| |
| |
|
Web Design Information |
|
|
|
Eliciting Constructive Website Feedback
"It's good."
At some point, you have probably received comments like this when asking for constructive criticism of your website efforts. Unfortunately, the generic nature of these comments does not give specific information on elements that you need to improve your site. So how do you elicit specific, constructive, targeted feedback from the public in order to improve your website? The seven techniques below, when implemented properly, will give you the constructive feedback you need to make your website the best it can be. 1. Ask both closed-ended and open-ended questions. Closed-ended questions, such as "how would you rate the site on a scale of 1 to 10?" will provide quantitative measures which, in aggregate quantities, can be very useful. Open-ended questions provide your users the opportunity to provide specific and detailed answers in their own words, thus providing a more qualitative measure of your website's appeal. I generally find that a 60% closed-ended/40% open-ended mix of questions provides sufficient data from both a qualitative and quantitative standpoint. 2. Give your existing website customers surveys. Your website customers are the people for whom your site is ultimately constructed, and showing that you are interested in their feedback to make your site more useful to them serves as an excellent way to ensure repeat business. 3. Develop a "focus group" whom you can approach for advice on a regular basis. One of the positive aspects of soliciting opinions is that there are many people who are more than happy to provide it on a regular basis. Your group can be comprised of customers, suppliers, friends, neighbours, relatives, or just about anyone you like! 4. Critique another's website when asked to do so. By providing a thorough and constructive evaluation of another person's website, you will establish a relationship with that other person. When asked, said person will usually be quite happy to return the favour. For those of you who may wish to participate in this sort of exchange without the risk of offending someone whom you personally know, you may wish to visit a web design discussion board that offers a Site Review section and participate. The advantage to this method is that you have the option of posting your site for review; reviewing another's site and possibly getting ideas for your own site; or, as most people tend to do, a combination of both. The following websites, among many others, offer a site review forum:
5. Purchase an experienced, professional website analysis. For those of you who aren't sure which questions you'd like answered about your site, or perhaps would like a more concrete plan and direction, you may wish to acquire the services of a website consulting professional. Depending on what you require in terms of feedback and your budget, website consulting professionals can analyze your website for usability; provide a detailed error and "bug" report; review your traffic statistics or raw logs; determine if your website is search-engine ready; and many other services. One such company is My Guru Knows (http://www.myguruknows.com). Among other business advice services, My Guru Knows can provide an analysis of your web presence in such things as Internet sales, database marketing, and interpretation of web site statistics. 6. Give away a redeemable website coupon in exchange for survey information. Coupons are a very effective way to encourage your site's users to provide you with the marketing information you require. It doesn't even have to be an expensive item either: it can be something along the lines of "free ABC Company pen in exchange for answering these five questions". Mind you, the nicer and more valuable the item is, the more survey information you will acquire. 7. Incorporate your survey elements as part of registration or other interactive elements of your site. Add a question or two at each interactive stage, such as "how did you find this ordering process on a scale of 1 to 10?" By breaking up your survey, it doesn't appear as obvious to the user that you are gathering valuable marketing information. However, the downside is that the marketing information gathered will be somewhat fragmented, as some elements of your website will be used more frequently than others. Use of these seven elements, by themselves or in concert, should lead to a substantial increase in both the quantity and quality of your website feedback and allow you to more accurately determine how to go about building your website in the best interest of your customers. About The Author Adam Senour is the owner of ADAM Web Design, a leading web design and development company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Visit http://www.adamwebdesign.ca for more information on ADAM Web Design products and services.
MORE RESOURCES:
Web-Design - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Alternative to Web Site Templates and Design Software Before I discovered the concept of Web site templates, I felt woefully inadequate to build my own site. It was the old "catch-22" where I didn't have the money to pay to have a site built, I needed a site to make the money to have a professional site, and without the knowledge of how to build a site, I had no hope of getting a site. Creating Personal Web Sites This is a two-part article about creating a web site on the web and the tools that you need to do that.During the last decade we have truly entered the information age. Save Time and Boost Profits with Free Content Public domain gives you a head start creating ebooks, ecourses, newsletters, teleconferences, website content and email registration incentives you need to keep in constant touch with clients and prospects.Public domain refers to information free from copyright protection. 7 Benefits of HTML Validation You may not bother with html validation or writing simple and clean code when designing your web site. Later you may find your site is slow loading, appears incorrectly in the main browsers and does not rank well for the major search engines. Website Conversion Secrets Revealed In my last article entitled, Maximizing The True Value Of Your Traffic (found at http://tinyurl.com/2cf84), you discovered the importance of generating positive responses from all your visitors. Cascading Style Sheets for Better Web Design In cascading style sheets you can specify how your web pages will be presented on the screen by simply predefining page elements such as fonts, headers and links.You can add these predefined elements in the head-section of your pages, but more interesting is to use them in a single . The Top 8 Website Sins Part One They say the eyes are the window to the soul. Your website then is the window to your business. Owning Your Own Web Site Is A Must Owning your own website is a must if you are doing business on the Internet.There are so many factors involved in creating a web site layout and or design that there is really no right or wrong design. Web Design for Ecommerce Your website is your tool for showing the online community an image of your Drop Ship retail business. Whether or not your business succeeds depends heavily on your website. Eight Website Pitfalls, and How to Avoid Them Clutter: Too much noise, too much text, and too little white space mean that customers ignore the content. Customers often scan pages quickly, only reading titles or input prompts until they reach the content they want. What Drives Repeat Visitors To Your Site? There can be zillions of reasons why your visitors return to your web site. One might be very interested in seeing your animated photo on your main page, but kidding aside I've gathered 12 elements that invites your visitors to repeat their visits. Sales Versus Customer Oriented Websites Should Generating Revenue From A Website Be The Prime Motivator? A pure sales site has only one purpose.. Ten Fatal Mistakes That Make Web Sites Stink Since you'll spend lots of time and money to create your web site, don't you want to make sure you're not making mistakes that at best irritate users, and at worst make you lose customers?After all, when you alienate users, you lose potential revenue. Who can afford that?Dr. Teach Yourself CSS The Easy Way I taught myself HTML back in the mid-nineties and was proud of the fact that I was able to accomplish the design of fairly complex web pages with nothing more than a starter HTML book, an HTML reference book, and the knowledge I had stored in my head. But back in those days, we web designers had what looking back was a fairly limited amount of tools with which to work, and the quality (or lack thereof) of sites on the web was lackluster at best. Successful Websites Don't Set Out To Sell What are websites? Are they sales tools for vendors and service providers, or are they electronic guidance for potential customers? Put simply, are you selling or are you helping?Your answer to this question may determine the success of your website. So think carefully?How we define what a website is all depends on which side of the fence we're on. Design vs Content: Who is KING? Well it is not Elvis, that's for sure.I am a firm advocate of good design but most of the time people tend to interpret design as amazing graphics and astounding visuals they tend to forget that design is the culmination of every aspect of good and effective presentation into one. How to Create A Homepage That Works Want to know what the worst thing to say on a homepage is?"Welcome to our homepage." And yet, time after time, we all come across such homepages on the Internet. How To Choose The Right Web Design Company 1. Size does not equate to competencePeople sometimes assume a company with more money, employees, office space etc will be more capable than one with less. How To Design A Web Site I'm not a professional web site designer and openly admit there is a lot that I don't know. But if you're a beginner I probably know more than you do, so listen up. The Proper Way to Use Images Most people will agree there is nothing more annoying than going to a site and it taking forever and a day to download all the images just so you can see the site. Then after waiting, realizing that the site is completely ugly, irrelevant,or not what you thought is was, and wasting your time.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
