Related
I posted this in the forums general category but got one response. I'm looking for more detailed responses, so I figured I would ask my Inspire owning piers. I am trying to collect data from a wide variety of places, not just here. Furthermore, if anyone (or mod) feels this is inappropriate please let me know and I will PM a moderater requesting they remove this thread.
I've been informed, via work, that I must put together a report of what would improve customer satisfaction and the customer experience.
Obviously I have my own ideas, none of which upper management really enjoys. But I would love to get opinions form other users.
Now, I realize that XDA may not be the best place to ask. Most of us know how to resolve our own issues, and when having to visit a device support center just want the phone exchanged, quick and clean. With that being said, try and make your suggestions geared towards if you didn't know your device, or if it was for an electronic gadget you didn't know, or what your friends and family have expressed.
Please be as detailed as possible. It would be nice to see specific requests and what consumers specifically want to see. Do you want in depth answer? Do you just want your problems solved? What nuances would make the experiences better, ex- coffee in the lobby, types of magazines, interactions, children's play areas, etc...
How much time would you be willing for a transaction, keeping in mind we have to troubleshoot the issue. What would be acceptable and what wouldn't be. Do you prefer someone that jokes around, or someone that doesn't.
Any very specific details as to what YOU would want to see, how you want people to act, what information you want to be given and what you don't. If you want, go ahead and write a novel for your preferred customer service interaction experience with in depth details.
Any help would be appreciated.
Well I might be speaking for myself, but some one reading a script and telling me to do things I have already done is quite annoying and tends to anger me more then help the problem. Transferring someone to a higher echelon of support quicker would be nice.
Also if the customer is unhappy with a phone, I don't think you should have to report the same problem 3 times, I would easily just by out my contract and go to another company.
Just my 2 cents.
I thank you for the feedback. Getting aspect at this point is slow moving across every avenue of research.
Your exact reasoning is why I try my hardest to keep users away from call lines. They frustrate me to no end.
I wrote about it here: LINK
Does anyone know more about the background - from the twitter account it seems like just a general run-down and a disappointing community.
Other developers on here feel the same?
I'd love to get comments from some of the developers on here, if that is the case.
I'm not a developer but did read this already on a posting at Google+.
But you are right, moving into that direction would be very bad.
Some people think they can be rude because they stay anonymous.
Its something that happens more and more these days on the internet.
I realize it's impossible - there are 12 year olds who probably run rampant.
Seems like there is SOMETHING that can be done.
I'm as Pro-Android as they come. But at times it feels like starting a relationship with a beautiful boy/girl only to find they come with a sack load of emotional baggage.
Here's my take on it: http://andgamesdevblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/android-culture-its-own-worst-enemy.html
I am far from giving up (thick skinned) but there is a real troll culture growing and needs to be stomped out. Anonymity has it's uses but, as with everything else, has its drawbacks. What we need is troll hunters!
Paul
(aka Strangemoo)
I have seen that there are some stupid comments on the market... But not so extreme as to take down your app...
Some users is just plain stupid... I'm from Denmark, so a lot of the comments are in danish... But that devs are many times foreign and really don't look or understand the comments... But a lot of them complain about pathetic things like no app 2 sd or that some function suddenly's gone instead of just writing the dev an email about the issue and giving the app the respect it deserves... 1/5 rating is a lot of the times not justified...
Just my 2-cents...
I'm sorry but this is a silly and immature move by the developer. Receiving negative feedback, dealing with trolls and idiotic users that don't understand technology are fundamental assumptions of the internet, just like not giving out your passwords or helping Nigerian princes get their money out of Africa.
I loved ShootMe and used it for our screenshots, but I don't have a lot of empathy for people that empower others to control how they feel.
Wrote about this a few weeks back: http://www.androidstatic.com/what-shootme-removed-from-the-android-market
I work in IT support and one of the things I have to support is phones. It blows my mind how many 10-12 year old kids have nicer phones than I do because their rich mommy and daddys think their precious little angels needs the latest and greatest smart phones. I went over to a client's office a couple of months ago and he had 3 brand new Droid 2s for his kids, ranging from 10-14.
Point of all this?
