Earlier this year we ran a survey about LibreOffice Base. Similar to the questionnaires about LibreOffice Draw (see first and second blog post) and LibreOffice Calc, we asked about use cases, the most important features, the pain points – and what users expect in the future to support development and to gather ideas how the user interface and workflow can be improved. In total, 455 participants completed the questions. Thanks a lot to everyone who took the time!
Demographics
As usual, the survey is heavily biased. The attendees self-estimate their expertise above the average, run the application more frequently, and show a different distribution in operating system usage compared to regular users.
Applications
To start off, we asked what tools they use. We included Spreadsheet Tools to also cover users who do not actually use a database, but think of a spreadsheet as kind of data storage. Participants responding None, obviously not managing any database, got a different follow-up question.
What tools do you use to manage databases?Features
To trigger the idea of the following open questions, we asked about the importance of different features. Unlike the large number of functions in other modules, Base offers queries, reports, forms, tables, etc. which are all essential for the work with databases. Therefore we collected some features that may or may not be relevant for a sub-group or have room for improvements.
How important are these features for you?What is your use case for the database management system?
People understand the question differently, and reply very short or rather verbosely. The answers may point to a professional environment if “payroll information for up to 10000 people” is mentioned, over SME’s processing order management, production count, and shipment status, to obviously private usage. The following attempt to categorize the answers cannot do justice to the variety of all replies:
- Catalogs/Inventory: In-house Bakery, Receipts, Music/Books, CD/DVD, Musical scores. Plant samples, Publications/Scientific research, Health data
- Web/Software: Backend storage, Software development, Websites, Managing SQL
- ERP/Finance: Order management/Production count/Shipment status, Invoicing, User data, Cost management, Expenses,
- Storing addresses and mail merge processing
For example:
“I use it mostly as place to store sensitive customers data. But since I have small quantities of information, I switched to LibreOffice Calc, which files can be also locked with the password.”
“Smaller business applications in the freight forwarding and logistics sectors, such as fleet management, warehouse management, category management, and invoicing.”
“Managing geospatial information with PostgreSQL/PostGIS and creating reports with the information from the attribute table using LibreOffice Base/Writer.”
“Storing data when it gets too big/slow for a CSV file for personal or internal work (engineering) projects.”
In your opinion, which LibreOffice Base features (if any) need improvement the most, and why?
The majority asks for improvements to the user interface with less clutter and a more attractive design. The workflow and user experience should become either simplified or more powerful, depending on the expertise and the scenario …
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