Should Error Messages Allow User Feedback? | Hacker News Reader

Should Error Messages Allow User Feedback?

rosiesherry.com

14 pointsrosiesherry8 comments

So here's an idea...I came across an iPhone Facebook app bug. I got an error message which gave me the option to enter a message. Entering a message appeared to do nothing, but it got me thinking, would it be useful in some scenarios to allow users to give feedback when presented with an error? Could this not be potentially useful in figuring out how and why errors occur?

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Microsoft have been doing it for years. Though usualy were on a fullypatched system they suggest you run windows update and you respond NO not helpful and type your rant of the day.

Feedback has two uses.

1) lets the user vent 2) gives some feedback and mostly in a form that is humourous to read.

Not all feedback is read and taken note of but even if some is then it's better than not having it. Mostly it allows the user to vent. When that feedback is voice based is when we realy will start to have fun and the whole "Fn peace of shit computer" will actualy start to make sence. Now if they could add a tactile sensor on the side of the computer you could press with your fist as well to rate your frustration - then the whole feedback model will actualy fit with users expectations, until that day arrives I'll take my venting were I can ;).

The sub-article, linked to by this post is better I think: http://www.softwaretestingclub.com/profiles/blogs/should-err...

And I tend to like the idea - a good percentage of the time when my small underfunded/staffed projects have encountered an error the logs tell me nothing about how it was provoked, and the code is not obviously* broken. A proper bug report rocks in these cases - and I often find myself wishing for one. The option for a user to leave an even improper one would be pretty awesome here. I might just do this.

*It’s obviously broken it’s just not obvious how it’s broken :)

Instead of a feedback form I would prefer

  The error has been automatically recorded and our team is looking into it
  ...or... If you have any questions about this error [link]please contact support[/link]
  ... or both

But I guess a feedback form is a nice feature too. I just don't know if I'd use it.

Maybe only in one of twenty cases. And maybe only one of ten user comments are useful, but that one could save you hours of error tracking.

We have been doing at work with our web product for quite long time and it works well. Instead of simply showing a 500 page when an error happens and logging it, we also provide a link to let the user add information and comments about what he was actually trying to do. This helps us a lot to figure out how to reproduce the problem (it can sometimes be hard to do if it's a problem that only 1 user on over 100000 is having).

Do you have any examples? Screenshots? I'd be interested to see how this is being implemented.

Yes. They should also be informative. For example, I frequently get a visual warning in Chrome of an extension error. When I click on the wrench menu to visit the extension page, there is no information about which of the ~25 extensions it is. So I live with it, because I have better things to do than try 25! possible combinations.

Unless you have a very focused audience, I don't see how allowing users to give feedback would return much that was usable.

Perhaps more/better logging during the development period? Stop letting a mass of non-technical users into betas?

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