Getting An Objective Perspective To Meet Your Goals
You’ve created a web site or blog. You’ve sweated and worked hard to make it just “perfect”. But your expected goals are not being met. Why?
More than likely, you aren’t able to look at your site objectively. You’re so wrapped up in it that all you see is this:
But everyone else sees this:
When I say “sees”, I’m really not talking about the visual design of your site, although that may be a part of the problem. There may be many, many problems with your site that cause it to be an “ugly turkey of a site” that have nothing to do with the look and feel of it. My point is that your perception of your site may be vastly different than the general public’s perception of it, and there’s a very good chance that you’d be shocked to hear that others perceive it in a negative way.
Before you panic, realize that there may also be many, many positive aspects of your site that the public sees, but you haven’t noticed. Because you are so close to your own project, you very likely have lots of misperceptions about your site. So what should you do about that?
If you are concerned that your site has a “face that only a mother could love”, take a step back and get some outside, objective opinions. Although family and friends may be a good place to start, keep in mind that they may tell a few little white lies to protect your feelings. Likewise, although asking your site’s visitors for opinions is always a good thing to do, they may also be hesitant to really speak their minds. (Although some may go overboard with complaints as well, so you may get a mixed reaction there). Your best bet is to seek the advice of other professionals who are trained to know what to look for.
By getting opinions from a broad spectrum of people (family/friends, visitors, and professionals), you should be able to get a really clear picture of your site – including all its faults, and all its positive attributes. Once you are clearly and objectively viewing your project, you can make intelligent decisions that will help you to meet the goals you originally set for yourself.
Tags: goals, objectivity, perspective
| Getting An Objective Perspective To Meet Your Goals | |
 | You’ve created a web site or blog. You’ve sweated and worked hard to make it just “perfect”. But your expected goals are not being met. Why? More than likely, you aren’t able to look at your site objectively. You’re so wrapped up in it that all you see is this: But everyone else sees this: [...] |
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Very interesting post Donna.
and now it is beginning to get a few readers, I guess I’ll need to think again.
I make loads of different blogs and I do try to match the theme and the look to the particular niche. But yes, sometimes you can get so involved with your own view of a site that you forget how it may look to other people. Very good point!
As to the blog in my signature, to be honest, the ‘look’ of it was not particularly important to me. I just wanted a theme that would take lots of writing! Probably not the best choice for making it reader friendly
Thanks for the reminder!
Great post… loved the pictures and the saying…your site has a “face that only a mother could love”.
You did suggest asking family & friends first. Quite often they will not give you an honest opinion thinking they may offend you.
Nothing beats testing with real users, unfortunately this means that you would have to compensate them for their time (universal gift certificates are good).
Here is a summary of how I have done it in the past:
1. Make a list of various aspects of the site you want to test (find something, check if something is on the site, do a checkout etc), then translate it into a list of tasks for the user.
2. Tell the user that you are not testing him or her, but you are testing the website. Tell them that they could withdraw from the test at any time.
3. Only videotape the screen and input devices, do not videotape the user, let them know that they are not being videotaped.
4. Ask for further comments and feedback after the test.
5. Thank the user for his for her time and repeat that the test was of the website and not him or her.
6. Repeat 2-5 until you got enough data.
7. Analyse the data
8. Change the site.
9. Go back to 1 if there is still money left for testing.