Last modified: 2014-10-16 11:52:52 UTC
Created attachment 11828 [details] The most meta mockup A lot of design-related bugs don't have screenshots attached to them and it requires a back-and-forth to identify a problem. Can we instruct users to attach a screenshot a little more prominently? See the attached screenshot for an example (lulz).
+1
There's this page: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/page.cgi?id=bug-writing.html and the How to Report a Bug mw page: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/How_to_report_a_bug If you know of any other pages that users might refer to to report a bug, please link them. Andre, how would one go about changing the bug-writing page?
Re Comment 2 by Valerie: Moved to bug 45271 Re "Showing some attachment-related requirements": We have the same idea to have people not attach patches in Bugzilla but in Gerrit - bug 42606. I'm slightly afraid that people won't read "If X, then Y" instructions on enter_bug.cgi if we don't keep them really short. In case we DO go for a "Please try to add a screenshot" statement displayed, I'd like to see this linked to a wikipage explaining how to create a screenshot.
> I'm slightly afraid that people won't read "If X, then Y" instructions on > enter_bug.cgi if we don't keep them really short. You can put under "Quick Recommendations." Something like "For design issues, attaching a screenshot to your report can help clarify the problem." Design issues aren't the only reports that can benefit from a screenshot, so maybe take out the first part, but I think we should point out that attaching a screenshot can help speed up the resolution of the bug, clarify the problem, or make a better report. Something to that effect. > In case we DO go for a "Please try to add a screenshot" statement displayed, > I'd like to see this linked to a wikipage explaining how to create a > screenshot. I agree.
(In reply to comment #3) > In case we DO go for a "Please try to add a screenshot" statement displayed, > I'd like to see this linked to a wikipage explaining how to create a > screenshot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenshot seems to be totally sufficient.
From what I've seen, at least, many front-end design bugs are filed simply because something isn't happening or isn't there, and it's kind of hard to take a screenshot of something that doesn't exist or isn't there. Now for the things where something is visibly going wrong, aye, screenshots are very helpful, but those are generally less design-related, and instead more of interface-is-borked issues. There, the problem is not with the design, but with the implementation.
Or bugs that the current design is bad - and we can all see the current design with a url. A screenshot won't do anything to show what would be better. Now mockups are a better solution for those, but that doesn't mean plaintext explanations are inherently bad, nor that every reporter would even be able to create a mockup - more folks here tend to be developers, users, and editors, and those are usually not the most versed in the art of photoshop or rewriting the relevant page DOM or what have you. But hells, many bad designs can't even be demonstrated visually. If something mucks up a workflow, for instance, a description of the workflow would be probably the most we could hope for that would really be useful - to verify, follow what they described and see how the design resists.
> Now for the things where something is visibly going wrong, aye, screenshots > are > very helpful, but those are generally less design-related, and instead more > of > interface-is-borked issues. There, the problem is not with the design, but > with > the implementation. Perhaps something like "Consider attaching a screenshot to your report to help clarify the problem." and not specifying design.
Yeah, screenshots help debug a lot of things - even if only by telling the looker precisely where to look. It's probably said elsewhere on the guides and such, but a note on the interface itself reminding folks to include a screenshot to clarify if applicable would be useful - if folks heed it. And being on the interface, they'd probably be more likely to heed that than some guide who knows where.
