Data collection for Libre Health Project

Shreekavithaa

Increasingly my mentor has been working on a better way to collect functional needs from users (who are not developers or implementers) and she is looking to find out if there is a better way to collect their user needs . She thinks the best is paper but its difficult when users are scattered across continents.

Thus we are looking for feedback on the following questions

What tools do you use for collecting user needs ?
What are the actual tasks you need to do to collect functional needs from users ?
What re the challenges/barriers for using these tools ?
What can be better?

Kindly answer these questions and help us serve our users better.

Thank you and regards
Sreekavitha

River

@Shreekavithaa
probably better asked on the librehealth forum. you might consider switching to vanilla forum software, but since you asked here and it hasn't been deleted I'll try to answer....

What tools do you use for collecting user needs ?

• vanilla forum software.
• github.

What are the actual tasks you need to do to collect functional needs from users ?

sit back and wait for complaints or questions.

What re the challenges/barriers for using these tools ?

regarding vanilla forums,

• Many users don't read documentation or tutorials,
• some users don't speak english are at a disadvantage since documentation and forum is in English.
• Users who actually speak English and don't read are at a disadvantage.
• sometimes it is difficult for users to follow stepwise directions, they try to use shortcuts, that makes task harder to solve.
• logical troubleshooting skills are often hard for users to grasp.
• users don't search the forum for answers, which is often quite effective, if an effort is made.

What can be better?

in general

• basic problem solving should be taught at schools,
• strive to be better,
• responsive feedback.
• ability to adapt to constructive criticism
• documentation is often too terse and places a burden on new users with no experience.

@Shreekavithaa what software does your forum run on?