In this day and age, there are so many rude little kids with nice phones all over these forums, its amazing to me anyone sticks around. Im over 40 and was raised in a different time than these self entitled children I see around here that want everything now, for free and want you to do it for them.
I cant blame the guy for leaving. A lot of times I wish I could go live on an island somewhere where I didnt have to deal with people because most of them suck.
s15274n said:
I wrote about it here: LINK
Does anyone know more about the background - from the twitter account it seems like just a general run-down and a disappointing community.
Other developers on here feel the same?
I'd love to get comments from some of the developers on here, if that is the case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not a developer, but I was a ShootMe user on my EVO 4G. When it received the upgrade to Gingerbread, the app stopped working. The developer never replied to my email and from reading comments on Market didn't reply to anyone.
He did finally released a new version of ShootMe, but you had to have a computer to use it. Also everytime your reboot your phone, you had to sync everytime with your computer.
Sent from my HTC EVO 3D using Tapatalk
Welcome to the "masses".
Want a better experience? Go smaller. Dev for Windows Phone, or Web OS, or RIM.
Once something becomes part of the main stream, you'll see the d-bags start rolling in. Even something like xda can be tarnished once it "gets too big". There is hardly a day that goes by where I don't read a thread here that doesn't make me shake my head. This used to be a highly technical forum, back when every devices was htc and running windows mobile.
The only thing that can really be done, is to work with a smaller, more appreciative community. I doubt you would get very many jerk off comments from a Windows Phone user, they are happy to get whatever they can.
All very good points. I wish I had put a little into my thoughts before typing that up - dev's need to be tougher AND respond to people.
s15274n said:
All very good points. I wish I had put a little into my thoughts before typing that up - dev's need to be tougher AND respond to people.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As a android developer IMHO the android community is as bad as they come. Xda for example used to be a place of collaboration. Currently its a place where maybe .1% do dev, .9% appreciate the development and try to help, 99% ether complain or say nothing at all. Whether the development is for free or profite(which I won't evev get into here) how is a developer supposed to work off of that? Users would rather right a comment blasting a developer who has literally spent days of his life on some product without even attempting to resolve the issue themselves.
I'm not saying some complaints are not warranted, just saying flip the coin around and its not so hard to understand the developers standpoint.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk
There is no denying that there is frustration on both sides. This frustration seems to stem from expectation, communication and control.
The developer expects their customers to be civil.
The users expects the developers to devote anything between some to all of their resources/free time building/making their products better.
Both are unreasonable expectations if you think about it.
Civility can only be maintained in a mediated environment - the Android Market seems only concerned about brand and copyright issues. Google seems to think that it's ok to put its developer behind chicken-wire with lights in their eyes whilst their customers are free to hurl beer bottles at them. Dealing with anony-trolls is time consuming and offputting.
Developers range from teenagers with spare time on their hands up to multi-million dollar development studios. I, myself, am a father of three, I work a full week (we've got to eat!) and I code when time permits. Even though I respond to every request put to my apps, if you think that I'm going to compromise the balance of other areas of my life to put in a bug fix - think again. Sure, some of the more effluent businesses can throw more resources into a project, but just bare in mind that most of us are just people and not doormats. Respect and encouragement is all it takes to make the market a happy place. Flaming just ruins things for all (on both sides).
Communication between devs and end users is and most likely always will be a bit of a sticking point. The fact that everyone has their own opinions, likes, dislikes kind of makes it obvious that there will never be an app with 100% 5 stars. Even the most popular apps on the market have ratings across the board. Though, admittedly, some of the low grades may be down to trolling - but some of them will be genuine. Communication takes time. From a user, it may take a couple of minutes out of their day. For the dev, they may have hundreds a day to deal with. This takes them away from the development that the mail is probably asking for!
A user doesn't, and should never have control over the developer. They should, however, be able to request, beg, plead *nicely*. If they get frustrated then they should remember the phrase 'you get what you pay for'. The developer doesn't get any money when you bought your phone - so don't think they have any obligation to give you something for nothing. If it's a paid app, then the developer is saying 'yes, I'll support it.' That's fair sport.
