Getting Feedback?

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markwk's picture

I'm finishing up work on a network of sites that will likely be getting a huge amount of incoming users in the coming weeks. One thing I haven't included yet it is a way to provide feedback about issues and problems (I know there must be some :). I could use a simple contact form but I'm wondering some of the best approaches for getting user feedback and handling issues within Drupal. Thoughts?

Comments

There's a few modules like

PNX's picture

There's a few modules like http://drupal.org/project/feedback that allow you to get feedback from specific pages. Otherwise, you can build good custom survey-style forms with the WebForm module.

Hmm...

markwk's picture

I didn't find the feedback module to be particularly good across several sites. A custom webform might work. I was also considering some 3rd party ticketing systems.

Zendesk - no further development

mpearrow's picture

Looks like that module is potentially orphaned? Last commit was 49 weeks ago and seeking new maintainer.

markwk, can you describe a bit more about what you want - are you looking for something like a bug tracking system or more like one of those "Was this page useful" boxes that some sites have? Or something else?

I mentioned this post on #drupal-usability yesterday; it seems like a generic way of getting usability feedback from users in a relatively painless way would be a good idea for Drupal in general.

mjp

well the module is just a

btopro's picture

well the module is just a connector to the zendesk external platform, but yes I agree this is something that I've heard a lot of people outside of edu ask for and Feedback module (while neat) doesn't take things all the way. Maybe a new Kit based feature we can develop eh Mark? ;)

To answer the purpose

markwk's picture

To answer the purpose question first. I am developing several educational projects and while I think they work for me, it's really important to get "painless" feedback across the life of a project. Also I find that it is the "out of the blue" comments sometimes much later that can tell you a lot.

I think that it would be nice to connect to a ticketing and tracking system, because it's nice provide a framework for issues and system for providing support.

@btopro: I was thinking about using Zendesk. Comes recommended by quite a few folks. I don't imagine that the module is much of an issue considering what it's supposed to do.

One thing I like is the idea of clicking "feedback," iframe popup comes up where you classify your feedback as "bug" "issue" "feedback" "idea" "support" and write your issue, send/save/etc. Back to where you were. I think that's the workflow you are looking for.

In terms of rolling out a "kit" feature I think we might be able to use Rules for some of the functionality we are looking for in terms of connecting maybe casetracker or something third party.

Get Satisfaction

karschsp's picture

Have you taken a look at Get Satisfaction (http://getsatisfaction.com/) and the corresponding module (http://drupal.org/project/getsatisfaction) ?

Connect & Post Into Atrium Casetracker?

markwk's picture

I've been looking and surveying Uservoice, GetSatisfaction and Zendesk and while these systems are nice, it definitely takes something away by putting it outside your domain / control.

I'm wondering if it might be possible to build a simple connector module / feature that could post issues to an atrium casetracker? Click and a simple overlay iframe popup...

The setup I'd imagine would to post from any one of your sites into an atrium group's casetracker. Atrium twisted to server as an issue tracker / help desk / knowledge base. Seem do-able?

Any thoughts on implementation? Or possible modules that might get us part way....

Is your site built in open atrium?

mpearrow's picture

I totally agree about the whole having control taken out of your domain. Is your site already built in openatrium or are you thinking of having a separate site for handling the case tracking? I'm assuming the latter?

mjp

Psychology of Feedback

dcmistry's picture

Who is giving the feedback? Is it the end user? What community do they belong to? Is this a part of an open source project? Are the users community based?
Answers to these questions significantly affect how the user perceives the idea of giving feedback. Generally, commercial-purpose users (like online shopping) just want to perform their task and move on. Such users don't feel compelled to report issues or give feedback unless they are absolutely delighted or something is horribly broken. More often than not, they will report only when they have tough experience. For an average experience, they might just skip this step. So, in order to get an overall feedback about the experience (or issues), consider approaches to make them involved in this process. It is important to have a way to get feedback but it is equally important to develop an incentive (not necessarily monetarily) for them to give the feedback.

Not sure if it is relevant, but I thought it might be helpful in putting out there as you evaluate various options.

Dharmesh Mistry
UX Researcher | Acquia,Inc.

Educational Project

markwk's picture

I totally agree about the idea of people not being particularly interested in giving feedback, but it's an educational project so I'm constantly tweaking things so I'd like to find a way for people tell me what works and doesn't.

To be more specific, I have a network of learning sites for different groups and schools so I thought it would be interesting to find a way to create a widget to bring issues and feedback into something like casetracker.

I think this would be a nice addition to Drupal: feedback widget that integrates into a simple distro (maybe based on OA) that collects that feedback and provides maybe some form of organization.

I'd be interested in what folks think about what pieces of the Drupal puzzle might used to build something like this. For example, what's the best / simplest way to pass these initial feedback.

(Maybe it could be done via and embedded iframe with the userinfo passed via openid integration?)

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