User Feedback

Proposal

One of the goals of the Audio Incubator Group should be to collect feedback from a variety of user-types. It our responsibility to take the needs of future end users into consideration. In order to represent end-users in a fair manor, a measurable set of data should be collected by the group members.

The usefulness of this endeavor, would of course depend on the commitment of the group, to collect a significant quality/quantity of data to represent the community within their reach.

The needs expressed in the collected data may serve as a useful aid in defining:

• General end user needs & use-cases
• What kind of working group(s) may be needed (post-incubation)
• Technical expectations/requirements of developers/implementors
• The weight of one feature/use-case's importance over another (dependent on quality of data)

"End users" may refer to:

• Developers working with APIs and Specs. in the browser
• Developers working with audio/music in the desktop environment
• Browser developers or desktop software developers working with audio/music
• Users of web-sites/web-apps/online services
• Users of audio/music software

I suggest we cast as wide a net as possible in this activity and that each representative group among us make a significant contribution to the overall data. Before this is possible, a list of user-types and relevant questions should be defined and agreed upon by the group.

The following user-types and user-questions are only suggestions. This is a Wiki! Please add to the list if you feel there are user-types or user-questions that have been missed. The questions should be reduced to a reasonably sized set before collection begins.

Proposed deadlines:
For the completion of list & questions: Monday August 16th 2010
For the completion of data collection: TBC

User Types

User-Types

• Software Developers
  • Web sites
  • Web applications
  • Games
  • Educational
  • Audio Production
• Industry Professionals
  • Producers
  • Performers
  • Songwriters/composers
  • Teachers
  • Sound designers
• Website Visitors
  • Students
  • Fans
  • Generic website visitors
  • Visually impaired users

User Questions

Software Developers

1. Job Title
2. Languages used in your role
3. What audio functionality/features are missing from the browser?
4. If these features/functionality existed, what would you use them for?
5. Provide a code example of how you would use these features with the languages you use every day in your role
6. Can you foresee any caveats/gotchas that may arise in adding this functionality?

Industry Professionals

1. Job Title
2. What audio functionality/features are missing from the web-browser?
3. If these features/functionality existed, what would you use them for?
4. Provide a example of how you could use these features in your everyday work.

Website Visitors

1. Job Title
2. What audio functionality/features are missing from the web-browser?
3. Provide a example of how you might use these features in your everyday web usage.