A better way for NI to gather usage data

Kymeia

Is to ask us. I have recently been testing UAD Luna and noticed this simple button in the corner

How much more user-friendly than this?

I would propose replacing the shop icon with a feedback icon and adding that to all NI products

chk071

And how many people do you think would really bother to use this option?

It's only the louder speakers which would be heard. Once again. You know, the people who think that "companies don't listen to the users", when they don't get their every personal wish fulfilled. Data metrics, on the other hand, show exactly what people use from the software. And, for the rest which is not present in the software, there should be people who know the market, and what the competition does. It's not as if NI don't have those.

Kymeia

Maybe but I would still rather have a built in line of communication than a built in shop

Also many people find the support pages difficult to navigate and often frustrating - not just NI's but increasingly the trend is to signpost people to articles and chatbots than give people a way to give direct feedback or ask direct questions

chk071

I agree with that, but, think about what you'd get with such a feedback function: A single user's opinion. You might even get a 100 people's opinion, and might even get 10 or 20 to agree on a certain feature. Then you know that 10 or 20 people want a certain feature, of the thousands which buy your software.

On the contrary, again, with data metrics you know what everyone uses in your software. I'm not sure why people have such an aversion against it. It's probably some superstitiuous "But… but… then they know what I had for dinner today!" kind of bogus. It also makes life a lot easier, because it's automated, and you don't have to dig manually through hundreds of feedback messages, and have to figure out which of those even make sense to consider, and what is just nonsense, because, users are no software engineers.

Kymeia

I'm not sure why people have such an aversion against it. It's probably some superstitiuous "But… but… then they know what I had for dinner today!

It might be for some I guess but for me it's more that the information gathered too often lacks context and has historically been used to inform bad decisions. Just look for example at the deeper editing functions in Komplete Kontrol which were removed (albeit temporarily we are told) because the usage data suggested comparatively few people were using them. It should have been recognised that is because those functions are mainly used by more experienced users who want to create custom NKS controls, but that the whole NKS user community benefited from their efforts regardless of whether they used them directly, or 'by proxy' by downloading shared NKS mappings.

Paul B

the information gathered too often lacks context and has historically been used to inform bad decisions

Well designed metrics have context built in. Decisions based on them should be made carefully, and sometimes mistakes might be made. As you say, a feature being used by few should be looked at in context of "what is this feature and why might most people not be using it?" Advanced features should be assumed to be used by a small portion of users.

Metrics are still useful.

A feedback button should not replace metrics. Replace the shop button, sure. I think that probably has low utility. But that's just a feeling based on me not caring about it. I did not even notice it until someone complained on the forum. I still don't see it unless I actively look for it. But metrics may have shown it is used more than I expect.

I think a feedback button could be useful. Will people abuse it to make incoherent complaints as they sometimes do in the forum? Probably. Will some people use it for meaningful feedback? Also probably. I'd use it for bug reports. Maybe feature requests.

many people find the support pages difficult to navigate and often frustrating

Agreed. As noted, this is sadly not unique to NI, but it is a bad customer experience. Every time I have to contact support for companies who do it this way it is a fight to remember how to get past the bot.

Kymeia

Yes my proposal was specifically to replace the shop link with a feedback one, and for this to be in all products. I did not suggest replacing metrics completely, although I am wary of placing too much emphasis on them alone, so for me feedback would complement and maybe even give some additional context to the metrics.