Problem with a lot of betas is that companies make it hard to submit feedback. Usually you have to hunt for a beta feedback form, fill in a forum post, or do something else that requires more work than most users are willing to invest. Make the barriers to entering feedback for your customers as minimal as possible. Microsoft has nailed this with both the WIN7 beta and the Office 2K10 beta. One has to wonder if Vista would have been such a bomb had they done this with Vista.
Here is what they have done in Office 2k10:
They added icons to your taskbar (a smiley face and frown face).
Clicking either of these icons brings a cool dialog:
By default, the “Send screenshot with comments” is turned on, which is nice, it saves the QA person from having to ask “Can you send a screenshot” and saves you the trouble of having to use another application to take the screenshot and posting it to a forum.
Had I been forced to post something to a forum, or fill out a form I probably would not have felt compelled to leave any feedback. Making it so that it takes very little effort on my part to leave feedback has increased my willingness to leave feedback.
