developer salaries are so high is because they include hazard pay. I suspect the same is true for plumbers. $300 to get my plumbing unplugged on a Saturday night can probably smooth a lot of feathers with his family. And that was a slight discount, probably because I was pleasant, instead of railing at his whole profession for a problem he didn’t create. It’s hard to remember this sometimes, but I do think it provides some perspective.
ironmagma 7y ago
I actually think the tendency is to ask questions since they are simpler. It’s an extra leap to say “this button doesn’t work” because you have to make a judgment. On that note, sure, you can’t expect most of your customers to give great feedback, but that’s why finding those few customers who do is so rare and valuable.