Integrating a user poll system

Here's the place for discussion related to coding in FreeCAD, C++ or Python. Design, interfaces and structures.
Forum rules
Be nice to others! Respect the FreeCAD code of conduct!
User avatar
paddle
Veteran
Posts: 1395
Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2020 4:47 pm

Integrating a user poll system

Post by paddle »

Hi there,

I have been thinking about how everytime people told me 'Yes but who is the average user is?' or 'How often users does that' and so on. and about all the endless discussion.

So I was thinking that one way to know what user want, would be to integrate polls to ask for user opinion.

For instance for a question like "should we merge Coincidence and PointOnObject tools into one" discussing on the forum we have only about 5-10 people who give their opinion. Beside people here are totally not representative of the average users as active users of the development forum of Freecad are like the top 0.01% experts.

The best way would be to probe user opinion to see if there's a clear preference for one way or the other.

One way to do that would be to have a dialog open in the correct context for some time.

In the example of "should we merge Coincidence and PointOnObject tools into one", add a dialog that shows up when Coincidence or PointOnObject is launched (for the first time or until user click a "don't show again" tick boxe).
user poll.png
user poll.png (18.93 KiB) Viewed 2080 times
Then after 6 months or when enough answers are given, remove the dialog and do or not the modification.

This way it would be a great way to know what the average user actually wants.
User avatar
chennes
Veteran
Posts: 3884
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2016 3:38 pm
Location: Norman, OK, USA
Contact:

Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by chennes »

I think a dialog box is probably going to just make everyone angry, but I could see integrating something like this into Start, where ignoring it doesn't even require a click (probably also make it dismissible there, too, though). Maybe mock that up, too?
Chris Hennes
Pioneer Library System
GitHub profile, LinkedIn profile, chrishennes.com
User avatar
adrianinsaval
Veteran
Posts: 5541
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2018 5:15 pm

Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by adrianinsaval »

chennes wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 1:39 pm I think a dialog box is probably going to just make everyone angry, but I could see integrating something like this into Start, where ignoring it doesn't even require a click (probably also make it dismissible there, too, though). Maybe mock that up, too?
+1 unnecessary pop up that forces you to make a choice when you're just trying to use the damn program is one of the most annoying things in software. Start page sound like a good place for stuff like that.
User avatar
paddle
Veteran
Posts: 1395
Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2020 4:47 pm

Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by paddle »

Yes you are right it will probably we smoother for the user.

Here's a mockup
poll start.png
poll start.png (184.77 KiB) Viewed 1935 times
I put them on top of Recent files, because anywhere else and they'll get close to 0 coverage. (for instance in the 'activity' tab where it would make sens to be, it will never be seen so be close to useless)
There shouldn't be polls so often so it's no going to be too annoying.
This tab should appear only when a poll is running. This is particularly important because then the tab appear/disappear it makes sure the users know that a poll is running.

A small picture to make the offered modification very clear.

What do you think?
User avatar
Chrismettal
Posts: 43
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:44 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by Chrismettal »

I like the idea a lot. User feedback like "what feels more intuitive to you?" would be awesome to collect I think as time and time again there are questions like these were I don't think the forum alone is representative of what the majority finds "intuitive".

I would not want regular popups either, but a single popup on first bootup asking you to opt into some kind of user feedback system I think would be nice. Maybe a bit like KDE does it.
"Can we ask you some questions regarding useability [...] on a regular interval? No more than once every 3 months" or something like that.

Rather than single questions being answered I imagine like a 3-5 question poll, mulitple choice questions stored in a seperate repo. Topics that are currently discussed could be put in the poll and every 3 months we would have feedback on those questions over a wide range of users.

Actual user feedback, outside of forum posts / Reddit questions or Youtube videos of people showing off broken workflows is incredibly important. Even if we don't do anything yet with the data, asking questions to the users currently working with FreeCAD could be huge.
GeneFC
Veteran
Posts: 5373
Joined: Sat Mar 19, 2016 3:36 pm
Location: Punta Gorda, FL

Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by GeneFC »

I won't comment on the usefulness, but this would appear to be quite impractical.

Forum rats tend to update FreeCAD versions often. Ordinary users may only update when totally new versions are released. I don't see how any real-time feedback from a large group is possible.

(And I never, ever look at the Start WB. Cannot speak for others, but there is nothing there I want to see.)

Gene
chrisb
Veteran
Posts: 53945
Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 9:14 am

Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by chrisb »

I don't know how this would go with FreeCAD. For the big companies I don't support such things as sending usage information.
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
User avatar
chennes
Veteran
Posts: 3884
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2016 3:38 pm
Location: Norman, OK, USA
Contact:

Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by chennes »

chrisb wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:45 pm For the big companies I don't support such things as sending usage information.
I think the best way of implementing it is to simplify: just a line of text at the top of the Start page that is something like "Poll of the week: Blah blah blah blah", that is a link that takes you to a forums topic that has a poll in it. So there's no data transmission except the initial request for the link. Of course it's not going to hit everyone, nothing ever does. I'd prefer an unobtrusive option, though, even at the expense of reduced clicks.
Chris Hennes
Pioneer Library System
GitHub profile, LinkedIn profile, chrishennes.com
User avatar
Chrismettal
Posts: 43
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:44 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by Chrismettal »

chrisb wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:45 pm I don't know how this would go with FreeCAD. For the big companies I don't support such things as sending usage information.
I don't think these two are comparable. User feedback in OSS is usually opt-in and no one is currently advertising for usage stat collection. Just an optional user feedback form.

Most open source suites or the linux desktop space in general struggle with lack of actual user feedback or straight up not listening to the feedback there is. This problem naturally occurs where mostly developers frequent the main place for discussion such as this forum. Most users of FreeCAD might not be software engineers and might not even know about the forum. Finding something they find unintuitive almost never leads to them opening up a forum post about it and often they will be met with "FreeCAD isn't like the CAD package you are used to" which can't be the end-all answer to so many usability questions.

Unobtrusive, opt-in user polls (not telemetry) can help with that, if we actually listen.

(Example, as much as I dislike Microsoft, their Teams Android app has this feature of popping up a "Send Feedback" form when you shake your device. Rudimentary "User is angry, let's ask why" detection works beautifully.)
GeneFC
Veteran
Posts: 5373
Joined: Sat Mar 19, 2016 3:36 pm
Location: Punta Gorda, FL

Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by GeneFC »

chennes wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:51 pm just a line of text at the top of the Start page that is something like "Poll of the week: Blah blah blah blah", that is a link that takes you to a forums topic that has a poll in it.
Who is going to decide what constitutes a valid poll?

Some polls in the forum, which can be started by anyone, are utter nonsense. Pushing something like that onto unsuspecting users will be a disaster.

Gene
Post Reply