Support/Kitsune/features/Canned-Responses

Purpose

• Increase the quality of replies and the number of solved questions.
• Make it easier for contributors to get more information from contributors
• Make it easier for contributors to answer often asked questions

Outcome

• a tool that let's contributors select from a number of snippets to be inserted into their post.

Open issues/risks

• How do we make this localizable
  • Does it need to be localizable (as forums are in English only, currently)? If it indeed needs to be localizable, have a two-tiered way of localization (JavaScript string localization via gettext and 'normal' SUMO article

localization) --Tobbi 16:28, 11 May 2012 (PDT)

• How do we add new responses/categories
  • Links to specific responses are stored in an article called 'canned responses' (in Tobbi's mockup)
  • -> To edit the structure, delete responses, change the structure article, else change article that contains the specific response. To add new responses, create a new article and add a link under the specific heading. Add new categories by adding new headings.
• Is there going to be a way to store your own canned responses
  • There definitely should be but I haven't figured out a way for us to do it. I'm more or less clueless about per-profile storage space for canned responses.
• How useful is this for answering questions, when we have the duplication feature?
  • IMO, it's a great way to ensure quality answers even from new contributors.
  • People would *feel* like this is a very personal approach, instead of the linking to another thread which might seem very unpersonal to them.
  • Why would we rather answer a question over and over again instead of linking to one high quality reply?
    • Because it feels more personal, does it not?

Definition

Feature overview

• Window that contains multiple text snippets that can be helpful to someone answering questions and provides them with quality answers right-away.
• Search function that offers an in-place search that filters the provided responses when the user enters a search term.
• Preview function that allows the user to see the output of a certain response
• In-place editor that allows for changing the canned response to the specific case to personalize it more.
• Rights management that only allows certain responses to be added by certain user types.

Users & use cases

• The new forum helper: The new forum helper is interested in giving Firefox support but has no wide share of experiences. Canned responses can be helpful to him as it provides him with a general guideline of how responses have to look (in form, length, what information to ask for and to provide, etc). Also, it might teach him a little more about what to do in certain cases.

• The power user: The power user values the simplicity that comes with the canned responses function. Allowing them to customize the responses to their liking, it allows for easier and faster replies with less trouble. Search will be used rather often as the experienced power user knows what reply to post when.

• The intermediate helper: The intermediate helper might need to skim through the list of responses to find the correct response for the user's needs.