So the first look at your new website has landed in your inbox. Exciting! Also a tiny bit terrifying? You want to say the right thing, you’re not sure what the right thing is, and three people on your team have already sent you their thoughts. Just you? Cool cool cool.
Here’s the short version. Tell us what isn’t working and why, through the eyes of the people your website is for. Send it all in one go, ask before you cut, and let us find the fix. Do that, and every round of changes takes your website closer to what it needs to do.
Giving feedback is a skill, and nobody’s born with it. Most people only need it a handful of times in their life, usually right when a lot is riding on it. So here’s how to get good at it, and what you can expect from us in return. (Fellow designers: COPY, PASTE, LOVE. Take ’em and tweak ’em.)
When we’ll ask for your feedback
We ask for your feedback at set points, and each one has its own round, written into your agreement: the creative brief, the copy and homepage design in your Website Directions Document, and the built site before launch. You can see where each one sits in our process.
There’s a reason behind every sentence, every button and every well-placed menu. Some of it won’t be obvious, because it’s built on strategy, psychology and how people read and buy. Remember the moment you looked through our website and thought “yes, this is the crew for me”? Hint: we did that on purpose. Now we want to do the same for your people, and your feedback is how we get there.
Feedback, revisions, and what we can act on
Your agreement has a whole section on this, called the Feedback and Revisions Process. Here’s what it means in plain words.
Feedback is your specific, constructive comments on the work, the kind we can act on. That includes:
- Comments on the words or the design that point to a real change
- Insights on whether it sounds like you and speaks to your audience
- Suggestions tied to what we agreed the website needs to achieve
- Corrections of fact
What we can’t act on is a whole section rewritten by you, because that undoes the strategy, search planning and content thinking built into it. Or “I don’t like it” with nothing more, because it doesn’t tell us what to change. Tell us why, and it becomes feedback we can work with.
A revision is a change we’ve both agreed is right for the project and fits the scope. If a change would work against your goals, go beyond the brief or the scope, or need more time than was planned, we’ll tell you, explain why, and talk through what it would take.
Six steps to great feedback
1. Look through your ideal client’s eyes
Your website is for the people you want to reach, so judge it through their eyes. Pop your personal preferences in a little baggie, zip it up, and come and get them when you’re done.
Then ask yourself:
- Would this connect with the people we most want to reach?
- What would light them up, and what would put them off?
- Does it make it super duper clear who we’re for, what problem we solve, and why we’re different?
2. Keep your brief beside you
At the start, we asked you a lot of questions. Probably an annoying amount. It wasn’t light work, and it mattered: your answers became your creative brief, our game plan, and the thing we design and write against.
Before you review, read the brief again. The most useful feedback tells us where the work does or doesn’t match what we agreed it needs to do.
3. Tell us the problem, not the fix
You hired a problem solver, not an order-taker. The fastest way to a great result is to tell us what isn’t working and why, and let us solve it.
| Less useful | More useful |
|---|---|
| “I don’t like the green.” | “The green feels a bit muddy. We want a fresher, younger feel. Can you try a different shade?” |
| “Rewrite this paragraph.” | “This doesn’t sound like how our members talk. They’d say ‘workshop’, not ‘session’.” |
| “Make the logo bigger.” | “People on our board missed who we are at first glance. Can our name be clearer at the top?” |
| “Not feeling it.” | “It feels corporate, and we want it warmer. Our people are volunteers, not executives.” |
Specific, candid and tied to your goals: that’s feedback we can act on straight away. Corrections of fact are always welcome, and if you spot a typo, we’ll fix it and thank you for catching our human-ness. Our word-weavers have your best interests in their looms, but they’re still people.
4. Ask before you cut
If something surprises you, ask us about it before you reach for the red pen. There’s usually a reason, and once you know it, you might love it. If you still don’t, we’ll find another way to solve the same problem. This is our world, and we want to invite you inside.
We do have three crystal balls on the studio desk, but their long-range reception is a bit spotty. So ask away:
- What are you trying to achieve with this?
- What’s the purpose of this section?
- Is there another way to create the feeling of…?
- Can you explain…?
- And our absolute favourite: in your professional opinion?
We love talking about our work. Questions make your website better.
5. Gather your people, then send one voice
Most websites have more than one person who cares about them: a business partner, a team, a board, a committee. That’s a good thing, and their input matters. Too many cooks in the kitchen, though, and the soup goes in six directions.
So gather everyone’s thoughts before they reach us. Ask your people questions that keep the focus on the goal:
- Do these colours help the people we serve trust us?
- Does this sound welcoming, or a bit stiff?
- If you were one of our members, what would you expect to find here?
Then talk it through, settle any differences, and send us one combined set of feedback through one person. That person needs the authority to make the final call, so we have one clear direction to follow. If you’re an organisation with a board or committee, here’s more on how we work with organisations.
6. Send it all in one go
Each stage includes one round of changes, and a round is one complete set of feedback. Send everything together, through our feedback tool, by the date we’ve agreed. (Not by email: more on why below.)
Feedback that arrives in pieces slows everything down. One complete list, in one place, means nothing gets missed and your project keeps moving.
What you can expect from us
Feedback works both ways. When you send us yours, we’ll:
- Show you how everything works, with videos you can come back to whenever you need them
- Read every comment, and come back to you with any questions before we start
- Explain the thinking behind any decision you’re unsure about
- Tell you straight if we think a change would work against your goals, and suggest another way
- Make the agreed changes in that round: the ones we’ve both agreed are right for your project and fit the scope
- Let you know before any work starts if a change goes beyond what’s included, with the cost, so there are never any surprises
Ready for a website that works this way?
Our process gives every stage a clear brief, a clear round of feedback and a clear finish line. Have a look at our Turn Key websites and Full Tilt websites, see what our clients say, or talk to us about your project.
Still choosing a designer? Here’s how to compare website quotes, so you’re comparing the same things. And our No-Regrets Website Guide walks you through the five things to get clear on before you start.
