338828 - Reporting bugs is too hard

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(mozilla.org :: Miscellaneous, task)

Description

[jeffrey.haemer+bugzilla]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.3) Gecko/20060426 Firefox/1.5.0.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.3) Gecko/20060426 Firefox/1.5.0.3

Mozilla didn't crash.  You don't suck.

I'm an hour or two into the process of reporting a bug.  (Yes, I appreciate the complexities -- I'm a QA guy and have implemented, installed, and managed testing and bug-tracking for big products.  You have a hard job and thanks for doing it.)  You could get more bug reports if this were easier and faster.  What it looks like from the user end follows.  Suggestions in "Expected Results," below.

First, I had to find out where to report it. Somehow, I get to bugzilla.  Okay, I have to apply for a login and password.  I get it in the mail, and then go back. 

I'm supposed to look to see if the bug already exists.
Seems reasonable, but I random-walk my way through a twisty little maze of places to look for help and existing problems.  Not hard once I got to this page, but before I stopped here, I hit various forums -- okay, "fora," for you Latin pedants.

I get to a point where I learn I'm supposed to check for the bug on the latest build.  I download the latest build, 3.0-something (long way from 1.5.0.3, that's for sure -- someone's working very, very hard!).

I crank it up.  My existing extensions don't work?  Whatever. (Nice icon and good touch making it have a different name from Firefox.)  The bug's fixed.  Fine.  Nothing to report.

Now I have to clean up after myself, and restart Firefox.  Okay.  But wait.
All my extensions have disappeared.  Uh-oh.  I go to Tools->Extensions, which thinks I still have them all and there are no updates to be gotten.  (The list and dates are probably cached somewhere.)  I find a pencil and paper and write down all the extensions (cut-and-paste doesn't seem to work in the extensions window.  Whatever.), and then re-get them all.  

Some extensions, like Google Toolbar and the SiteAdvisor extension, aren't on the Mozilla site.  Maybe I'm the only person who ever uses these extensions and they aren't popular.  I doubt it.  I hunt them down and download them, too.

I restart Firefox and verify that it's 1.5.0.3.  I don't really know that things that originally came pre-loaded (like DOM Inspector) are still there, or how to tell.  Oh well.

I hunt around, find bugzilla again, start this bug report.

Sure, I can rationalize each of these steps.  I've been on the other end.  Will I rush into reporting the next bug I find?  Nope.  Would a less-technical user find the experience even more tedious and often just give up?  I think so.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Try to report a bug.
2. See "Details."
3. See (2.)

Actual Results:  
See "Details."

Expected Results:  
Suggestions:

(1) Add Help->Report a Bug (by analogy to "Report Broken Web Site")
Since folks who report one bug are probably more likely to report a second (if it's easy enough :-), you could even have it save away things like the Bugzilla login and password.  Besides, if you're helping us say, "Someone else's stuff
is broken," it seems only fair to help us say, "Yours stuff is broken."  The log in your eye and all that.

(2) Have step 1 in the process -- search for an existing bug -- be later and even easier.  When I fill out "Summary", automatically do the search through existing bugs and present the reporter with a list.  "Is it any of these?"  Or put a button next to the Summary text entry box that says "Search for the bug," and don't let folks go on until that button's been pushed.  

(3) Give someone the job of coaxing folks with popular extensions to get them downloadable from your site.  Yeah, they'll say, "Why should we?  Our extension is already popular."  That's why it's a job, not just an afterthought.  (I need a job, so if you can't find anyone else, hire me. :-)

(4) Don't let the development builds wipe out the existing extensions.  At worst, save the extensions away before trashing them, and make a "Restore extensions" option somewhere, either in the nightly build or in released versions.

(5) Let Tools->Extensions report the real status, somehow.  A button that says
"really check whether they're still there" or something?  Alternatively, if I say "check for updates", check to see if the extension's still there.


Mozilla didn't crash.  You don't suck.

Comment 1

[timeless]

so, we get hundreds of bugs every day, and while in theory more bugs are good things. we'd rather people spent time thinking about them* than be flooded by bugs that they could self select out.

the bit about the dev build wiping out your existing extensions kinda worries me, i was under the impression that extensions would only be disabled not removed.

* your bug report shows some thought, for which at least I am thankful.

Comment 2

[jeffrey.haemer+bugzilla]

Absolutely.  Been there, done that, agree completely.  

Which is why I tried to make a bunch of specific suggestions that might make it feel easier to file a bug without sacrificing bug-report quality.  You might hate all the specific suggestions, but you're smart guys, will get the idea, and might think of something else you do like.

I just switched my sister, the artist, to Firefox.  I can't help but think,
"Jo's really smart.  If she had a problem, and a good suggestion for how to make things better, would she be willing to navigate this maze?"

Comment 3

[Cameron]

http://hendrix.mozilla.org/ ?

As for getting more addons on addons.mozilla.org - currently, the system is pretty sucky (I don't mean to criticize anyone here - the system worked when it was written, but it needs a re-write, and it's getting a re-write, so we can all be happy and we can revisit getting everything listed on AMO later when it's more appealing to developers. For an example of this - you currently can't put any TOS or privay policy or anything with an addon listed on AMO.)

Comment 4

[Firefox Bug Husbandry Bot]

Most of the issues in this enhancement request have been addressed by changes to reporting flow in Bugzilla, and the AMO site.