Just a quick bit of feedback, I find the pop-out Ninja at the bottom right of the pages at https://docs.telerik.com/ that ask if the content was useful quite distracting.
If I'm trying to read a complicated help topic it's distracting to have the Ninja constantly popping out like that.
Could you set a cookie that remembers if the user has chosen to hide the Ninja, to never pop it out again?
Thanks
1 Answer, 1 is accepted
Hello Richard,
Thank you for sharing your feedback about the user experience in our documentation.
First, I would like to describe how the feedback form in the docs is configured. If this is not what you are experiencing, please let me know.
- When the user enters any documentation article, the ninja stays minimized at the bottom right corner;
- After 5 seconds, the ninja icon shivers slightly to reminds for its presence;
- After another 15 seconds, the ninja expands asking if the article was helpful or not;
- Then, you can either vote for the article, or minimize the prompt - the latter will collapse the feedback form and it will not bother you again on this article for the rest of your time on it.
I know how this can be distracting, especially on small monitors when someone is deep into a topic. The idea with the cookie is a great one and to be honest, we have tried similar thing. The problem with it is that when customers choose to hide the feedback form the first time, most of them don't remember it exists for the rest of the session and thus, we miss valuable feedback on many articles. Additionally, the votes count decreases, which really takes from the confidence we have if certain documentation piece is helpful or not.
Anyway, we are in search of finding the optimal experience for our customers as well as having mechanism that would capture feedback effectively for us to improve on. This said, can you please share:
- the size of your monitor?
- Does the ninja bother us because it hides content when expanded, or it is simply because something moves down at the bottom?
- Any additional idea about the user experience would be extremely helpful for us, so feel free to present any thoughts you might have.
Meanwhile, we will continue working and fine tuning the ninja, so that you and all our users are not distracted from your main goal in the docs.
Regards,
Kaloyan
Progress Telerik
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I use 3 x 27" monitors all in portrait orientation.
When I'm reading the docs it's because I'm working on a complex piece of code and am concentrating on understanding the document I'm reading. When the Ninja shakes or pops out my gaze moves from the words I'm reading to where the ninja is. It doesn't hide any content, the movement is what is distracting.
For me a UI such as this should be non intrusive and should not nag the user.
Perhaps a more passive approach to gathering feedback would be to have a textbox at the bottom of each page entitled "Any Questions or Feedback?". Just a simple textbox with a submit button. No animation, no additional fields. A user can then let you know if the documentation doesn't give them what they are looking for, and you will gain more than a Yes/No statistic.
Thank you for the additional input Richard. It is really valuable for us to understand where the actual issue resides and what would work for you.
We will take your feedback into consideration while working on the feedback form in the upcoming months.
Here's a technique Braintree use on their Docs (see attached).
https://developer.paypal.com/braintree/docs/reference/request/transaction/sale
They have a small feedback button on the right of the page but the text is upside down.
Because the text is upside down it catches your eye which draws attention but in an unobtrusive way.
Thank you for the additional details. Should I assume that something smaller at the bottom right corner, without any text wouldn't distract you even if it has some minor animation? Or it would be better to have it static as long as you decide to submit feedback?
I checked to link, but no feedback button was present for me. Anyway, I saw what you mean by the attached screenshot. Thank you.
Animation would be OK but only when you first view the page. So if a feedback button slid onto the page at the start and then was static it wouldn't be so distracting.
The main distraction is the "nagging" where the Ninja keeps saying "look at me, look at me".
I've just added my comment in an other posting
Please turn off your feedback animation in the documentation! in Community Forums | Telerik Forums
but I'll go on discussing it here.
When I'm developing my UI with Telerik WPF controls, I'm jumping all the day between the WPF control documentation back and forth. (Also using the Telerik Demo Browser and the SDK Browser.)
On every page this stupid animated ninja is waiting for me and is disrupting my concentration, when I'm reading or when I'm scrolling. It is sliding in and out and in and out.
I will never never add any comment in this formular, because I'll use this forum if I have any comment.
It is not funny! I cannot work!
I want to disable it for ever!
I still have tried to disable JavaScript on the page/site, but the menu on left side needs also JS
@Dirk - you should be able to remove the Ninja by using Adblock Pro in your browser.
Load a page with the Ninja, click the Adblock button in your browser and select Block element.
You can then select the ninja and have Adblock hide that element.
@Richard Thanks a lot. I'm using UBlock Origin, but I haven't known that I can block single elements.
I right clicked on this stupid Ninja and blocked it.
I can go back working with the Telerik documenation without fighting this Ninja.
Peace