Recently I have been seeing a lot of ‘feedback’ buttons on websites. These buttons started popping up everywhere recently (well, they have probably been around for quite a while, but I’m starting to notice them now.)

The websites that have added this feature know what they are doing. Feedback is an important part of having a website.

Why feedback matters

The Feedback button is provided by User Voice.

It’s pretty obvious why feedback matters. You should shape your website for the people that use it. And who is better to ask how to do this than the user’s of your website themselves? Not everyone will submit feedback, but there are always a few kind, considerate users that will take the extra seconds out of their life to help you make your website better. Or, if you are lucky, there will be lots of people willing to help.

How to use feedback

The users of your website (especially the ones that are kind enough to take time to give feedback) probably aren’t wrong. If they think of something that you could do to make your site better, in most cases it will improve your site in some way. You shouldn’t take all feedback, though. Some ideas may make your site better for some people, but worse for the whole population. Depending on your website, you might want to run ideas through members before implementing them (perhaps by a forum topic?). You should also weigh advantages versus disadvantages, and the necessity of the modification. If a suggestion would take hours of work to implement, and it wouldn’t have a huge affect on the usage of your site, move it to the bottom of the list. Never forget about ideas that aren’t the most efficient at the moment. They might come up later in the development of your website. A third way to judge feedback is to look at it from the user’s point of view. Ask yourself: If I was this user, would I ask feel this way? Why? This can help you decide on actions to take based on feedback.

The ‘feedback’ button

The feedback button that I have been seeing is provided by http://uservoice.com/. It’s a cool site that allows you to add a feedback button to your site and also track the feedback given by users. I’ve never used it (a blog isn’t really the best place for it), but it seems like it is a legitimate way to make your site better.

Not all websites require a feedback button. A blog, forum, or other type of website that encourages communication should be fine without one. You should set up different areas for users to send feedback (maybe a forum category). It never hurts to hear users’ ideas.

Tags: 'Feedback' Button, User Voice, Website Feedback