An easy way to help me make better tools for web developers

[Kevin Dangoor]

Hi,

I'm the product manager for developer tools at Mozilla, and we're building some (imho) great stuff for web developers. I have a background in web development myself, but I know that I don't have all of the answers. The main part of my job is to gather info from as many places as I can and distill it into product requirements.

If you do web development (HTML/CSS/JS), specifically a lot of client-side work, you might be able to help me. I'm looking for people who use Firebug, Chrome's Web Inspector or IE 9's developer tools that will allow me to observe them working for an hour or two and ask a few questions. This will help me get a firsthand feel for how people are using the tools and where there is room for improvement. In my opinion, there is a lot of room for improvement.

So, if you're:

• somewhere around Ann Arbor
• have some frontend web development to do
• will let me watch you work, so that we can make better tools
  

Let me know!

Thanks,

Kevin

--
Kevin Dangoor

work: http://mozilla.com/
email: k...@blazingthings.com
blog: http://www.BlueSkyOnMars.com

[Trek Glowacki]

You might want to expand that search to people who do headless testing. Firebug/Web Inspector/Etc are usually my last stop when something isn't working just right.

-trek

[Kevin Dangoor]

That's a great suggestion, but I think you are likely ahead of that curve on that one. Also, I'd imagine you fire up something with a head when you're trying to get your apps to look right.

Observing a headless workflow would be quite interesting. There may be ways we can help out with that kind of workflow as well.

Kevin

[Kevin Dangoor]

I'd like to do a few more of these user studies (see my original message below) for web developers who use Firebug, Chrome's Web Inspector or IE Developer Tools.

To clarify what's involved, now that I've done some of these and know it myself ;)

1. I ask a few questions to help me get a feel for your use of the tools
2. I watch you using the tools, either on real work or just on random websites or side projects

It's #2 in particular that I wanted to highlight. I can get useful information about your workflow even if you're not working on one of your main projects. I know it's not always possible to share what you're working on, but seeing how you generally work will help me a good deal in making better tools.

(We've already got a much improved workflow in the works for changes people make to stylesheets.)

Kevin