Your Feedback Requested on This Beta Blog
Welcome to the Private Beta!
This means you’re someone I trust and you’ve an opinion I respect and listen to!
I’ve decided to get some serious tools for my blogging passion –and I’ll be building out some other features on other webpages (wiki, multimedia, and other subsites), as well as obtaining a domain name that’s easy to swallow.
I’d love to hear your feedback on this new blog and template –How do you like it?
1. Look and Feel
2. User Interface
3. features
4. Information organization
5. Any other feedback.
Leave a comment below with your honest feedback! This post will self-destruct after formal launch. (Actually, this post may stay live –it’s an interesting demonstration of audience feedback.)
I’m keeping track of the changes I’m making based upon user feedback
I won’t do all the changes, but will do best to include where makes sense
To Do List:
1. Added Profile, Contact, and Feed up top (done)
2. Moved Categories to bottom (done)
3. To do: Add picture (done)
4. Add Recent Posts (may not be a template option)
5. To do: add Feed Icon (done)
6. To do: remove ‘meta’ category’ (done)
7. To do: check out display issues in comments (done)
8. To do: Update banner (done)
9. To do: Move banner to server (done)
10. To do: redirect index page (done)
11. To do: Migrate some content from other blog (TBD) (done)
12. To do: Evaluate changing tag line to “dazzle nizzle“. (done)
13. Pre Launch: QA (done)
14. Pre Launch: Cut over Analytics (Andy has profile)
15. Pre Launch: Cut over Feedburner (done)
16. Pre Launch: Inform other site readers of cutover (done)
17. Register Technorati (done)
18. Upldate profile photo (done)
19. Metatags for SEO
20. Submit to Blog Indexes and Search Indexes, (done) Delicious.
51 Comments so far
Leave a reply
It\’s nice Jeremiah. You know I
1. good look and feel.
2. it’s good that the SEARCH box is big and prominent.
3. it’s good that not a lot of “doodads” are displayed - again, a clean appearance is good. (A concept like “strategy” should not be associated with the concept “clutter.”)
4. I would like to see your picture. One, it personalizes the site. Two, if you’re young, hip, and good looking, advertise that fact — it’s the way the world is.
5. With no absolute control over whether the target browser will be displaying via Arial, Tahoma, or Verdana, I prefer a left-justified line with ragged right, especially since there is no word wrap as far as I can tell. Otherwise the kerning of characters is uneven when the right justification is calculated. (This is a personal preference).
6. Related to this I (happily) don’t see any centered quoted text — centering quoted text is a highly unusual practice that I think you should avoid.
7. Plan ahead for categories. Right now you’ve got just a few. What’s your growth strategy? I recently figured out how to display index terms in my own sidebar (www.ddmcd.com) and I’m still working on a rule for deciding when to list the categories in the sidebar versus only make them accessible via the separate section indexes. If you have a lot of categories will your design scale up? (My vendor doesnt yet have a blog-wide search feature so I’m dependent on categories for look-up),
8. Do you have an ABOUT ME page?
9. Why are you doing this revision?
this looks good. it looks just like your other blogger site. i still have a problem with the tag “… delight customers”. are you moving everything over later?
Shirley
What’s the problem you have with that term “delight customers” is it too cheese nuts?
(others can chime in too with suggestions)
How about Bedizzle.
bedizzle nizzle
Dennis-
Great feedback as always –THANKS!!!
1.
Thanks
2. Part of the default template phew!
3. Agreed,I prefer simple
4. Heh, well that I don’t apply…:) I’ll put that up. *blushing*
5. I really prefer the center type of, justification
6. Hmmm, I do that on my current site, I’ll have to think that over, if not do some research on readilibity
7. I’d like to have about 12 total, and if I have more, I’d push the ’categories’ section lower down on the right nav. Wow you’ve a lot of categories Dennis, it’s a bit overwhelming, it may be interesting if you used a tag cloud there (but Martin may not get it)
8. Do you have an ABOUT ME page?
It’s on the top right, and obviously not visible enough –i’ll add to side nav
9. Wordpress is feature rich. and will be rolling out other features (wiki) and multimedia such as podcasting, and maybe video. besides I’m glad to have my own domain name and will be building out other webpages of my focus area.
“delight customers” is OK for a consumer focus but it might bring you into conflict with folks who are focusing on internal communications/collaboration or vendor relations as impacted by web 2.0/social software techniques.
