Reproduction is an essential part of the debugging workflow. The best way to understand an error is to see it in action and identify what causes it, and chances are that if you know enough about an issue to reproduce it independently, you can propose a solution and action a fix. Your instinct may be to prioritize issues based on revenue loss alone and THEN see if you can reproduce them. This is a valid approach, but for short-term wins it makes sense to work backwards: find session recordings that capture issues you can reproduce, and then prioritize/examine those issues based on impact.
- Open Sessions and filter by Broken Button. The goal here is to find sessions where you can associate an observable front-end interaction with a resulting error, and among all session symptoms, Broken Button serves this goal best.
- Other symptoms like Rage Click can be similarly insightful, but Broken Button is the most reliable.
- Other symptoms like Rage Click can be similarly insightful, but Broken Button is the most reliable.
- Filter out or ignore sessions where the Last Funnel Step is Place Order. Issues that occur on Place Order are difficult to reproduce, as they require a complete transaction.
- Open a session recording and find the Broken Button tag in the timeline. Note the button or user click that results in the symptom.
- Click the timestamp in the timeline to jump to the spot on the session video where the issue occurs to confirm you can see it happening. We recommend clicking a timestamp a few seconds before the Broken Button tag occurs to ensure you don't miss anything.
- Examine the Details section and note the session's operating system and browser. This is an optional step, but you have the best chance of reproducing the issue if you emulate the same conditions in the session recording.
- Return to the session timeline and click the URL where the Broken Button occurred. This will bring you to the webpage so you can attempt to reproduce the error.
- Open your browser's dev tools.
- Retrace the shopper's steps leading up to the Broken Button, observing the dev tools as you go. Once you click the button, note the browser response. If the request fails and you receive the same error message from the session recording, you have reproduced the issue.
- Return to Noibu and open the issue's details to determine its priority. The fact that the issue is visually impactful and can be reproduced indicates priority, but you should consider a host of other factors, like projected revenue loss and occurrences, to gauge its overall impact on shoppers.
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Learn more about Identifying Visually Impactful Issues.