First published on o2litmus.co.uk
Over the coming months we’re talking to different stakeholders in Litmus to pick their brains and listen.
First up is Noel (aka Kontraband on the litmus forum). Noel’s an app fanatic and early adopter who’s been working in technology for over 10 years. Alongside the day-job he’s been a major contributor to allaboutsymbian.com, the world’s biggest portal for Symbian smartphones. Interview by Adam, the O2 Litmus Community Manager.
Here’s what he’s got to say:
A: In a nutshell, why do you like apps?
N: Well, handsets are such a part of people’s lives these days, and apps give them the ability to mould them to do what they need them to. In fact, certain handsets have almost become a platform for self-expression, rather than just functional devices.
A: And why do you get involved?
N: Several reasons, really. Firstly it means I know what’s new and with Litmus I can actually get apps before anyone else. Secondly I enjoy giving my feedback and helping developers evolve their app successfully. After all, there’s nothing like a fresh pair of eyes to spot something you’ve missed because you’ve been looking at it for weeks on end!
A: Interesting point, so why else do you think that collaboration between developer and user is useful?
N: Working in-between clients and developers I know the worth of collaboration. Developers understandably develop in the way they see as the best method of going forward. However, that’s not necessarily the way the end user would want it to go though. Without collaboration there’s no way of sharing that information. Equally, a user may want the application to do x, y and z, but when a developer looks at it, they can see that there is no true requirement for x, y and z in the development of the app. Collaboratively, any issues with the applications should come out if there is a shared thought process, which is better obtained with more brains.
A: True, but that only works if a developer gets that sort of quality feedback, right?
N: Yes, absolutely. I imagine there’s nothing more frustrating for a developer than to put their app out for testing only to receive feedback such as “it’s ok” or “this app sucks”. So I think one of the challenges for Litmus is to make the quality of people’s feedback more visible.
A: Agreed, we have some ideas in the pipeline that’ll help with this. Do you think better profiling of testers would help with this?
N: That’s part of it, yeah. Quality feedback from one tester who’s representative of the app’s target audience is infinitely more valuable than comments from 100 anonymous people. I’d like to be able to profile myself a bit better; age, sex, location, interests… so developers know whether my feedback will be useful.
A: Almost a match-making service?
N: Possibly, yeah. It would be good for me to have that too, something that helps me find apps I may be interested in testing, based on criteria I determine and can change.
A: I’d imagine an important factor for you is knowing that your feedback will be received, that you’re being heard?
N: Definitely. There’s no use my efforts falling on deaf ears! I think this is something that could be improved with Litmus. At the moment apps and their feedback seem a million miles apart, we need to make them one and the same, almost a constant stream of everything that’s happening with an app, and the app in the middle of it all.
