Voice of the Users: A Demographic Study of Software Feedback Behaviour [Distinguished Paper Award]

User feedback on mobile app stores, product forums, and on social media can contain product development insights. There has been a lot of recent research studying this feedback and developing methods to automatically extract requirement-related information. This feedback is generally considered to be the “voice of the users"; however, only a subset of software users provide online feedback. If the demographics of the online feedback givers are not representative of the user base, this introduces the possibility of developing software that does not meet the needs of all users. It is, therefore, important to understand who provides online feedback to ensure the needs of underrepresented groups are not being missed. In this work, we directly survey 1040 software users about their feedback habits, software use, and demographic information. Their responses indicate that there are statistically significant differences in who gives feedback on each online channel, with respect to traditional demographics (gender, age, etc). We also identify key differences in what motivates software users to engage with each of the three channels. Our findings provide valuable context for requirements elicited from online feedback and show that considering information from all channels will provide a more comprehensive view of user needs.