Reader testing¶
This page describes the observed reader round that checks whether the homepage doors send newcomers to the right place. Bryan runs the round; its results become follow-up work.
Running a round¶
Recruit three to five people who have not used SASE. Sit with each reader individually, share the homepage, and watch — do not guide. For each task below, note which door the reader picks first and whether they finish the task. A round takes about 30 minutes per reader.
The six tasks¶
Give each task as a plain goal, one at a time:
- Is SASE for me? — Decide whether SASE fits how you work. (Expect: Learn.)
- Run a first agent. — Launch one agent and find its result. (Expect: Learn.)
- Run two agents in parallel. — Start two runs without them clashing. (Expect: Do.)
- What is a bead? — Explain what a bead tracks. (Expect: Understand.)
- Find a config key. — Look up what one configuration value does. (Expect: Look up.)
- Recover an interrupted agent. — Restart or revive a broken run. (Expect: Do.)
Success measure¶
At least 4 of 5 readers pick the right door first on each task. A door that readers consistently miss needs a better label, not a better explanation elsewhere.
Results template¶
Copy one row per reader per task:
| Reader | Task | First door picked | Expected door | Match? | Finished? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | 1 | Learn |
End with the tally: tasks where fewer than 4 of 5 readers picked the right door first, and the exact labels that confused them.
Proposing label changes¶
Door labels are an interface decision, so changes stay human-reviewed:
- File the results as follow-up work noting which labels failed and what readers expected instead.
- Propose replacement labels against the failed tasks, not in the abstract — each new label must plausibly fix a recorded miss.
- Never move pages between tabs to fix a label; the label changes, the structure stays. See Writing docs.
Related¶
- Contribute — The contributor hub this page belongs to.
- Writing docs — The documentation contract for humans and agents.
_[project]: A sase project is a named unit of work registered with SASE. _[workspace]: A sase workspace is a numbered clone of a project's primary repo, managed by the workspace store and tracked in that project's registry.json. _[agent]: A sase agent is an agent session or a single agent that does not belong to a session. _[prompt]: A prompt is the text SASE hands to a provider to start an agent turn. _[macro]: A macro is a reusable prompt triggered with #name in agent prompts. _[Patch]: A Patch is SASE's local unit of change. _[bead]: A bead is one tracked work item in SASE's git-native issue tracker. _[plan]: A plan is a persisted, approved artifact recording the intent behind agent work. _[TUI]: The TUI is SASE's terminal interface for running agents and reviewing results. _[epic]: An epic is an executable multi-phase plan run with sase bead work. _[gate]: A sase gate is a durable, command-backed request for one user decision, created when work must pause for the user. _[monitor]: A sase monitor is a monitor turn that runs one long command under a detached supervisor, so the command outlives the agent that started it. *[stitch]: A stitch is the lightweight ordered change record inside a Patch's STITCHES: section.