Archived here: https://github.com/pypa/packaging-problems/wiki/error-messages-8377-usability-testing-guide

Preamble

Thank you for taking part in our testing today. This work can only be successful with input from users so I appreciate your time.

I'll give some background on the work we're doing. The pip team are working on improving pip's dependency resolver. As part of this we're working on improving the messages that users see when pip runs into a problem.

Today we'll be focusing on testing these error messages. In this testing there is no right or wrong answer. We're not testing you, or your kwnoeldge of Python - we're testing our work - to make sure these error messages are understood and helpful for users.

So it's good to hear about what works well in the error messages, but more importantly I'm interested in hearing what about doesn't work well. If there is something that needs to be improved, please tell me. You won't insult me!

I'll ask you a few questions about your use of Python and pip, and then we'll get to the testing. The session will last 25 minutes. OK?

Before we start, have you got any questions?

User context questions

1. What do you do?
2. What do you use Python for?
3. How often do come across dependency conflicts?
4. When you do, what sources of information do you use to fix them?
5. What is the most difficult part of dealing with dependency conflicts?
6. What do you do when you can't resolve a conflict?

Great, thanks for telling me that. It's very helpful to understand how people deal with dependency conflicts. Now we'll move onto the testing.

Testing

As I mentioned earlier, today we'll be testing pip's the error messages displayed when pip runs into a problem with package installing.

We're going to use a scenario for this testing. I'll explain everything now. I'd like you to open this page:

https://editor.apps.ei8fdb.org/s/HypgAvo3L