How to Use Screen Recording for Effective Bug Reporting‍

Enduring the constant back and forth of reporting and resolving website bugs? It's a thing of the past if you focus on screen recording. The role of reporting bugs with screen recording has become integral to development teams globally.

On average, developers say they spend 20% of their time fixing bugs - According to VentureBeat. With screen recording for bug resolution using applications like Bird Eats Bug, time spent reporting and resolving issues can be reduced by up to 50%. 

This article will outline why screen recording has become the front-runner for bug resolution, tips on ways to report bugs using screen recording software, and the best software to use.

Why use Screen Recording for Bug Resolution?

Do you want endless issue tickets, cluttered coding, and email or chat trails galore to follow? Or do you want a simple video of a screen recording with someone highlighting the issue and how to resolve it?

That's layman's terms - there are tons of benefits to using screen recording software:

1. Time-Saving

Depending on the software you use, time saved is one of the biggest perks when you record bugs with screen recording. As mentioned before, if you use software like Bird Eats Bug, you'll save around 50% of the time reporting issues. There's no need to go back and forth for resolution as bugs are captured and analyzed in real-time. 

There's also a lot of time saved because you don't have to think about what to write and type something out - some people are far quicker at speaking and putting their words into a video than they are with text. 

2. Enhanced Communication

Communication revolving around bug resolution can be wishy-washy, especially with remote working teams. Effective communication between development teams and quality assurance specialists prevents further issues, streamlines development, and puts everyone on the same page. Screen recording does all of that using one application.

Effective communication needs to happen between consumers, employees, the development team, and the quality assurance team to ensure all bugs are resolved promptly.

3. Document Bugs Seamlessly

Document and store bugs seamlessly using screen recording. Rather than using text-based communication, screen recordings provide an almost real-time image of the issue, making it far easier to understand than someone trying to explain it. 

Development teams can see the code in front of them, the issue arising, and decipher how to resolve it.

Essentially, screen recordings speed up the Q&A process that typically comes with traditional bug resolution methods. 

That also provides you with a library of videos to return to if issues arise again. It's almost like an easy-to-read development bible to return to. 

4. Effortless Bug Reproduction

There's no use attempting to resolve a bug if you can't replicate it. Having a screen recording that runs through the issue, allowing you to see it in real-time, will enable you to replicate and resolve the issue. It's the clear understanding of what went wrong that text-based resolution solutions simply can't provide.

How to Use Screen Recording for Effective Bug Reporting

If you want to report bugs easily on a website, there's a simple step - select the right software. Bird Eats Bug is the best way to identify bugs with screen recording and put all the information developers need in one place. 

The result? 

A happier development team, for one, but also improved the quality of products and services.

With the screen recording feature of Bird Eats Bug and the multiple recording options they offer, you can automatically record and capture system information, network requests, and console logs - pretty much everything you need to resolve a bug. 

Here's where bug resolution software like Bird Eats Bug shines - you can screen record an issue and use a microphone to voice over the issue and make comments. 

1. Making Recordings Easier to Understand

Still, despite the perks, screen recordings can become complex if you don't follow tips that make reporting website bugs easy. 

One of the biggest setbacks is creating a lengthy video that switches between screens and is hard to follow. For effective bug reporting, videos should be concise and stick to one issue - don't go off on a tangent. Including only the necessary steps will ensure the developer saves time when deciphering incidents.

Consider using prompts to guide your video to make them easier to understand. It's a good company policy to provide guidelines for bug-reporting videos (more on that further along), but having individual prompts to help you explain the issue can help. 

Consider using on-screen text as well as voice recordings to contextualize the issue further. 

2. Editing and Enhancing 

It's easy to enhance the quality of the video and the message it's conveying by editing your screen recording. Adding text and annotations can help you to get the point across clearer and quicker. You can also trim, split, and cut your recording afterward to make it as concise as possible - sometimes, it's easy to 'waffle on' about an issue and deviate from the main point.

3. Provide Guidelines for Bug Reporting Videos

If you're a project manager or part of the quality assurance or development team, having an outlined guideline for reporting bugs using screen recording creates a uniform approach to resolution. A structured format makes the information and video itself easier to follow - making everyone on the same page even more than with a simple video itself. 

What you can do is create a 'script' for the team to follow that ensures website bug reporting is easy to understand. 

Things to Avoid

As with anything, there's always something you should avoid - with screen recording, there are a few no-gos:

• Lengthy videos: videos should be concise and to the point, avoiding user filler words and content to confuse your development team. If you follow a pre-determined script, this should be easy to avoid.

• Using low-quality software: using low-quality can result in issues like a lack of high-quality recordings and a lack of edited videos to ensure quality. It can create miscommunication.

• Repeating videos: once you start using screen recordings and build up a library of bug resolutions, you can categorize them and refer back to them rather than having the development team create new videos for the same bugs.

Reporting bugs with screen recordings is one of the best things you can do as a developer or a quality insurance specialist. It's the simple solution to once complex bug resolution methods that typically involve a back-and-forth conversation between teams that could get confusing. Use software like Bird Eats Bug for the most effective bug reporting. 

Good luck!