The developer should have some control over their customers in the sense that a shopkeeper can choose who they let in their shops. Unfortunately they have none. They can't even moderate the comments on the market. I've had a 'GAY - Pointless, uninstall' (his words, not mine) on a free app downloaded 12,000 times and has a 4* rating. I can't do anything about it. It always appears when people go to the page. This individual has hurt my app and me without provocation. I didn't ask anything from them. Fortunately, the following message pointed out that the 'Pointless' user was an idiot (thanks XZombie), hopefully it will negate some of the damage. We're completely at the mercy of the masses, and being a relatively new dev, it's a scary place to be!
It's a shame that the most influential party in all of this is hiding behind a wall of silence.
If you're interested - I'm keeping a track of my experience of Android development. The link is in my earlier post.
Paul
Strangemoo
Paul, I do agree with you to a point. But I'm not sure if I like about developers editing comments. But I do see what you mean about people leaving dumb comments for an app that does work.
Sent from my HTC EVO 3D using Tapatalk
Katt,
I don't suggest developers could edit comments - that would make the process equally pointless, as devs can put all of the 'nice' things they want in the description anyway. Sorry if I implied otherwise.
Devs should be able to either remove, request for removal or even block the rogue elements. At present, we have to just live with the insults with no way to disprove their claims. Even a 'troll flag' would be an improvement - to show other users that the dev disagrees with the comment.
All accountability is on the devs whereas trolls can run freely.
Do any other devs out there agree with me on this? Others may have had a much more dealings with such than I have.
Cheers,
Paul
IMO if google was smart they would allow for a limited ammount(% of total) of "submissions" of there comments to a third party(google). If they are found outlandish they can be removed.
My 2 cents lol. I can say as a dev of a few apps on the market I have gotten rediculous comments n 1 stars b4. I mean if they are justified that's a different thing entirely. But my 1 stars are disproportionally higher then the trend of the others. Which proves one thing...
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
This is an honestly great thread. Good initiative to |OP|
Taking down an app just because of a few nasty comments is just
childish and quite frankly pathetic.
Seems that developer has chucked his toys out the pram, if he does
decide to release it again who is going to trust such a developer?
I know I wouldn't use the app again, seeing as he's stuck 2 fingers up
to loyal users and the whole android community all because of a small
minority of people.
The whole thing stinks of the guy thinking he is above any kind of bad
feedback, obviously a developer that doesn't listen to the users of his
app and a developer that turns his back at the drop of a hat.
I'm sure he will be missed... Not
Ps. there are better screenshot apps out there
I agree with your comment. Though I am not a dev. I have experience working in the retail end of software. This is a I want it now society, folks forget that they got this software/app for free and as soon as they have a little issue they fly off the deep end cussing out the maker/distribitor of the product. Anyhow like you said you get what you pay for.LIke in my IT course in school my book said "check the dummy behind the keyboard" anyhow thanks for the great apps i use the time flies app.
If a dev dropped his customers because of a couple of snide comments then, yeah, I'd agree with you.
But was that the case for ShootMe?
Before we start flinging hooks around here, wouldn't it be more productive to actually find out what happened first.
I may be proven wrong here, but the guy must've been given some serious grief to take such a newsworthy action.
In fact, that's not been mentioned - it could be media storming. Drum up enough publicity and come back blazing. Only time will tell on that one.
At the end of the day, it's his property. And if he makes a lot of people unhappy that's his prerogative. The reason he's giving though are indeed a real issue the community needs to address.
The plot thickens.
(Glad you like Times Flies! You're most welcome)
Paul
I've noticed that the flavor of a community will vary a lot by device. The Captivate community seems to be generally good and helpful for the most part, but I've heard horror stories of ungratefulness and rudeness about communities around other devices. It may be the same sort of thing with different varieties of apps. If people feel like an app performs a function they deserve outright, they may be less inclined to courtesy and more inclined to selfish expectation.
Hey, I'm new to this forum so if I'm posting this question in the wrong section, go easy on me. So I have 3 extremely good ideas for mobile apps and I don't know what to do with them. I'm not an app developer or programmer, I don't have capital to pay other developers and programmers to put these apps into motion and I'm not sure what steps I could take to get these ideas off the ground. I have a feeling some people will say, that's nice, but without any of the things I listed in the previous sentence, it'll be just a pipe dream and until I have capital, I'd be better off to forget about my ideas. So I'm here to see if maybe there is a place to go or how to find the right people to talk to about giving out ideas and getting a small percentage from the apps success.
