Exception Perceptions: Attack of the Cloned Issues (for Better Understanding User Behavior)

We’re back! That’s right, we have a new episode of Exception Perceptions to share with y’all. This is part 2 of of our Star Wars series, and this time we’re talking all about using errors to better understand user behavior.

In this two-part series, we’ve been exploring the importance of our users when debugging. How do we communicate with them? How do they communicate with us? What are the best ways to understand their behavior? What insight is relevant to us as developers, and how do we figure out how to use one user’s experience to improve the experience of the whole? Don’t know the answers to these questions? Well, that’s fine because we’ve created two episodes (much better than Star Wars Episodes 1 and 2, we promise) highlighting all of these areas.

Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a way to look at the issues our users run into that involved less back-and-forth, customer support tickets, and “works on my machine” issues? What if we could just stand behind them, see their screen, and know exactly what was going on in the moments leading up to the error they encountered in our program? Well, friends (and Wookies), I’m happy to say this does exist, and we have an integration with it! No, it’s not a hologram… it’s SessionStack!

If you’re not using our SessionStack integration, it’s super easy to configure (see our notes on the episode page)! In a couple steps, you’ll be up and running with not only the power of Sentry but also the power of SessionStack’s analytics and ability to replay user actions that triggered the issue. It’s basically like being a Jedi and using the force… minus the whole living alone on a remote island/lightsaber part.

I ran away to a secret island on a forgotten planet and didn't tell anyone how to find me.You'd think people could take a hint.Nope.— Very Lonely Luke (@VeryLonelyLuke) March 27, 2018