Seeking Feedback

By Sangeeta Gupta, Ron Kim, Abdallah Hassan and Marijke Hallo de Wolf
May 2001

Feedback should be sought internally (within the organization), and externally (outside the organization) as both user types have a lot to contribute.

• Internal feedback: assists the developer of the Web site improve Web site content and design in relation to the organization's internal politics and overall objectives
• External feedback: assists the developer to improve site functionality, and to identify and strengthen niche markets for the content of the site.

The most important consideration is not to ask too much of the user. People usually don't want to answer a huge amount of information.

There are several techniques that can be used to seek feedback. Each of these techniques requires time and money to implement and maintain, Web managers need to be selective. The choice will definitely depend on which kind of information (feedback) is sought and for what purpose. Users can be motivated to give feedback by giving them incentives such as free publications, registration to a newsletter or free access to more restricted documents.

Feedback forms

A feedback form should be a standard feature of a Web site for people to send their feedback via e-mail about their comments on the site. This is a straightforward means of getting feedback.

Discussion group

Setting up a discussion group, bulletin board and/or Web forum is a good way of attracting people and letting them interact. However, it is important to remember that providing discussion or guestbook facilities does not mean users will necessarily make use of them. An underused message board with only one or two messages every few months may actually hurt the image of the organization or initiative.

Survey and evaluation

Surveys and evaluation strategies can be initiated to evaluate the overall impact of the site or Web services. Information can be gathered by conducting Web evaluation checks based on a questionnaire sent to some of the visitors of the site or by using a pre-defined checklist online.

E-mail lists

E-mail addresses of potential users can be compiled for the Web site manager to keep communicating with site visitors. The Web manager can also ask those people if they want to be included in an automatic e-mail list to inform them of updates and to get continual feedback.

Guest books

A visitor book is another useful tool for seeking users' feedback. A guest book usually asks for the user name, e-mail address and leaves a space for comments. The dropdown menu can also be included here for the site rating.