Recent Doc Team meeting - Poll idea (Do people really use computer-based help?)

[John R. Sowden]

On 05/10/2014 01:21 AM, Jared Norris wrote:
> On 10 May 2014 07:11, Jim Byrnes <jf_byrnes at comcast.net
> <mailto:jf_byrnes at comcast.net>> wrote:
>
>     On 05/09/2014 03:14 PM, Peter Matulis wrote:
>
>         On 05/09/2014 01:51 PM, Penelope Stowe wrote:
>
>             On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 10:12 AM, Peter Matulis
>             <peter.matulis at canonical.com
>             <mailto:peter.matulis at canonical.com>
>             <mailto:peter.matulis at __canonical.com
>             <mailto:peter.matulis at canonical.com>>> wrote:
>
>                   Last Wednesday (May 7) we there was a Doc team meeting
>             [1] and an idea
>                   surfaced that an attempt be made to determine the
>             general level of
>                   readership/usage of the help/doc facility in Ubuntu
>             (Desktop).
>                   Including this facility involves participation in a
>             rigid set of
>                   development/packaging rules & schedule that may not be
>             worth the
>                   trouble.
>
>                   Preliminary poll:
>
>                   << Do people think conducting such a poll is
>             worthwhile? >>
>
>
>             Who would targeted as responders to said poll? If you only
>             poll current
>             Ubuntu users, you're probably going to get a different
>             answer than if
>             you poll current users as well as trying to get answers from
>             current
>             Windows and MacOS users who could potentially use Ubuntu
>             down the road.
>             I've done informal polling of this exact question among
>             people I know
>             and there's definitely a difference between the people I
>             know who use
>             Ubuntu (who tend to be slightly more technologically savvy)
>             and those
>             who use Windows/MacOS, but are part of the stated target of
>             making
>             Ubuntu friendly to/usable by everyone.
>
>             My opinion on whether a poll would be useful does depend on
>             knowing who
>             would be the target of such a poll. There are ways to get
>             non-technical
>             and non-Ubuntu users to answer a poll on this question. If
>             there's no
>             decided target, then I will give a longer explanation of my
>             thoughts.
>
>
>         Thanks for your thoughts Penelope.
>
>         I think polling Ubuntu users is good enough since there are former
>         Windows/Mac users among them.  But you raise an interesting
>         point:  do
>         we want to know whether a user will even *look* for in-computer
>         help?
>         My original idea was to determine to what degree Ubuntu users first
>         *know* about it and, if so, whether they *use* it.
>
>         I would rather avoid a hypothetical question such as: "If you
>         were an
>         Ubuntu user would you look for in-computer help?".
>
>         Thoughts?
>
>         peter matulis
>
>
>
>     Interesting question.  Until I read this thread I had forgotten
>     about in computer help, so I went looking for it.  I am running
>     12.04 and there is no help icon on the top bar or the launcher.
>       It's possible that there was one on the launcher and I removed it,
>     but I don't remember doing so.  I clicked the little gear at the top
>     right corner of the top bar and didn't see any help there.  Finally
>     I typed help into the dash search bar then I was able to access the
>     in computer help.
>
>     In 10.04 as I think there was a help item in the menus on the top
>     bar. I guess what I am saying is if you want people to use it, it
>     should be more accessible.
>
>     I was new to linux when I started using 10.04 so I remember reading
>     the in computer help at that time.  Now I usually google first and
>     then come here with questions.  I guess I am saying that the more
>     experience a user has the less they use the in computer help.
>
>     Regards,  Jim
>
>
>
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>
>
>
> I guess the real issue is for those who either:
> * don't have reasonable access to the internet for whatever reason
> * have a problem with their system that prevents accessing the internet
>
> I think at times we (and I include myself) tend to assume that everyone
> is faced with the same challenges but when in reality, it can be
> significantly different.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jared Norris
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/jarednorris
>
>
I think a poll is a great idea.  Re: different "groups" of users, I 
would suggest that you have questions to establish the group of the 
respondent.  Then, using foxpro/dos, or your favorite poison, find out 
the different interests/requests by group.  This might bring out more 
data.  There is another side effect.  This will give the users 
"ownership" in the program.  They will feel more involved because they 
are participating.  Finally, requests might come from this that were not 
considered.  The request ideas should be categorized by sub-program 
(calc, etc.) and idea category.  This will make it easier to tabulate, 
remove duplicates, etc.

Thanks for asking,
John