launchpad development
Blueprints – Work items project (Round 1, flat mock-ups)
Details of testing:
* I spoke to 5 users of blueprints, ranging from low/moderate to high usage patterns. * Tests conducted, Monday 5th March.
Summary
This new feature was well received by all users. The information architecture was clearly understood by all, and there were some very positive comments in general, eg: Exactly what I'd expect to see, Just what I need.
- Bugs being included - There was resistance to bugs being included in the Blueprints work items interface. Users said they worked with bugs in a different way, and in general did not like this change and didn't know how they'd use them. However this is not surprising, as such a development would involve users having to change their working patterns/behaviours. The way the information is presented about bugs was visually clear, it was the idea itself that was unpopular.
- Info about bugs - perhaps more info about the bugs (eg: status, number of bugs, etc) would be useful as the view is limited at the moment.
- Blockers coming first in the table - it was a bit unclear if blockers on the 'person page' were for the person specifically or for the blueprint as a whole. Some users said they'd like to see this text brighter/bolder to stand out more.
Summary of user comments (per user)
Ian Lane
Overview/background
- Uses Blueprints for: tracking purposes, to track work items
- Works for Ubuntu project, uses Blueprints to schedule items at UDS and for running sessions at UDS, breaks down items later
Main page
- Looks similar to the Ubuntu status dashboard
- Useful to see overview in this way
- ‘’Exactly what I’d expect to see’’
- Progress bar is cool
- Would be good to see a summary of each person involved
- Useful to see the milestones – however it may be useful to see the bigger picture, with everything together
- Copy at the top giving the summary – this won’t scale as well when there are lots of people/items
- Burn down charts would be useful
- Blueprints are currently categorized by ‘area’ for Ubuntu – eg: desktop, engineering. It’s be useful to have this option
- The auto-scroll/one screen layout for each Milestone is great; ‘’Targeting to Milestones is exactly something we’d like to have.’’
- Foreign functionality is useful, nice overview
- Would expect Blueprints/names of people to be clickable with a link though to Launchpad
- Is this just a view, or can I change/reassign settings from here?
- Aggregated bugs – didn’t know what this is. Guessed it was for tracking bugs associated with the blueprint?
Person page
- Clear that this page is for a particular person
- Can see that Blueprints now cover bugs too; but “not sure how this would work, as we treat bugs and work items separately at the moment.’’
- Would find this page personally useful for managing work.
- Would like to add some text/notes to self or for team to say where I am with this
- Blocked items always shown first – ‘’Usually means you can’t work on it, so don’t want to see it first, as often can’t do anything with it. Can’t see why it’s blocked from here either.’’ This would be frustrating
- Likes that the screens are consistent with each other
Penelope Stowe
Overview/background
- Uses Blueprints to plain –now linked in to status, which is great
- Uses them for dividing up responsibilities and tracking people
- Runs the Accessibility Team
- Uses them a few times a week
Main page
- Progress bar with milestones looks great
- Blockers useful – especially for project leaders to see what things are blocked and why – can you see ‘why’ from here?
- Doesn’t think about bugs with Blueprints, ‘’they’re not a concern for me.’’
- Countdown for days useful for deadlines
- Looks like it’s a faster way to see what’s going on
Person page
- 1 work item blocked – not clear if it’s blocked for the person or for the blueprint
- Not sure what ‘go fix it’ links to – a blueprint or a bug?
- ‘’A good way to see what I need to do. Makes a lot more sense than the current system.’’
- A lot faster
Paolo Sammicheli
Overview/background
Community member of the Italian LoCo
- Used Blueprints since 2008 for tracking activities, events, etc
Main page
- Think it’s similar to how he uses Blueprints at the moment, but better because it’s clearer
- Would like to be able to link to and see dependencies
- Would like to see who is doing what from the main page
- Would still like to have a white board to add notes
Milo Casagrande
Overview/background
- Uses Blueprints for the Italian Community
- Uses them a few times a month
Main page
- Say what the milestones bar is – it isn’t too clear at the moment
- Progress bars are good
- Assignee not important – the default assignee is the person who creates it
- The disclosure triangles are normal/useful
- Blocked items – would like to see them brighter/more colourful so that they stand out more clearly
- Foreign – Useful to see this so it can be filtered as something not needed for the team to do
- Component – Not clear what this is?
Person page
- Component – Again, not clear what this is
- Would like to compare overall Blueprints
- ‘’Aggregated bugs are different to Blueprints – this adds clutter’’
- Thinks they should be separate
Kate Stewart
(This was not a usual user testing session as Kate had a wider grasp of the bigger picture/developments than a standard user. However it was interesting to note her point of view, and how some of her comments were different from the other people interviewed, especially regarding bugs in Blueprints)
Main page
- Likes having bugs tied in to people/Blueprints – this is about encouraging behavioural change
- The other people interviewed were all quite opposed to the ideas of bugs and Blueprints being linked, which you could argue is understandable:
- It makes people work harder with more to do (not just tasks but bugs too)
- It means people will need to come up with a new system of working with Blueprints/bugs
So I can only advise on what users have said – they didn’t like this and found it confusing. However if combining bugs with Blueprints is part of a wider policy to encourage behavioural change, I’m sure people will get used to the idea if good communications and help text is provided along with the new set up.
Person page
Kate said that there is similar work being done on this kind of view relating to releases – they’re working on a kanban/lane approach. It may be useful to talk to David Zinman (dzin) and Fathi Boudra (fabo) to compare notes/avoid duplication of effort.
