Site Feedback - How Not to Ask for It

January 24th, 2008

Poking around the Genentech Web site for some contact information, I noticed in the footer a stylish, simple way of asking for visitor feedback:

I thought, hey, this is a nice graphical approach. A visitor can quickly get the idea of what’s going on: negative/low level of yellow for a “poor” Web site experience and positive/high yellow for a “good” experience. Unfortunately, when you click on the box, what you actually get is:

Holy! I particularly enjoy question 1: “How would you classify yourself?” How about “annoyed and somewhat overwhelmed by your crazed quest for superficial knowledge?” Everything I’ve read tells me that, although nicely compact, this form is a scanning nightmare. My approximation of such would be:

Really, isn’t the only question that you’d care about the very last one? “Did you find what you were looking for?” and if not, why? What was missing? This entire form could be reduced to two radio buttons and a text area.

Entry Filed under: Commentary, Form Design, User Experience