[WEB4LIB] Coping with Complaints about the Website: Balancing Responsiveness to an Individual User with Honoring the Results of a Usability Test

[Grace Agnew]

Chris,

If you don't already have them, you organization may want to establish 
web site policies and procedures, including how often you do a major 
revision of the website,  how often you do usability studies, what 
circumstances can prompt a major website change between development 
cycles (such as new federal guidelines for usability, more than X number 
of complaints from distinct users, etc.), and what changes require a new 
usability study, even a study focused to just that page.  This will help 
you establish parameters for responding to faculty suggestions.

I also suggest publishing a summary of the findings from your usability 
tests, in which you discuss methodology and sampling, the major 
revisions that were recommended and implemented and the suggested 
changes you did not implement, and why.  I would also note when the next 
revision/usability study is expected.  If your faculty member's change 
does not meet your standard for between cycle revisions, I would point 
the faculty member to the revision summary, thank him for his input and 
state that it will be taken into account in the next usability study. 

Not everyone is satisfied that their needs can't be immediately met, but 
I have found generally that if you can demonstrate that you take 
feedback seriously and are responsive to users, most people are 
satisfied.  A good overview of the usability and revision process also 
demonstrates that changes to websites are a complex and time consuming 
business--that a change to one page affects many; that a change to serve 
one user group may be less friendly to another, etc.  Many people have 
created small websites and aren't aware of the complexities involved.  I 
have found they are pretty understanding when you provide an analysis.  
They also want to see you are responsive, particularly if they 
participated in the usability study.

Grace


Chris Jorgensen wrote:

>Dear Colleagues,
>
>Our library recently redesigned its website. As part of the redesign, we did
>two rounds of usability tests on subjects representative of our population
>(in our case, students and faculty members). Our usability tests resulted in
>a good number of minor changes, but in general, our subjects found our
>website reasonably easy to use. Our redesigned website has been live since
>August 2nd.
>
>Since the launch of the redesigned website, we have received complaints from
>two faculty members that they could not find what they were looking for
>easily on the website. In one case, a very minor tweak was all that was
>needed to make the faculty member happy, so I just did it. In the most
>recent case, the faculty member made some suggestions that would mean pretty
>major changes to the library's home page. Wanting to please this faculty
>member, my initial reaction was to call a meeting of the Web Team to decide
>exactly how we will alter the home page to address the faculty member's
>criticism. But then I started to grow concerned about the ramifications of
>making changes to the home page because of one person's reaction to it, when
>our usability tests seemed to show that people generally liked the home page
>and found it easy to use.
>
>So, I guess my question to you is: how do you balance responsiveness to
>individual complains about the website, while honoring what you found out
>about the web site in your usability tests? Also, if we change the home
>page, are we obligated to do another round of usability tests? And should we
>have to be doing that only three months after launching the site? I
>definitely am for ongoing usability testing, but that just seems excessive.
>And finally, if we change the home page because of this one person's
>feedback, are we doing a disservice to those people who have been using the
>site for three months and have gotten used to it? (Again, I know that you
>have to make changes eventually, but this seems awfully quick.) So.what do
>you do in these kinds of situations?
>
>Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
>
>Chris Jorgensen
>Reference/Web Services Librarian
>Reinert/Alumni Memorial Library
>2500 California Plaza
>Omaha, NE 68178
>voice: 402.280.1757
>fax: 402.280.2435
>email: cjorgensen at creighton.edu
>web: http://reinert.creighton.edu
>
>
>
>
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