Tutorial: How to Give Good Feedback to Website Administrators

User feedback is like gold to web designers and administrators. But from the user perspective, it often seems like feedback isn’t being taken into account. Perhaps that’s because users don’t know how to give good feedback.

Before we begin, let’s set one thing straight. If your feedback is nothing but all-caps rage, it will probably be ignored. Sure, you can throw in a few subtle jabs at their IQ, their mom or what have you. But you’ve got to make sure you’re clear about how they can improve the site. Otherwise, you’ve just wasted your time dwelling on your anger when you could have been happily reading lolcats.
http://icanhascheezburger.com/

Here are some steps you can take to increase the value of your feedback about websites.

[1] Give your feedback a descriptive subject heading, title, or first sentence that summarizes the problem.

• Bad Example: “U PPL R MORONS!!!!1″
• Good Example: “Homepage has broken links”

[2] Specify your operating system, browser version and screen resolution.

[3] Include a link to the page where the problem is occuring. This means you need to copy and paste the URL from the address bar of your browser. In most browsers, you can do this quickly with the following series of shortcuts:

• First press F6 to jump to the address bar.
• Press Ctrl + A to ensure you’ve selected all the text in the address bar.
• Press Ctrl + C to copy the URL.
• Go to the area where you’re typing your feedback. Position your cursor where you want the URL to appear in your writing.
• Press Ctrl + V to paste the URL.

[4] State your primary objective in using this part of the site. This helps administrators understand things from your perspective and learn more about why users really come to the site.

• Bad Example: “I just wanted to enter my email address in this form.”
• Good Example: “I need to buy a new ink cartridge for my printer.”

[5] Describe in detail what actions you took to produce the error or problem. If administrators can’t reproduce the error you’re seeing, they won’t be able to figure out how to fix it, so be as specific as possible.

[6] Explain the system’s reaction to your previously described actions. Again, be specific and detailed. If possible and applicable:

• Copy and paste any error message(s) the system produces.
• Include a screen shot pointing out visual display problems.

Repeat steps 5 and 6 if you tried multiple actions that produced this error. For feature suggestions, elaborate on step 4 and replace steps 5 and 6 with detailed specifications about how you expect the new feature to work.

If you’re a web designer or website administrator, what kind of feedback do you find most valuable? What can you add to this list that you’d like users to include when they contact you?

Stay tuned for part 2 – “Tutorial: How to Get Good Feedback from Website Users” – coming this Friday Saturday!