The Importance of User Feedback
Just about every content site needs some kind of feedback mechanism. Whether it’s a simple mailto: link or a form, there should be some way for readers to contact the site’s author. Most site authors get this right, but I’ve been surprised to learn how different the feedback you receive can be depending on where and how you ask for feedback.
Case in point: I’ve always had a clearly linked Contact Us form at The Quotations Page. Sure, I get mail from people asking me to do their homework or trying to contact Oprah, but it does get me some useful feedback as well, particularly when a reader notices an error in a quotation.
I noticed a problem a few months ago. People were emailing me corrections, but not saying where exactly they found the error, so I’d have to search through the database to find the problem, or email them back for clarification. So I added a comment link directly on each individual quotation page, and set it up to email me a link to directly edit the item with the comments.
It worked—now the corrections readers send me are easier to handle. But here’s the surprise: after making that change the number of corrections I received each month went from two or three to twenty or thirty. Thanks to these comments, I made more corrections to the site in the last quarter of 2004 than the first three quarters combined.
In retrospect, the conclusions seem obvious: Assuming you want as much feedback as possible from readers, you should make it as easy as possible for them to reach you. You may need to experiment with different comment forms, link locations, or link text to get the best response. Your readers are probably happy to help improve your site—they just want to do it with a minimum of effort.
I have a link to contact me on every page of my site. In the contact form there’s a hidden field with the referring page so I know what page the person is talking about. I added the referrer link after I experienced the same thing as you – I would get an e-mail and have no idea what the person was talking about. Now I no longer have that problem.
The Importance of User Feedback Michael has a great tip on The Importance of User Feedback over at Figby.com: ‘In retrospect, the conclusions seem obvious: Assuming you want as much feedback as possible from readers, you should make it as easy as possible for…
The most critical unit for development is interpersonal feedback, and I dare say, michael is doing a great job on that. User feedback is essential and clear and precise feedback goes a long way in helping the admin upgarade his skills.