[Qgis-community-team] [Qgis-user] [Qgis-psc] User question of the month

Tue Oct 15 17:33:10 PDT 2019

Hello all,

Sorry for the long email. Hope I don't kill the thread.
I have been analyzing both the quantitative and qualitative answers, and
from it can't say that people don't use it.

It's clear that people often search for help a lot:
While using QGIS, around 45% of people search for help at least one time
per week (half of those use QGIS official docs), while 12% look for it
daily (but only 2% use QGIS Official Docs). "Only" 35 % says that rarely or
never use QGIS Docs, which is not a bad figure, I think.

About what is the first source for searching information, search engines
came first, but it's unclear what the search leads them to. A stronger
contestant seems to be gis.stackexchage, which is the first choice for
almost the double of the number of people that uses QGIS Docs as the first
choice. I think the qualitative answers shed some light on it. Many people
stated that they want more how to's and more examples, which is
stackexchage bread and butter. Many said that we should improve the search
capacities of our docs, which may explain why they don't find answers in
our docs. So, like Tom said, better SEO and internal search may make our
documentation more valuable.

In terms of QGIS Docs quality, 32% says they often find what they were
looking for and 42 % sometimes, which to me is a 5 (from 1 to 10), but
seems that definitely needs improving.

>From the quantitative answer, as Tom said, people seem very excited about
QGIS official videos... but... IMHO it's simply too hard to maintain. But
others mentioned an official Youtube channel.
People ask for more examples and better descriptions of functions and
parameters, especially about Processing algorithms. Like I said before,
people want more How to's... again, something quite hard to maintain for
each version. But people do search for it.
Another common request: make the docs up-to-date with the software.

This being said, I would love to know if the PSC came to some conclusion.

As a documentation person myself, I naturally have to disagree with the
idea that the project should aim (or simply resign) to a shrunk version of
the documentation and let the outside world provide the fancy answers to
the users. I don't believe PostgreSQL and PostGIS would have gotten far if
they followed the same principle. Their documentation is complete and
professional. IMHO, Good, precise, and updated documentation leads to more
adoption and better user experience.
An interesting fact: in two weeks open to answers (half the time other
surveys were "on air"), this questionnaire gathered more than 800
responses! To me, this alone says a bit about the importance that
documentation has for our users.

Thanks,

Alex Neto

On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 4:14 PM Tom Chadwin <tom.chadwin at nnpa.org.uk> wrote:

