Getting user input!

September 17, 2002 | 0 Comments

In the last few weeks I’ve thought much on different ways to get some actual user input into my work. It’s a tricky proposition. Down at the hospital we’re really getting into this and I think that since we’ve had next to nothing as far as user input up thus far (at least since I’ve been there) we’re in for some really great information.

We have a survey going up on our intranet, have put in place some great reporting tools and have involved some of our stake holders in some usability exercises. Today I came across a great article, if a bit old, on this subject. In the future we have some more ambitious usability testing planned, but for now it’s one step at a time.

The thing is, as a Web professional I can make informed guesses about what my users want - but unless I have some sort of dialogue set up with them, that is all they are - informed guesses, or, in many cases in just boils down to simple opinion. I’ve often encountered situations where these opinions can really bog a project down - especially when people don’t agree on things within a team.

It’s really good, and very interesting, to get actual people who use our sites involved with the whole process of a redesign - why just today I got an email from Alaska Airlines giving me the lowdown on the design they are going to launch in a few weeks. It looks good, and I appreciate them giving me a heads up - afterall, I use the site quite a bit.

Anyway - I guess I’m excited that our intranet redesign is actually getting to the phase where we get some tangible feedback from people outside of our team that use the sites. We had a card sorting exercise with our review board and it was interesting to see how these people viewed our information architecture. I think in the future we might present these a bit differently, but it’s a learning experience for us as well. I think only goodness will come out of it in the end.

I know all of this might sound like a no brainer, but we’ve just not really had the opportunity to connect with our users in these ways before. For a number of reasons. Lack of resources, red tape, apathy, etc. Anyway - I’m finally seeing all the usability theory I’ve learned go into practice. Yee haw.

I’m interested to see how others tackle getting users input, or maybe just some usability lessons learned. Got any ideas? Post them here - or if you like - give some feedback about this site and how you use it.

Filed under: IA and Usability