Hmmm my comment above didn\’t like the bolded style in comments
its not a concern –I simply won\’t do that anymore
wow it really doesn’t like the apostrophe
Hi Jeremiah,
Let me respond to each of the categories you’d asked about:
1. Look and Feel
I just compared this to your previous blog and noticed the change in tone, towards a grey background. What it does is gives it a more vanilla feel — which would work if you would like a more professional look, but doesn’t articulate your individuality (like your picture would do for ex.). So i think it totally depends on your intentions. If you wanted a cleaner, more professional look — you’ve achieved it, but it misses YOUR individuality which I think is one of you key selling points.
I like the way the comments are displayed. Neat. But the apostrophe issue is rather distracting. I think it’d be appropriate to have quotes displayed in a similar fashion on your blog posts.
2. User Interface
I like the fact that you’ve brought the SEARCH bar into prominence. It was something I missed in your previous version. “Recent Posts” to me is a great way to highlight your current thoughts. I find that missing and therefore as a reader if you’ve 1000’s of posts, it may actually be a hassle to find the most recent.
I like the simple About icon, but it’s easy to be missed. Actually I liked your previous version where you had
About Jeremiah Owyang
Jeremiah’s Profile
Email me
Subscribe to this blog
3. features
This version is pretty feature-free but I can’t think of any must-haves that you’re missing.
4. Information organization
Well, one concern about categories, is that as you expand them, it’s going to push out your RSS feed WAY DOWN and I wouldn’t want that to happen. I actually have the same problem on my blog. I wish I could position the RSS feed more prominently and that’s why I have a page which says Subscribe.
On a similar note, I think Archives is given way too much prominence. Archives is probably the last thing your readers are going to look for.
5. Any other feedback.
Nothin else for the moment. Will surely get back to you if I have a brainwave or something.
Good luck on your blog.
Hope these comments are of some help
-Mario
I’ve always liked your layout. So I’m glad you won’t be changing much of it - very clean, very sleek. I agree with Dennis, I was looking for an “About Page” and still had a difficult time finding it after reading your reply. My personal opinion is that 12 categories is about where you want to max out at. Too many categories appear unorganized. It almost defeats the purpose of putting them in categories.
As for “delight customers”, I always thought it gave your description a nice pissaz, ending it on a high note. I like it. It cued my interest to read your entries. If you’re looking for alternatives, I suggest integrate or incorporate. A recurring theme of your blog seems to be effectively synthesizing consumer voice/opinion for the betterment of company success. In the end, I still prefer “delight” because it’s a fun, light, and expansive. Bedizzle nizzle ain’t too bad either.
Excellent feedback so far everyone, thanks so much
I’ll be incorporting most of these (esp where I hear a theme occuring) into the feedback.
By the way –asking for audience feedback and involving then in the process is exactly how I believe in running websites or products –at least I practice what I preach!
676479 Blog Verification…
676479…
I\’m making the changes –slowly… see updated post
OK, I’ll try again. I think the site looks good, seamless transition. I like the way you can’t really even tell there’s been a change.
Your categories look good to me and your RSS is auto-discoverable. I give it a 9.5…
WOW thanks Robyn, so cool! High marks from Robyn, rock on!
The experience is seamless yes, however starting over my technorati and google rankings isn\’t fun –oh well, it only took me 9 months to get where i\’m at, so I should be able to do it faster this time.
Shirley (my wife)
How’s this version???
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5761/1482/1600/header3.gif
much better. i can feel the pppppower of those 2 words
Dear Your Wife-
You really should go into marketing or advertising –you’re so ppppproficient.
You have a nice site here. I particularly like how the look and feel is similar to your current blog, which will make the transition seamless. Nice work. I am next. =)
-Chris
Hey, Jeremiah,
Good move to your own URL. You especially need one. Was “web-strategy” taken? My nit on the URL is that “…strategist” is all about you, while “strategy” offers some benefit to your reader.
More comments:
1. Look and Feel
Seems generic. Did someone else say “vanilla”. It’s good to avoid overpowering the content, but this doesn’t seem strong enough.
2. User Interface
In my browser (IE 6.0) the navigation panel is all the way at the bottom of the list blog entries, on the right. It’s got to be a glitch?
Once I find the nav panel, the categories should be in an intuitive order, not alphabetical. e.g. Personal shouldn’t be mixed in the rest; nor should Uncategorized.
3. features
Good. Not a lot of features, and what’s there is needed. Simple is good. The only thing I’d add is a listing of sites and blogs that you feel are relevant to your web strategy readers.
