I know I've seen this bug before

I've spent the last couple days catching up on bug traige. Triage often leads to one of those moments where I think, "I know I've seen this bug before." I could go through the normal search page on Launchpad, looking for recently changed or newest bugs, but I usually don't do this. The search form feels slow and heavyweight when I just want something to nudge my brain about a bug I know I've seen before.

The "Report a bug" page for a project on Launchpad features a duplicate search before allowing you to a file a bug. Take the filebug page for malone, the project I work on, for example. This page loads fast for me and has just the "Summary" form input. I usally type a couple words in this "Summary" field and hit enter. Something like "ubuntu bug timeout." The dupe search gives me ten hits quickly, and the bug I'm trying to remember is almost always listed here. I often use the filebug page dupe search for these quick and easy search queries, rather than the normal search page.

I've heard from others that do this, too, but I'm not sure how widely this is known. The filebug page makes a great quick search page. Give it a try if you haven't yet.

Link | Posted by deryck on April 27, 2010 | 5 comments

Why No One Is Happy Today (and what that means for web developers)

I read mdz's post on "Breadth and depth" today and found it contained many, many interesting links. Take this video of Barry Schwartz's 2005 Ted talk.

I had heard of Schwartz's research before but this is the first time I sat through a talk from him. His arguments are compelling, and I find myself fully convinced. We have too much choice and it's killing us. For those who don't know him or don't have time to sit through the video, his main point is that despite all the choice and opportunity we have in affluent, western societies, we find ourselves more unhappy than ever.

There is a lesson here for makers of web sites and web apps, too. More choice is clearly not a good thing. We know that sites that focus on a smaller set of tools are often more popular than fuller-featured counter parts. Now we know why.

Link | Posted by deryck on April 7, 2010 | 0 comments