4Paws Client Website Survey

Background
A survey was conducted with our client, Joanne Yates, Board President, and Kathy Exelby, Board Secretary in early May 2011. The purpose of the survey was to obtain feedback on the website experience and identify any errors/issues, typos or broken links. The survey instrument was a questionnaire that the client completed independently while viewing the website from their personal computer. Below are the clients' responses to the survey (Kathy's are shown in blue.)

Name?

Joanne Yates

Kathy Exelby

Hardware

Computer type (Mac or PC)? Monitor size? Monitor colors? Operating system?

Mac with 15.5 inch laptop and millions of colors; 10.4.11 operating system

PC with 17 inch monitor

Browser(s) used to view site (Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer) and version?

Safari 4,1,3

Internet Explorer

Internet connection type?

Comcast.net

Website Experience

What is the site about?

About helping pets and people

It’s clear when you get on the site that it’s all about wellness and learning for people and their pets.

What is the overall tone and feel of the site?

Warm, friendly, alive.

The colors are warm and inviting.

What was your first impression of the opening screen?

Cool. I wanted to know more.

It seems friendly and open which is what we were going for…

Where did you first click?

I liked the cow so I went to Learning.

I clicked on the four boxes on the bottom left to right to get info on our programs.

Did you find the site easy to navigate?

Yes, very.

Yes, very easy to navigate. There is a wonderful flow between the pages.

Were the pages interesting? Why or why not?

Yes, I liked the balance of photos and text. My only comment on design is the way the type appeared in the larger headlines. The different color is very good, but the spacing was odd to me. We might try changing it either to a easy-to-read script or something with serifs. On the home page you have “Improving the lives of pets and people… “ in a font with serifs. My impression is that there’s a little too much space between the letters and that makes it harder to read. People read more in “blocks” or shapes and having the letters too far apart makes it harder to put the individual letters together. Does that make sense?

I found the pages to be very interesting. Just the right amount of info – not too much.

What is your impression of the color scheme and images?

Nicely integrated colors, warm but not dull.

I love the different images of the dogs and my favorites are seeing them in action with their human contacts.

What did you like best about the site?

The photos, but we need more males… that will be one of the first things we do (get more male shots).

It’s easy to read and find what I’m looking for… For example, if I want to donate, it’s clear how to go about doing that with Paypal.

To what extent was the information about 4Paws’ Programs easy to find?

Very easy. The forms are there to download! Yipppeee! But my name is too BIG! I’m embarrassed (Related Articles: Therapy Animals. And, I’m President, not CEO.)

Very easy

Did you find the slideshow? Did it load relatively quickly (if not, how many seconds wait?) Were the slide transitions timed appropriately or too fast/slow?

You mean on the Home page? Is there another? It seemed to load without any difficulty… The transition was fine. When things are too fast you keep thinking you’ve missed something.

A little too slow for me… but I’m a fast reader.

Were there any links that did not work, images that did not load, typos?

Not that I saw, but I’ve also skimmed a lot because I anticipated what was being said.

I’ve looked at the site so often, that I just skimmed it this time, but didn’t find any typos.

What suggestions for improvement do you have?

I think I’d work a little on the type. I realize the difficulties in working with the logo and its very elegant cursive style. Looking at that now, I’m thinking that another script/cursive for the headlines and main categories on the pages (READERS of the PACK” or Frequently Asked Questions (not the boxes on the home page) would not work. What would happen if you just took the air out between the letters in those main headlines?

I’ve mentioned this before, but I still think it needs some consideration. The white space on the top of each page – especially the program and board pages seems way too long. When I first saw that I wasn’t sure if there was anything else on the page or if it was empty. I’m not sure people will scroll far enough down to see the page content. If we need to make changes to our board info, is that still possible? For example, we have a new lady willing to be Secretary and I will be moving to the empty VP position. We will need to get a photo and synopsis of the lady and her dog. Thanks so much! This is going to be so wonderful!

Summary

The client feedback on the website design, graphics, content and experience is very positive. I have asked Kathy for more information regarding the white space she is seeing at the top of the pages (e.g., what version of IE, what is the length of space, is it different on each page?). I have not heard back yet on this.

As a result of this feedback, we will tighten the line-spacing for the titles and subtitles. We will also fix the pdf that is missing a title and has an incorrect title for Joanne.

Future recommendations include getting more shots of male volunteers and adding the new board member's information and Kathy's new title to the Board page.