4. Information orginization
Except for the Categories and the Nav Panel glitch, it’s fine. Simple is still good here too.
5. Any other feedback.
A great step to the big time.
Doug
Yup, I looked for a variety of domain names (with the help of some friends) and web-strategy.com was taken, this domain name felt like the best domain.
1) For branding, I\’m trying to obtain \’simple\’ and \’clean\’ however if it\’s too plain, there are some color additions I could add. Any suggestions or samples of sites that would be good to model? Please don\’t say Robert Scoble
2) YIKES!!! That\’s a big red flag, that wasn\’t occuring a few days ago, I\’ll look into it –that\’s a top priority. (Update: This is corrected, I added a table in the sidenav recently with my photo and description –it\’s not corrected thanks)
I\’ll work on the categories –
3) Blogrolls. Yeah, I\’ll think about that –I\’ve been in a situation where it was getting out of hand, I may make a seperate \’links\’ page later. There\’s so many that are relevent, and yet I don\’t want to offend those I don\’t think are relevent.
4: cool
5: Thanks!!!
It occurred to me after my comments, that one of the most interesting parts of the page is the comments from “your wife”. You might consider that as an ongoing feature. It adds some dimension to your online personality and it gives you some honest point/counterpoint. Something to consider…
Doug
Thanks for this, I certainly can encourage my wife to participate, but I can’t force her.
Are you suggesting that without her that I’m actually ‘dis’-honest? If you were, many would likely agree with you
And yes, she gives much dimension to my life! Balance to my narrow focus on web.
Great comments, keep em coming. Made some changes on the categories as you suggested.
[…] Thanks Dan for the tip, I’ve made the changes, and even the older links still work –great tip, hopefully it will help with my SEO efforts. Thanks to all who’ve given me feedback so far on this blog (including my wife’s suggestions to use this banner instead) I’ve also sent an email to my family members that are educators to Dan’s blog –could be interesting. […]
Doug, I\’m not sure how to add more spice to this blog, any examples of blogs that I could emmulate or you think are balanced in design? What if I made the background color on the right and left sides a light blue like I did in my previous blog, would that help?
[…] I’d like to thank James Durbin for some of his suggestions –he’s very knowledgable about blogging, and provided me with a few suggestions (but most I’ve already done). Brian also gave me some advice –thanks bud. And not to forget all those who gave me beta feedback. (I considered EACH reccomendation, and most were implemented) Not as important however but my technorati rankings have now started back to zero, and my google page rank is back to zero –oh well, I’m planning on using this domain for life. […]
Jeremiah - on Bloglines…
Even though I am using your FeedBurner Feed, the blog title link still goes to the blogspot address. This does not appear to be something I can control on Bloglines so it must be something either in your Feed config on Feedburner, or (if you have been able to claim your feeds on bloglines) something in your feed configs on bloglines.
-Clint
Clint, Thanks for notifying me the issues with blogslines is corrected
Doug, I’ve added a blue BG on the side of the body –it used to be a boring gray –should spice it up a bit.
[…] Before I launched this blog, I got some feedback from a small group, then a larger group of folks about improving the blog. I believe in involving your users during the design process when possible. […]
Thank for making this valuable information available to the public.
Hi,
the look and feel and usability is good, but add more information, which may be useful for experienced and novice website designers.
[…] I practice what I preach, in fact, I worked really hard in getting user feedback from the folks that read this blog, read all the comments, and you can see how I made changes directly based upon user feedback –this blog is for you, as much as is for me. […]
Nise site!
[…] That was scary For some reason, I felt hesitant to release my analytics numbers, I think it’s like telling someone your salary, even in this industry of transparency. The visitor graph looks like a ramp, so I know that next year’s numbers will be higher. Ok, done, I feel better now. (I encourage you to try it, regardless of the numbers, it will help you benchmark and set goals for the future) Tell me how can I improve! The most important thing to me is to continue to be 1) interesting, or 2) add value. I’d like to hear from you how I can improve this blog, feel free to leave a comment, and if you want to be anonymous, that’s fine too. I really want to practice what I preach to corporations, I’m open to your ideas to make a better website. (I started this blog with community feedback DURING the design process). If you get stuck, you can think about User Experience, Content, Focus, Technical details, style, or whatever else, I’m listening. […]
Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! crlvsfobpvwso
[…] the banner, and shifted the style sheet. In the spirit of practicing what I preach I actually polled my community to give me feedback about this blog […]