Team's Response

For normal operations, the message box is sufficiently large and the user can use the app just by typing. It is only in the case of error messages does the user need to use his mouse to scroll. Hence, we feel that that it is appropriate that the user slows down and uses his mouse to scroll if something went wrong, as long as his normal usage is not impeded.

Furthermore, making the message box smaller in height allows the customer and event lists to be larger. There is limited screen real estate and we have to balance between showing the message box and the customer and event lists. Having a larger customer and event lists allows the user to see more entries without scrolling which increases his productivity more than being able to view error messages without scrolling.

Hence, we decided to prioritise the customer and event lists over the message box since they are related to normal operations which ultimately benefits the user more as compared to being able to view error messages without scrolling. Therefore we reject this issue.

Items for the Tester to Verify

:question: Issue response

Team chose [response.Rejected]

[x] I disagree

Reason for disagreement: I would like to update the bug type to FeatureFlaw rather than FunctionalityBug, since the app works as intended, but has features which cause additional trouble for the user.

Please see my response here:

For normal operations, the message box is sufficiently large and the user can use the app just by typing. It is only in the case of error messages does the user need to use his mouse to scroll.

The underlying assumption in this response is that the team does not expect the user to encounter error messages often in their usage of the app.

However, I believe that this is not the case, given that most of the commands offered by the app have many compulsory parameters, which requires a lot of typing, thereby contributing to a higher likelihood of error.

This is especially so for first-time users of the app, who can be discouraged from using the app as a result.

Hence, we feel that that it is appropriate that the user slows down and uses his mouse to scroll if something went wrong, as long as his normal usage is not impeded.

I believe that there are better (and more intentional) ways to get the user to slow down to check the error message. This response seems to be an attempt by the team to justify a flaw as a secondary feature.

Furthermore, making the message box smaller in height allows the customer and event lists to be larger. There is limited screen real estate and we have to balance between showing the message box and the customer and event lists. Having a larger customer and event lists allows the user to see more entries without scrolling which increases his productivity more than being able to view error messages without scrolling. Hence, we decided to prioritise the customer and event lists over the message box since they are related to normal operations which ultimately benefits the user more as compared to being able to view error messages without scrolling. Therefore we reject this issue.

This justification is confusing, as there is between 50% to 80% (depending on the screen resolution) of unused horizontal screen estate that could have been better utilised to display more persons/events.

Regardless, having to stop and scroll when typing a command is more disruptive than the user having to scroll through more persons/events, as the user has to deliberately move away from his keyboard to use the mouse in the former scenario.

It is clear that the verbose error message will hinder the user, considering how error messages are a common occurrence when using the app.

nseah21 / pe

Error message box gets cut off when error message is too long #7

Description of bug:

Steps to reproduce:

Screenshots:

Team's Response

Items for the Tester to Verify

:question: Issue response