Re: Off-Topic: Communicating with users
Re: Off-Topic: Communicating with users
- Subject: Re: Off-Topic: Communicating with users
- From: Scott Ellsworth <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 14:45:12 -0700
On Jun 23, 2006, at 1:24 PM, Bobby B wrote:
It all takes place on a public forum, so all responses are visible. I
was curious how you, as developers, would respond to users'
suggestions when they don't fit in with the scope of the program, just
aren't good, or are just plain horrible.
When designing a program, I try to be clear to users that I make the
final call about features, price, etc. That said, I also try to be
clear that I want to know how they are using it, what they are using
instead, and what would make it more useful to them, at relatively
low cost to me. If a suggestion does not fit my vision of the
product, I try to figure out what need drove that suggestion, and
then will suggest product niches where the suggestion will fit.
For example: I want to put together a symbolic and computational
math package, much like Mathematica or Maple, but targeted more for
people working outside academia, as well as high school and college
students. Both Mathematica and Matlab cost over $3k a license, and
thus only academics and the wealthy get the benefits. I believe that
just about anyone could get benefits out of having a symbolic math
calculator.
If someone suggested tensor analysis as an appropriate first place to
start, it would not fit my intended target audience. It is not a bad
suggestion, and not a bad idea for the n_th revision, but it is a
terrible idea as a starting place for something usable by a typical
knowledge worker who wants to do a bit of automated crank work.
Thus, that suggestion gets a clear description of the intended
audience, and a suggestion that they write up a few more details for
me to think about later.
Someone who suggested audio and video file processing, on the other
hand, is doing something completely out of the scope of my idea. A
bad suggestion, in other words. Again, I would want to probe a bit
to see if they had a higher level purpose - 'I want to understand
what a convolution kernel does in core graphics'. Ok, suddenly not
such a bad idea, even if still not something I want to do.
The same person saying 'I want a photoshop clone', though, is asking
for something I do not want to deliver.
I am still not going to say 'dumb idea' but I will suggest Core Image
Fun House, or real photoshop.
In summary, try to figure out the overall task they want to perform.
If it fits your goal, even if it is not on the to-do list just yet,
then file it away. If it is completely alien to your goal, then
direct them to a better package, after explaining why it feels
foreign to your goal.
Scott
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