Should tool-related questions be on-topic?

Question

Every once in a while a tool-related questions pops up and it usually gets closed. Our policy is that these type of questions are off-topic. I think maybe it's time to revise the policy :).

Some pros that come to my mind:

• Other professional SE sites allow them (matlab on Math.SE, Lightroom on Photo.SE, Illustrator on GD.SE etc.).
• There's no other place to ask this type of questions on SE.
• In terms of being "answerable", "How to implement something in Axure" is precisely as answerable as any question on SO, so the nature of these questions shouldn't be a problem. The topic is, in my mind, extremely relevant to a community of UX researchers and practitioners. After all, this is the day-to-day work, and the tools we use are as big a part of the craft as the UX problems we deal with.
• It can bring more traffic to the site and generate a whole new type of questions, without sacrificing its strictly-UX orientation or blurring its borders (OTOH more on that in the cons).
• Somewhat philosophically, we know that the guy with the stethoscope is a doctor and the guy with the flasks is a chemist. The girl with the Visual Studio is a developer and the one with the Photoshop is a graphic designer. The tools help define a profession as a profession, and that's a problem in our field, because the recognition is not where we'd like it to be. Maybe it won't help this cause, but at least we should start by recognizing the software we use as tools of the trade.

And some cons:

• The range of tools is pretty large and it usually parallels the level of fidelity at that stage in the process. From paper to Powerpoint to Balsamiq to Axure to Photoshop to HTML&CSS, with a large number of tools in between. We could say that the latter two belong on GD and SO, but it can be tougher with the gray areas and the beginning of this fidelity range. Would sketching techniques be on-topic (are they today?)? How about Powerpoint techniques?
• It's not just about wireframing and prototyping, I've used Camtasia and Audacity and different mind-mappers etc. So the line to be drawn would be somewhat arbitrary. Although I think that dedicated wireframing tools are easy to identify.

From the amount of my pros and cons you can see where I stand :).

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Answer 1

I would be concerned with what would come through that door if we opened it. GraphicDesign.SE already have problems with too many Photoshop questions that they've had to go out of their way with incentives to get people back to asking Graphic Design questions.

If we allow tools help we could become an Axure / Balsamiq user forum rather than dealing with UX problems.

Also, where would it stop? How to create a dynamic panel in Axure? How to create a dynamic panel is JavaScript? How to combine JQuery and CSS to create a styleable dynamic panel?

Once we accept one of these questions it sets a precedent that will be hard to go back from.

Keep tool questions where they belong: Dedicated Axure / Balsamiq user forums and stick with solving User Experience problems here.

Answer 2

I think that the discussion should be more centred around what sort of tool questions should be allowed.

Broadly useful questions that aren't about a specific tool should be allowed, while questions that pertain to a single tool should not be allowed. That would allow the site to point people in the right direction, but prevent it from becoming a support forum.

E.g.:

Good - What wireframing / prototyping tools allow mobile panel scrolling?

Bad - How do I position a mobile panel in XYZ tool?

Answer 3

I enjoy this community, even though I am new to it. I appreciate the care and editorial vision that exists, so my opinion is shared as a constructive contribution to the conversation.

I don't think it would be the end of the world to keep the "policy" as-is, however I think it should be more clearly articulated in the FAQs just to avoid having this discussion over and over.

Currently when one of these questions is closed, the following message appears:

Questions on User Experience - Stack Exchange are expected to relate to user experience within the scope defined in the FAQ. Consider editing the question or leaving comments for improvement if you believe the question can be reworded to fit within the scope. Read more about closed questions here.

When you consult the FAQ, there is no mention of tools being out of scope. In fact, the language is written in such a way that it encourages "practical" questions related to "actual problems":

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, then you should not be asking here. However, if your motivation is “I would like others to explain ______ to me”, then you are probably OK. (Discussions are of course welcome in our real time web chat.)

By that measure, a specific question about how to use a UX tool is entirely valid according to the stated policy.

In my case I wondered if it would be in scope or out of scope, and was leaning towards not asking the question until I read the FAQ. As it is written, it encouraged me to post my question. Which was downvoted and closed.

That said.

My own opinion is that we should allow tools to be discussed, as the mechanics by which we ply our trade is how UX manifests itself in the world. This is already well established and supported on ux.SE for MANY tools... that aren't software. A/B testing. Personas. Usability Testing. These are all tools that are the subject of questions asking about "using" the tool. Including how to use Axure to illustrate an interaction seems to be the same thing, it's just that it's an executable you run on a computer, not a process/procedure you run in the physical world.

The concern I seem to be picking up from most of the comments on this thread is that the current policy results in a clean environment. More signal, less noise. I totally get that, and I value that. There is a justifiable fear that the current community could become overrun like some other SE communities.

The difference I see is that there currently are not that many tool-related questions. Using the "ignore tags" feature will ensure that those who are not interested in reading about tools can filter those posts out, and those who are, can get some additional information. If it does get out of hand, there is nothing to stop us from changing the policy back to a strict ban.

Update

There is a really good question that was originally downvoted, revised, upvoted, and answered that is an excellent example of how tool related questions can add value to the community.

Further, I think including some tool questions is an opportunity to further some of the goals outlined in the stack improvement drive--primarily increasing the number of questions and expanding our reach to draw in more users.

Update 2

A great summation of what I think could be a definition of what tools questions are in and out of bounds:

@Chris Super User is for power users of desktop software. Asking them a wireframing/prototyping question and expecting a UX-relevant answer wouldn't get you very far. The UX community, however, generally deals with this exact problem and can therefore help the OP. It's less a question of "what's the objective right place" and more of a "which audience is right for this question" issue. In other words, this is a process question, not a software question.

When it comes down to it, some tools are so specific in their application to UX that the only way to get any kind of meaningful answer is to go where the people who can answer your question are.

Update 3

Is there a tool for managing user stories?

Falls into the "shopping request" category and yet was highly voted, favorited, answered, and viewed over 1200 times. These types of questions can add value to the site and there is a demand/interest in them.

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BTW not flogging a dead horse here, just adding to the answer to collect examples and context for future thought.

Answer 4

I would welcome 'Shopping Request' type questions too (e.g. which Wireframing tool would you recommend?). As a community of specialists I would welcome the informed opinions of other members when it comes to purchasing decisions.

What's the underlying objection to this type of question?

Answer 5

I'm on the fence about this one.

UX folks tend to use software that is either rather unique to the industry (wire framing products, for instance) or common, but used in unique ways in the context of UX (visio, excel, etc.)

So, broadly speaking, I'd say asking questions about which tool to use for a particular task is certainly a great type of question.

But are questions of 'how do I do x with tool y' a good idea? I don't know. I agree with other posters that, at least on Graphic Design, the amount of tool-related questions tends to over-power the GD related questions.

I suppose ideally, we'd have a SE site for tools. In fact, I like this idea for most of the SE sites. Just as every site as a META sister-site, it'd be great if sites could have a sister TOOL site.

So we could have tools.graphicdesign.stackexchange and tools.ux.stackexchange etc.