All three ideas are related to business operations and one, in my opinion would be easier to develop than the other two, and as far as I know, there isn't any apps right now that do what my idea for the 3 apps would be doing. I could teach myself how to develop the apps but that would take years and by then, they may already be developed by someone else. I will vaguely describe the 3 ideas as one would grab information from GPS locations to gather information from the user and would be extremely beneficial to any private or public sector's finances. The second one would use a persons location and SIRI. The third would mainly use location and video/audio.
Is there a website people with ideas can go to and send the idea to whoever there with clear terms mentioned before submission of how the ideas are dealt with so that the idea holder gets some recognition or stake in the idea development and then passes on the idea to a company that will make good use out of it. If there isn't anything like that, a website similar to that would also be a good idea. Businesses need to constantly evolve and come up with new ways to attract and retain customers, and my ideas would benefit business operations by saving time, minimizing costs, and staying ahead of the game by taking advantage of new technology.
Even if my app ideas don't come to fruition, I'm still happy that I came up with them and can come up with more, because without new ideas this world would be a sad and boring place to live.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks for your time and help in advance!
Hi, Chris here. Many of you know me already. I've loved XDA since I had my first O2 XDA device, and am an Android enthusiast.
As I'm sure you have too, I've come up with app ideas that I and those around me thought were truly great, but I struggled with getting my ideas 'out there' and through bigger app companies' doors. And I don't have the time to develop them myself either. It's a minefield! There are so many legal roadblocks that make those companies 'scared' of the very thing they should embrace – the brilliant ideas of everyday Edisons like you and me.
I decided to do something about it, so here in LA me and a small team are in the early stages of creating a portal called Bideas - 'Where big companies bid on big ideas'. You could think of it as a sort of private 'eBay for ideas', in any sector, not just apps necessarily. Just like eBay revolutionized the second hand market, and largely took down antiques shops, I want Bideas to revolutionize the way our innovations are tapped into, and take down the antique patent system founded in 16th century Greece –*one that's come under a lot of criticism of late, and the other copyright systems that cost more than they're worth when someone steals your idea anyway. They just can't keep up with modern technologies, but that's exactly what the Internet can do.
I'd love you to take a look. I'm sure it raises a lot of questions, and so in anticipation I've prepared an FAQ at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bideas-com-where-big-companies-bid-on-big-ideas/x/5900221#faq
I'm building it for those like us, because I'd want to use it, but there was nothing out there like it. If it's a system you'd like to use too, let's make it happen. I appreciate all questions (and of course any support).
From one Android enthusiast and long-time XDA member to another, keep thinking, and never stop innovating. I truly hope to make an outlet for it all soon.
Creatively,
Chris
[Q] Research Survey: App Developers and App Company Managers needed to share opinion
Hi,
Currently, i am conducting my Master thesis research at the University of Technology Eindhoven about quality analysis services of mobile apps. According to literature it appears that the quality of apps is often based on user experience and functionality of apps. Only very basic and few research has been done about technical quality of apps and it is mainly unclear how app developers and app owners (i.e. managers of app companies or individual developer of their own app) think about the technical quality.
Therefore, i am looking for app developers and app owners to help me by taking a 5 - 10 minute survey. For every completed survey I will donate a euro to a charity of your own choice.
The survey is anonymous and only used for academic purposes. All data will be removed after finalizing the project.
The survey is available at survey.sogosurvey. com/k/RQsUYPUSsQsPsPsP (please remove space)
I appreciate your help in this and hope that you take the survey as all app developers and owners opinions count.
Thank you.
Mike Loeffen
Graduating student at University of Technology Eindhoven
P.S. unfortunately, I noticed too late that the survey tool does not provide an optimal format for smartphones, so I recommend to use a computer or tablet.
I hope this will not be a reason to decide not taking the survey.
Hmmm,...
I would have selected "Keep the Euro" but there was no such option, so MSF...
Then I saw this:
6) Price: How much you are willing to pay per month in dollars. The price can be:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and the next few pages had money questions.
