Today at Red Gate Towers we’ve been discussing various possible ways of helping users get started in SQL Response v2 when they launch the product for the first time following installation.
As a user of SQL Response, you will of course have to add at least one server before we can begin monitoring it. So we plan to guide you through that process as simply as we can. Once one or more servers have been added, SQL Response will immediately begin collecting performance data from your servers, and the overviews will start to be populated with information about your system. A few alerts may even be fired…..
But we’re looking at ways of helping the neophyte (ie n00b) user extract even more value quickly from SQL Response by suggesting useful tasks to do next; for example, we might display (in as unobtrusive and stylish a manner as possible) a list of actions you could tackle next – drill down from the global overview to dig deeper into the detailed monitoring data for a particular SQL Server, or check alerts for a particular server, or configure alert thresholds, set up alert emails, group your servers, and so on.
We don’t want to leave the user wondering what to do next, but neither do we want to teach granny to suck eggs.
It’s widely considered that Microsoft got this wrong with the Office Assistant, aka Clippit or “Clippy” to his friends. Users generally considered its attempts to “help” invasive, disruptive and downright annoying. Which is a shame, because had users just bothered to configure it properly, they could have had much more helpful and welcome advice from a friendly little dog called Rocky.
Whatever happened to him?
We are seriously engaging with the issue of trying to offer useful getting started prompts and pointers in SQL Response v2, so that within the first 30 minutes or hour of using it, you’ve seen and used some of its most powerful features and got genuinely useful data about your system. But we really, really don’t want to annoy you in the process.
So, like any polite individual inviting guests to his table for dinner, we thought we’d ask you what you like and what you don’t first. All comments and thoughts welcome. If you’ve encountered a particularly disastrous, ham-fisted attempt to ‘train’ you in using a product, we’d love to see it. Similarly, if there’s a piece of software out there that does this well, then please share it.
6 Comments
How about a short (4 or 5 question) survey of what the point of monitoring the (most recently added) server is.
“Are you monitoring this server because you are concerned about or most interested in:”
1 – advanced settings (indexing, io performance, memory management, sql performance),
2 – disaster recovery and data availability (backups, mirroring, replication etc),
3 – Error alerting (SQL error log alerts).
4 – Performance logging and trend analysis (Benchmark features and stats)
… and so forth.
Getting the installer’s to ‘vote’ for, or rank, each category of monitoring can let you bring the favourites to the fore and focus on what the user wants
Ahhhh, Clippy …
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wavy lines
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“Hey, it looks like you’re tuning a server” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS0vZFPnksk – NSFW
Jonathan
Thanks, Jonathan.
Nice idea. That kind of information would be useful to us, and we’ll definitely consider such a survey, for EAP and BETA users. I imagine that in the final release, though, this might prove intrusive – ie to have to categorise each added server. Hence, we’ll try and make it easy for the user to do whatever it is that this type of server requires first in Response – drill-down to monitoring data, or config, or checking DB backups etc.
By the way, If I’ve misunderstood your comment, then I apologise. I was interpreting your suggestion as a potential research method for us to better understand the requirements of a majority of users, rather than some kind of “calibration” getting started mechanism within SQL Response itself?
Thank you once again for your input.
In my opinion, a classic wizard is enough.
I don’t like very much when a vendor says that is too easy or fast to use their product, because this is usually a synonymous to wrong configuration, e.g. Microsoft and SQL Server.
Develop an application to be friendly is very important, but it’s necessary to decide who the target is: accidental, part-time, full-time, novice, or experienced DBAs
Hi Alex,
Indeed, and configuration will be a key part of the user experience. We’ll endeavour to make this as easy for novices as it will be powerful for experienced DBAs. It will be great to get your feedback again soon when we have something dynamic to show you.
Thanks again,
Adam
I’ve really taken to the idea of a simple 1, 2, 3 step guide. Now this is a very simple example and if any DBA out there needs instruction on how to run a .exe then you would have to worry:
http://www.spotify.com/en/download/windows/
However, in principle the simple 1 – 3 (or whatever number but no more than say 7), guide would allow people to scan and move on. At least ground them in the basics to head them in the right direction.
A well implemented ‘flick through guide’ for me would be great. I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit recently and think the opportunity would be valuable.
Thanks Stephen,
A great example, easy to scan as you say, allowing the user to see quickly if it is relevant or useful. We’ll endeavour to provide similarly clear and easy to use help.
Cheers
Adam
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[...] Preferences like this are tricky for software to deal with so refreshingly. By always serving my preferences, the software can keep me from discovering other options which might better support my tasks at that time – a bar towel obscuring the guest ales. By highlighting other options, it risks appearing as intrusive as Microsoft's infamous Clippit. [...]