Usability: Very hard to just "File a bug"

[Paul Sladen]

Here at the Desktop Summit, I finally persuaded somebody to create a Launchpad account, after 4+ years of them not doing so.

The individual then tried to file a bug and after 10 minutes returned, not having managed to file a bug. This is a technical individual who has interacted with multiple bug tracking systems in the past and during the 10 minutes had not managed to file a bug against the Ubuntu Font Family. They came back and kindly replayed a simplified sequence of the steps in their actions and thoughts. Note that they had carefully read each page in full first and not merely skimmed:

  1. https://launchpad.net/ "Launchpad, the bug tracker"
  1a. (No sign of "report a bug" anywhere on the page)
  2. https://answers.launchpad.net/ "Perhaps that's special terminology for a bug"
  3. https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion "Okay, clearly not, go back"
  4. https://answers.launchpad.net/
  4a. "ah, there's Ubuntu as the top project"
  5. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu
  6. (Click "Report a bug"; URL reads)

[Robert Collins (lifeless)]

So, this contains two conflated issues:
 A) how to just file a bug
 B) The *ubuntu* project does not want users filing bugs through the web UI.

I'm going to edit the description to limit this to case A, as case B is totally out of our control.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

When you are signed out of Launchpad, the front page begins with "Launchpad is a software collaboration platform that provides: * Bug tracking * Code hosting using Bazaar * Code reviews..." However, the link to <https://bugs.launchpad.net/> is not nearly as obvious as it was in previous versions of Launchpad. <http://web.archive.org/web/20070609162246/https://launchpad.net/> I suggest restoring the application buttons, regardless of whether you are signed in.