A lesson in user feedback and the pitfalls

[Noppy]

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing…

So i launched our newly re-designed website yesterday and did a peek user testing video (a real person does a 5 min narration whilst looking at your site). So i show my head of dept and whilst the feedback is good, i mention it’s a shame the tester didn’t click through to the final detail page. The response to this was that we(I) had not made it easy enough for the user to get to the final page and this is clearly a problem! Not the fact that the user tester was not actually interested in the content of the site (as a normal visitor would) and that they had a time limit in which to answer certain questions.

So based on 1 person we come to the conclusion that our website is not simple enough. There is a big search box on the front page which leads to a results page which leads to the individual pages. um like every other website…ever!

If we actually look at the google analytics stats we see that people are finding the final pages without a huge problem and the bounce rate is hugely down compared to usual. I can see real time that they are visiting the final pages without issue.

People really need to learn to look at all the evidence before taking 1 negative and basing changes on that as a knee jerk reaction. They only seem to hear ‘this person had a problem’ not the ‘but 99.99% of the other users found it easier’

have you had similar experiences?

[Erik_J]

Knee jerk reactions is the default.

Pitfall 1. Presenting to an executive both good and bad sides in the same sentence.
The head maybe can’t handle both sides at once so he choose to counter. Rather wait till your asked for more after the good part.

Pitfall 2. Express your opinion regarding the test person,
triggering the head to take the other side. Better tell the story and ask the head what he thinks so he can kick back the question for you to answer.

Not so good executives think they need to give an instant opinion. In order to appear competent and not loose face, they also tend to focus on the bad part and then not get in to akward details. Too late they see the other sides, statements are already made. Letting the knee jerk reaction stand as a safe way to skip subject.

A competent head would seek the thinking space he needs while checking if he has the whole picture, by for example ask why you thought that was.

My two cents. Yes, I have witnessed heads trying to not loose face.