New User Questionnaire

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Documentation Summary:

Purpose: Gather information from new users on how they can best be served by a migration guide.

Audience: New users of a Fedora system.

Assumptions: The user of this document should:

• Be connected to the Internet to submit the questionnaire

Lead Writer:Bradbailey

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A brainstorm of a brainstorm.
It was suggested that I hack out an idea for a questionnaire to discover what needs to be put in a migration guide.

The Goals

In the future, I envision a wonderful New User Migration Guide that helps new users start using their Fedora system right away, without getting so frustrated they give up. The need for this stems from knowing that most users are suddenly thrown into an entirely new environment, and then are currently expected to use the resources of an entirely different way of doing things. Often, this is too much change all at once, and we end up with people that have a meltdown and go back to what's familiar. It seems to me that the last two things we would want for our users is to (1) give up and (2) tell other people "don't use Fedora, it's way too complicated."

A survey of the woes and struggles of a new user would gather the information to write a guide that would instil confidence and value of the system, while enabling the new user to take the first few steps beyond a step-by-step guide.

I've noticed that people like clicking radio buttons rather than writing a lot. To that end, I think it would be nice to have mostly yes/no or scale style questions.

The Questions

Please add questions you think would be appropriate. If a question needs changing, please make a comment on it with the suggested change and your rationale for changing it. I'm thinking there should also be an "optional" more information field under each question.

1. Are you able to figure out how to find and install a program you need that you don't know the exact name for? (For example, can you install a program to use your digital camera?)
2. Are you able to find a replacement for the common programs you are accustomed to using?
3. Are you able to add additional sources for programs?
4. Are you able to share particular files with other users of your Fedora computer?
5. Are you able to add additional users to your Fedora computer?
6. Are you able to manage/control what those users have access to?
7. Do you know why logging into your computer as root for normal use is bad?
8. Would it be helpful to know how the filesystem is organized?
9. What is your first order of business now that Fedora is installed?
10. What is your primary motivation for deciding to use Fedora?
11. What are you having the hardest time trying to figure out?
12. Is it reasonably easy to obtain useful help?
13. Are you able to customize your desktop by adding icons, changing the background, and changing the color scheme?
14. What are a few things that you would like to see in an easy to follow new-user migration guide?

Maybe provide some scope or frame of reference for what/where people would be migrating from and guideposts to where those things might be found in Fedora.

The Delivery

The delivery to the users will be in the form of an HTML form that sends the input to sql.

Timeframe

The timeframe seems to be soon after the release of F18