Bug subscription mock-up testing June/July 2010
Launchpad's bug notification emails can be a useful way to keep up with bugs that interest you. You can subscribe to individual bugs and to entire projects, packages or parts thereof.
The trouble is, busy bugs generate a lot of email and it can be hard to distinguish what interests you from all the rest.
Graham Binns is working on a new bug subscriptions system that will:
- allow you to choose what sort of information about a bug should trigger an email
- track all of your bug subscriptions on one page
- add a new feature that lets you subscribe to the results of a bug search.
To ensure that the bug subscription process makes sense, Graham and Matthew Revell showed mock-ups of the new designs to nine people who already make frequent use of Launchpad's bug tracker.
The testing took place in two rounds, allowing Graham to adjust the mock-ups based on feedback from the first round.
How it worked
Each session lasted roughly one hour and involved one Launchpad user. Prior to the session, they did not know what the new feature was and nor had they seen any of the mock-ups.
During the session, Graham observed while Matthew showed each mock-up to the person and asked them to imagine how they would accomplish a set of tasks.
Audio and video of each of the sessions were recorded.
Afterwards, Matthew wrote a transcript of each session and drew up a short list of recommendations for how the designs should change. After the first round, Graham used that report to alter the mock-ups in time for round two. Following round two, Graham used those recommendations to alter the design of the actual implementation.
Round 1
Locations |
Light House Media Centre, Wolverhampton |
Canonical's London office, Millbank, London |
|
Dates |
25th and 28th June 2010 |
30th June 2010 |
|
Participants |
Dave Morley |
Bruno Girin |
The mock-ups
Subscribing to a package's bugs
Subscribing to a bug search