Comments on How can we integrate a lightweight public ticketing system into our documentation feedback form?
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How can we integrate a lightweight public ticketing system into our documentation feedback form?
We publish a substantial documentation set online. Each page has a place at the bottom that asks "was this helpful? (Y/N)", and if the person chooses "no" we offer a textbox. We collect all this feedback internally (it feeds into our internal ticketing system, except for the spam), but to the user, it feels like typing feedback into the void -- you never know when there'll be followup. Further, because the communication is one-way, we can't ask people to clarify comments when needed.
We would much rather have a public tracking system for these issues, where the response to the form submission would include a link with an invitation to track this issue. (We'd rather not ask for email addresses; this should feel completely opt-in and safe to the person offering us the feedback.) We want to find a place to host tickets that the public can follow and that we can update (either to say we've fixed it or to ask for more information). I'm imagining that all of these tickets would be created by us (well, by our feedback system) in response to the in-doc feedback, at least initially.
What tools should we consider? Opening our internal ticketing system to the public is not an option.
If we were managing our code (or documentation) on GitHub then using GH issues for this would seem obvious, but we're not, so it feels strange to create a project just to "host" issues for some other system. We're a for-profit corporation, not a non-profit or open-source project, and we don't want to step on toes or give a bad look by misusing tools meant for a different context. We also don't have a lot of money to spend on this and need to keep administration simple.
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How to present the question
This section doesn't directly answer your questions, but address problems with such web pages that are all too common.
I'm one of those that pretty much never answers "Was this helpful?". Most of the reason a web page was not helpful is because a search engine directed me there, but it wasn't a match. It doesn't feel like it makes any sense to respond.
Another common reason is that I'm trying to understand what something is, but the site only gives me content-free marketing babble about how wonderful it is. Providing feedback to an image-over-value company seems pointless, and by treating me like a mark at a circus instead of a potential collaborator makes me feel like they don't deserve my volunteer help. What's in it for me?
(For a real life example of the above, go to the Adobe web site and try to actually understand what the various products do if you don't already know.)
Before you ask for a favor, you need to treat people with respect.
Consider asking differently. I think "How can we improve this page?" sounds better than "Was this helpful?". I can't explain why, but the first sounds better somehow.
Also, reduce the barrier to entry. "Was this helpful (Y,N)?" is bad because I have to click on "No" first to get anywhere. I'm thinking "What happens then? Too much hassle. Screw this.".
If on the other hand there was "How can we improve this page?" followed by a box I can directly type in, then I might just vent on what I didn't like. It's right there. I can see what's going to happen. All I need to do is start typing.
What to do with the responses
Have a public web forum. This can be useful for supporting your products in general. One section can be about web site issues. Somewhere in there is where the "How can we improve this page?" responses go.
The rest of the mechanics I'm not sure about. There are several ways to structure this. Probably only experience will tell you what works best.
For example, should there be a thread (or some collection) for each page that has a response form? It could be useful to see all the responses for a particular page in one place. That allows a link to that web forum section directly below the response box. This may make it more difficult to respond to individual suggestions, though.
Users that want to follow up would need to get onto the forum where they can participate as usual for a forum, including providing more detail on their own and other people's responses. Users can then opt-in to get notified about new posts in various sections or threads or whatever.
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