No, none of our candidates experienced an emotional breakdown and had to be carried out of the office (we didn't mess up that much) but we now have a wealth of constructive suggestions and ideas. It'll take more time to analyze all of the data but one thing I can say for certain: We've learned a lot. We also wanted to find out how well users did with technical terms and whether a modern, flat design was more intuitive than a photo-realistic icon set. The right click - the unloved brother of the left click - was barely used yet often provides access to many context-sensitive features. We applied this approach to the burning settings in Burning Studio and will continue to follow it. When everything was presented in one place these issues didn't occur. Others got lost in submenus and forgot what they originally intended to do or what they had done before. Only after she switched to category view to narrow down the choices was she able to proceed. There were simply too many options on the menu. An example: We're naturally proud of the many modules WinOptimizer contains - one of our test candidates was so overwhelmed that she was in a state of shock. In all honesty: A couple of things caught us completely by surprise. So I prefer to shut up and continue writing.īoth the approaches and the ways users look at an application differ widely. But then I remember that I've already been with Ashampoo for more than 9 years and spent a considerable amount of time with our applications. I can't help but admire the level of calmness and self-control of our test supervisor Patrick, I'd probably scream "No you fool, you need to click here!" every 20 seconds and grab the mouse away. That's not only a welcome change to the daily grind but also highly interesting. So we did and now we get frequent visits from software beginners, average users and specialists. And since we can't invite all of you (shame, we'd surely have a ball!), we had to make a selection. Still - we came to the realization that something was missing - we can't look over your shoulder when you install and use an application for the first time. All this information gets collected, analyzed and put to good use. We also hold surveys to learn about user needs and requirements and we even have customers that provide detailed pictures of their feature requests on separate sites. Aside from "application smells of cinnamon" and "Stalin told me so" we receive valuable feedback this way. Whenever you uninstall an application, you're prompted to state a reason and we always pay close attention to that. Once you report an issue to our support team, not only will you (hopefully) get a useful response but inquiries are bundled and processed to find out whether applications need to be updated or general usability issues exist. Relationships with our customers have been intensifying over the past years either through support requests or this blog. We thought our approach ideal and then you came along. That's why we spend countless hours trying to make everything more intuitive and easier to use. Everything may seem logical to them, after all, an architect knows his way around a house, but guests may be hopelessly lost. Moreover, programmers seem to have their own logic of planning and designing their products and may come up with - I'm doing my best to stay friends here - rather unusual approaches. My guess is that " I became a programmer because I love to compromise" has never been uttered by any programmer in the history of man. Occasionally, talks can more turbulent and louder. But how do we do it? Usually, programmers and program managers meet to review possible use-cases. But what are all these people doing here?Įvery software developer seeks to make their applications more user-friendly (at least they should but I have my doubts). Once that person left, there's always the same questions: "Who was that?" or "What was he doing here?" that are met with responses like "My neighbor.", "A friend." or "A long-time customer from around here.". Sometimes, things are more relaxed and you can almost detect a sense of timidity in their clicking but other times it's a clicking frenzy like rapid gun fire. Complete strangers are coming into our office, get placed in front of a PC and are then drilled with questions while using an Ashampoo application. Lately, almost whimsical things have been happening at the desk next to mine.
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