So I felt I was filling out a marketing survey, and I aborted and posted this.
Please feel free to explain.
mikereidis said:
Hmmm,...
I would have selected "Keep the Euro" but there was no such option, so MSF...
Then I saw this:
and the next few pages had money questions.
So I felt I was filling out a marketing survey, and I aborted and posted this.
Please feel free to explain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for you comment.
To answer your first comment, I chose to make that particular question about charities not mandatory. So, if you did not want to let me donate, you could keep that question open. But I wanted to do something in return for every participation, and as a student I don't have many resources. Therefore, the decision to donate something.
You have a good point with your second comment. As I explained on the first page is that I study Innovation Management at a Technical University. This study combines the technical aspect, like IT business, with economy aspects, like marketing, sales, and management. The goal of my research for my Master thesis is to analyze if technical quality (i.e. the quality of the source code) of apps is just as important as the technical quality of large software systems and to analyze what opinions app developers and app owners have regarding the technical quality.
In my research I use the so-called conjoint analysis, which is indeed an analysis method often used in marketing scenarios, but additionally it is also a very good method to analyze different perspections of a product or service which is what I try to do in my research. Price is often excluded because it could influence the perception of respondents (and appears so now). But I chose to include it, because I assume that a technical quality analysis could always be useful in different ways (help developers in a good direction or decrease costs. This is already proved for computer and enterprise software, but it has a gap in literature in the case of mobile app software). Therefore, I try to analyze how important and how interesting app developers and owners find the technical quality by including different price levels. If someone chooses a higher price for better services, I assume that a technical quality analysis might indeed provide value from the perception of developers and owners.
Overall, it is an academic research about consumer behavior and perceptions about a relative new service (therefore the link to Innovation Management) because very few research is done about software quality of apps from a developers or owners perspective. That's why marketing aspects are included too. In the end, academic researches will always be public accessible, and I try to close some of the gap of the technical quality services about the software of apps. I cannot close the whole gap because due to the fact I am no software developer I can not include all aspects unfortunately, so in this case mainly 'human technology interaction' aspects).
I hope this will make myself and my survey more clear. If you have still some questions, feel free to ask them.
Thank you for your comment and I appreciate it if you are still willing to participate
mtclo said:
Overall, it is an academic research about consumer behavior and perceptions about a relative new service (therefore the link to Innovation Management) because very few research is done about software quality of apps from a developers or owners perspective.
...
I am no software developer
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to learn what software development is REALLY like, this is THE BEST site I have ever seen: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/
IMO there are no effective methods of objectively evaluating software quality and I think this is a widely held opinion by those with SW dev experience*. Many attempts have been made, with bug tracking systems for example, and pretty much all have failed to objectively evaluate quality. Very good QA people can find many more bugs than average QA people. QA team size matters. Defining a single bug precisely is difficult.
(*At least in the common real world. Things may be somewhat different in the military and super-super reliable part of the industry that uses at least 10 times more developers for projects than the apps and other common development areas.)
Maybe the closest we could get to measuring quality would be MTBF, but even in other engineering areas, this is pretty difficult to accurately calculate, and it's value is questionable. And software is SO different than other areas. Eg. If hackers (who can make serious money finding a zero day bug) or others never find a specific bug that exists, nobody will ever know about it. OTOH, if a hard disk or bridge fails, somebody will likely know about it.
I've been doing SW dev professionally for 25 years, and personal/hobbyist for 15 years before that, dating back to becoming a teen in the mid 1970's when microprocessors were first arriving.
My education was in electronics however, and I'm a practical "get it done" dev who has never pondered sort algorithms academically.
I LOVE coming up with wonderful software designs that are elegant, minimizes bugs and easy to extend and accommodate future features. In my case, I created an Android FM App named Spirit2 that I took care in designing to have good characteristics.
OTOH, my Spirit1 FM app was never designed, it was quickly thrown together with hack after hack added for years. The code is a mess and it's now almost impossible to add a new feature without breaking existing functionality. Spirit1 served a good purpose, getting an app out quickly, but I had to solve the goal of getting a better quality app out by designing a new one: Spirit2.