> Hello all
>
>
>
> Here are my initial interpretations. I’d be interested to see whether you
> agree or disagree:
>
>
>
>
>
> Questions 1-4 (quantitative)
>
>
>
> - 70%’s first-choice is Googling/StackExchange, which dwarfs the <20%
> choosing official docs
>
>
>
> - the fact that Googling came top of search methods emphasizes that we
> need to pay attention to SEO in the official docs
>
>
>
> - fewer than 50% find their answers in the official docs “often” or
> “always”, 45% answering “sometimes”
>
>
>
> - official docs are underused – over 50% only consult monthly or less
> frequently (including “never”)
>
>
>
>
>
> Question 5 (qualitative)
>
>
>
> - many find the official docs too abstract, and would prefer examples
> worked in
>
>
>
> - perhaps unsurprisingly, there is a lot of enthusiasm for video tutorials
>
>
>
> - there is some criticism of the confusion of QGIS versions in the
> documentation, especially when deep-linked from a Google result
>
>
>
>
>
> Does anything else leap out at you?
>
>
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
> Tom
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Anita Graser [mailto:anitagraser at gmx.at]
> *Sent:* 13 October 2019 13:22
> *To:* qgis-community; DelazJ; Tom Chadwin
> *Subject:* Re: [Qgis-community-team] [Qgis-user] [Qgis-psc] User question
> of the month
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
>
>
> After running this questionnaire for two weeks, we stand at 824 responses
> and it's time to look at the responses.
>
>
>
>
>
> Here's the timeline of incoming responses:
>
>
>
>
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/bpbpobi8ym5fyew/user_survey_documentation_responses.PNG?dl=0
>
>
>
>
>
> And here are the answers to the questions:
>
>
>
>
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/v8tknpjmuu9c5e7/user_survey_documentation_q1.PNG?dl=0
>
>
>
>
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/cb5o632p2vdut38/user_survey_documentation_q2.PNG?dl=0
>
>
>
>
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/rfmzijavnp9ptyj/user_survey_documentation_q3.PNG?dl=0
>
>
>
>
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/v5lpcbl6q6ta19i/user_survey_documentation_q4.PNG?dl=0
>
>
>
>
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/0hs50x83vls728p/user_survey_documentation_q5.PNG?dl=0
>
>
>
>
>
> Finally, here's the CSV export of all answers, including the free text
> field:
>
>
>
>
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/nf7sdzyv4x2jsx0/QGIS%20Question%20of%20the%20Month%20%282019-09%29%20-%20all%20versions%20-%20English%20%28en%29%20-%202019-10-13-12-05-26.csv?dl=0
>
>
>
>
>
> Usually, we publish the results in a follow-up blog post.
>
>
>
> @Tom and Harrissou: May I ask you to write an interpretation of the
> results (including the free text answers) ?
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Anita
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 28, 2019 at 5:34 PM Anita Graser <anitagraser at gmx.at> wrote:
>
> Looks like the question hits a nerve, there are already over 90 answers.
>
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 28, 2019 at 12:38 PM Anita Graser <anitagraser at gmx.at> wrote:
>
> On request, I've added the option "QGIS Training Manual" to the first
> question. If you want to provide an updated translation for this item,
> please let me know when you've added it and I'll publish the change.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Anita
>
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 28, 2019 at 9:53 AM Anita Graser <anitagraser at gmx.at> wrote:
>
> Here's the published form:
> https://ee.kobotoolbox.org/single/::6Uro4EIq?returnUrl=https://qgis.org
>
> Please give it a try and feel free to forward it.
>
>
>
> Later today, I'll write the blog post and publish it on Twitter as well.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Anita
>
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 24, 2019 at 4:03 PM Anita Graser <anitagraser at gmx.at> wrote:
>
> I'll publish this weekend. We can let it run through October
>
> http://anitagraser.com
>
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 13:27 Ismail Sunni <imajimatika at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Anita,
>
>
>
> I am curious, when will the User Question of the Month be published in
> September? I just realized it's already the last week of September.
>
>
>
> Thanks
>
>
> Best regards.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 12:29 PM r.m.aguilardearchila at utwente.nl <
> r.m.aguilardearchila at utwente.nl> wrote:
>
> Done for Spanish.
>
> Gr,
>
> Rosa
>
>
>
> *From:* Qgis-community-team <qgis-community-team-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> *On
> Behalf Of *Alexandre Neto
> *Sent:* 12 September 2019 12:11
> *To:* Anita Graser <anitagraser at gmx.at>
> *Cc:* qgis-community <qgis-community-team at lists.osgeo.org>; Tom Chadwin <
> tom.chadwin at nnpa.org.uk>
> *Subject:* Re: [Qgis-community-team] [Qgis-user] [Qgis-psc] User question
> of the month
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
>
>
> It's done for Portuguese
>
>
>
> Thanks for putting it together,
>
>
>
> Alex
>
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 8:29 AM Anita Graser <anitagraser at gmx.at> wrote:
>
> Everyone who sent me their user name should now have an invitation to
> edit. Alex already successfully added the Ukrainian translation. Please add
> yours.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Anita
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 11, 2019 at 3:22 PM Anita Graser <anitagraser at gmx.at> wrote:
>
> Please create an account at https://kf.kobotoolbox.org  and send me your
> user name so I can give you editing rights.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Anita
>
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 11:53 PM Alexandre Neto <senhor.neto at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> This is a very long thread, can you please re-share the link for
> translations?
>
>
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
> A terça, 10/09/2019, 21:31, Ismail Sunni <imajimatika at gmail.com> escreveu:
>
> Hi Anita,
>
>
>
> I am interested to translate it to Bahasa Indonesia.
>
>
>
> Hopefully, there will be more people answering the user question of the
> month, especially from Indonesia.
>
>
>
> Best regards
>
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 19:35 Anita Graser <anitagraser at gmx.at> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
>
>
> This is a call for translators!
>
>
>
> I've set up the questionnaire with Harrissou's questions on Kobotoolbox.
> If you want to localize the questions, let me know and I'll give you
> editing rights.
>
>
>
> The questionnaire will be published on Sunday.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Anita
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 3, 2019 at 11:58 AM DelazJ <delazj at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Anita,
>
> Based on the earlier discussion, this is what I end up with (I rearrange
> the questions):
>
>
>
> 1. What is your first source of information on how to use QGIS features or
> solve problems?
> - QGIS User Manual, Stack Exchange, QGIS mailing lists, a regional forum,
> search engine, social network, other
>
> 2. On average, how often do you try to find information on QGIS features
> or solve problems?
> - daily, 2-3 times per week, once per week, 2-3 times per month, monthly,
> less often, never
>
>
>
> 3. If/when you use the official QGIS documentation to learn how to use
> QGIS features or solve problems, does it answer your
> needs?
> -always, often, sometimes, rarely, never, I don't use the official
> documentation
>
>
>
> 4. On average, how often do you use the official QGIS documentation to
> find information on QGIS features or solve problems?
> - daily, 2-3 times per week, once per week, 2-3 times per month, monthly,
> less often, never
>
> *(selecting "I don't use the official documentation" in question 3 would
> hide this question)*
>
> 5. Suggestions for improvements or other comments on the official QGIS
> documentation:
> - textarea
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Harrissou
>
>
>
> Le jeu. 29 août 2019 à 13:55, Anita Graser <anitagraser at gmx.at> a écrit :
>
> Since this topic has come up again on a different thread (and we should
> soon have a better way to distribute links to our questionnaires) I'd like
> to encourage you to send me the questions you'd like to run.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Anita
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, May 5, 2019 at 8:54 PM Anita Graser <anitagraser at gmx.at> wrote:
>
> Hi Tom and Harrissou,
>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 14, 2019 at 12:05 PM Tom Chadwin <tom.chadwin at nnpa.org.uk>
> wrote:
>
> Better, I think, repeating that change across to the other questions using
> the same phrase.
>
>
>
> If you finalize the questions, we could run them this month.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Anita
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> _______________________________________________
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> _______________________________________________
> Qgis-community-team mailing list for organizing community resources such
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>
>
>
> --
>
> Ismail Sunni
>
> Software Engineer
>
> ismailsunni.id
>
> ismailsunni.wordpress.com
>
>
>
> Tom Chadwin, ICT Manager
> Telephone: 01434 611530 Mob:
> Web: www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk
>
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