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I don't know if this is the right place to ask this question - of course I am willing to move/delete it if requested.

I wonder if there is a site where well-known usability issues in popular software are addressed and can be voted for. So that I can

  • let off steam when I am annoyed about this software again
  • provide feedback to the producer of the software
  • create an incentive to actually fix these issues. I reckon that it creates motivation to fix it if your software has the most voted for usability issue on a popular site..

For the first point, there is www.dreckstool.de (in German), but I can only state general discontent with a piece of software there, not address particular usability issues.

The third point is IMHO the most important one, especially for proprietory software. For Free/Open Source Software, a bug report would probably be a nicer way to ask for improvement. Most vendors of proprietory software don't let you create public bugreports, though.

If no such site exists, would you be interested in one if it was created?

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  • 1
    "create an incentive to actually fix these issues" What incentive though, 0x89? That a handful of people bitched on some web site about an issue? Small companies in bootstrap mode might react to such shaming, but I've worked for large companies that would be disinterested (at best) or dismissive (at most).
    – gef05
    Dec 3 '10 at 15:12
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Fix the Web is quite a prominent one, although it's focussed on accessibility, and problems can only be reported by "disabled" users, apparently. Seems a bit of a shame to me.

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There isn't much you can do about problems with proprietary software but, as you said, bug reports are where you can help to improve FOSS. The following website allows you to report, comment on and vote for bugs.

Launchpad

You find software bugs on the Launchpad bug tracker.

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For usability bugs specifically, go to the bugs page of the One Hundred Papercuts project.

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You can 'vote' for a bug by marking it as affecting you.

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You can also comment on bugs to give constructive criticism.

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(Not a single universal answer:) If the software maker uses GetSatisfaction, UserVoice, ZenDesk or some such social support mechanism, you ask or vote for your issue there.

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Depending on the software, User Voice

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The Taskforce series:

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If you want to give feedback to the software publisher, just find the technical support system they use and leave a message there (for my business it's an e-mail or a contact form, for other companies it can be a forum, UserVoice or anything else) - this is the only way to make sure you get the feedback to the software publisher.

If you report your bug to any 3rd party system (for example, Get Satisfaction used to sometimes open support forums for software companies without their knowledge) it's possible the software publisher simply doesn't know about this forum/system and your valuable feedback will never reach anyone who can fix the problem.

Now, if contacting the publisher fails and you want to shame them into fixing the issue you need some high traffic forum or blog on a topic relevant to the software (and writing your feedback into a low traffic unofficial support forum will again get you nowhere).

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You can comment on Adobe UI issues here:

http://adobegripes.tumblr.com/

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