Why use visual feedback for issue tracking?

As a web developer, one of the most dreaded tasks is dealing with team and client feedback. You build a website, perform a certain level of testing to make sure it looks and performs correctly and then turn it over for team and client review. At that point one of two things happen. A, the site is perfect, across all browsers and devices. Or B, something breaks, something needs to get changed, someone notices it doesn't work on their shiny new device. A never happens (at least not in my 15+ years of experience). B is a pain to deal with.

How do you deal with B, the feedback? In my experience it typically involves a lot of emails, PDFs, screen shots and spreadsheets that are outdated the instant they are sent. I grew tired of using such time consuming and error prone methods for trying to manage feedback so I began to look for a solution. I tried Basecamp and Trello, great for project management but not so good for tracking specific issues on a website. I tried to get clients to use traditional bug tracking systems like Jira or Lighthouse, "it's too difficult to understand" was the typical push back from the non-technical people.

People are visual, websites are visual, I needed a solution that visually connected where a problem was with what the problem was. I wanted something that would allow people to leave a note about a problem right where they saw it. I wanted sticky notes and markers but without the glue residue and ink smell. I wanted something that did three things:

1. made leaving feedback easy, it would allow people to leave notes directly on a website
2. provided details that took the guess work out of where and how a problem occurred
3. notified people when a note was added or changed

Anything else was a bonus. That was 2010, and I could not find an solution, so I decided to build one. That's how PageProofer began. The idea was simple and it borrowed from the print industry's method of printing proofs and then having someone markup the proof with edits. Give people a virtual version of a marker and sticky notes and let them give feedback. It doesn't get any easier than that.

That is PageProofer's goal and that is exactly what it does.

Simple setup. Copy and paste a code snippet into the website you want to leave feedback on. If you have ever shared a Youtube video or added Google analytics to a website you can add PageProofer to a website.

Simple to use. Click the PageProofer icon on your website and then double click (or double tap on touch devices) and leave your note. The note gets placed exactly where you clicked. Along with the note, information about the browser and operating system gets captured so the developer can know exactly where the problem happened and in what environment it occurred.

Simple notifications. Anytime someone adds a note or comments on one you get an email with a link that takes you directly to the note that was just added (you can turn that feature off if you prefer).

In a nutshell that's what PageProofer does, it makes leaving and managing feedback simple.

New features like a project dashboard where you can see all the feedback and support for modern mobile devices are constantly being added to make the feedback process as easy, seamless and user friendly as possible.

If you are interested sign up for a free trial and see how PageProofer can simplify your feedback process.