IMO, a surprising amount of real code out there in the world today was, at least initially (with reverb for decades), quickly hacked together, not really designed well, or otherwise "very suboptimal". This includes large enterprise systems, monstrosities like the ObamaCare system, and the systems running our banks.
And most consumer apps are so full of bugs it's not funny. Big deal, the app crashes and needs to be restarted. Most people would never know if it's the fault of the app, the hardware or the operating system.
I'd like to think that my opinions above could be more important than just filling out a survey, especially if it makes you reconsider your ideas going into this.
Again, I'll HIGHLY recommend reading this site for an hour or 2, to you or anyone involved or interested in the REAL world of software development: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/
I have no connection with Joel, and haven't been on his site in many months at least. But I have spend at LEAST dozens of hours gleaning new insights and even entertainment there over the last 10+ years. Most of the time I end up back on his site when someone posts a link from slashdot or similar tech discussion sites.
ETA: Oh, and Joel's company does bug tracking software, so I'm sure he has well formed opinions on software quality: http://www.fogcreek.com/ Tracking (and fixing) bugs is still useful of course, even if there are no good objective quality measurements. But I'll be happy to step aside and reconsider if his opinions on that differ from mine,
mikereidis said:
If you want to learn what software development is REALLY like, this is THE BEST site I have ever seen:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mikereidis said:
IMO there are no effective methods of objectively evaluating software quality and I think this is a widely held opinion by those with SW dev experience*. Many attempts have been made, with bug tracking systems for example, and pretty much all have failed to objectively evaluate quality. Very good QA people can find many more bugs than average QA people. QA team size matters. Defining a single bug precisely is difficult.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mikereidis said:
OTOH, my Spirit1 FM app was never designed, it was quickly thrown together with hack after hack added for years. The code is a mess and it's now almost impossible to add a new feature without breaking existing functionality. Spirit1 served a good purpose, getting an app out quickly, but I had to solve the goal of getting a better quality app out by designing a new one: Spirit2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mikereidis said:
And most consumer apps are so full of bugs it's not funny. Big deal, the app crashes and needs to be restarted. Most people would never know if it's the fault of the app, the hardware or the operating system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank your for your tip. I could definitely use it for my literature review. Though, as I mentioned before, I am not capable to cover all software development aspects because I had to narrow the scope according to the guidelines of the Master thesis and according to my knowledge field (I hope this is the right description).
Furthermore, I think I had to define my definition of technical quality of software better. I am aware of the fact that the word 'quality' has a lot of meanings and definitions. In my thesis I have defined technical quality as the maintainability of the source code of software. I narrowed my scope in the research to tools that inspect code quality by reporting on duplicated codes, code complexity, code design, et cetera. Think about tools as SonarQube or VeraCode. However, these tools focus mainly on large enterprise software systems or general computer software. Therefore, my research is focused on code quality of app software for Android, iOS or Windows for mobile devices.
And finally to make my intentions of my research fully clear, is that I won't develop such a tool but I want to analyze if such tools for mobile apps would have any potential on the market and would some features like a quality label or the level of reporting detail have any influence. You already acknowledge that consumers would not be aware what causes bugs or other problems. In some cases, these problems might be caused by faults in the source code. Consumers would have no influence in that case, but app developers do. Code analyses might improve the source code or decrease costs by decreasing development time. Therefore, my target group are app developers or app owners (like managers of companies that develop apps) and I want to analyze if these people would be interested in such tools if it could, for example, improve the maintainability of an app and/or decreasing costs. Eventually, as my research results will become public and it appears that such tools might provide value to app developers and/or app owners, than it can be a motivation to develop such tools. Each individual will be free in deciding what to do with my results.
Hope it is clear now
I appreciate your additional thinking and it could indeed provide value and ideas for my research.
Hi everyone,
Hereby a reminder of the survey about the demand for mobile app quality analysis services. I hope you are willing to spend only 5 minutes of your time to help me with this research to graduate.
I have received feedback that the original survey was too vague and complicated. Therefore, I have improved the survey to make it more easy to fill in.
To access the improved version, please use the following link: survey.sogosurvey.com/k/SsUYPUSsWsPsPsP
I would appreciate it very much, if you are willing to complete this survey.
Thank you.