Standing in front of the mirror wearing my new jeans, I fix my hair just so, ready for a night out. Feeling pretty good I turn to my husband and say, “How do I look?”
Why do I ask this question?
I think it’s because there’s value in feedback, especially feedback on things we can’t see objectively ourselves, like our physical appearance. If he thinks the outfit would look better with a scarf, he might be seeing something I’m not. It’s so hard to really see yourself the way other people see you.
But what about your digital appearance? Objective feedback on a blog, website, or online shop would be tremendously valuable. Imagine if someone actually told you what they think, someone who didn’t know you and wasn’t afraid of hurting your feelings. Could that feedback help you improve your digital self?
Several months ago I had a great conversation with Bjork Ostrom of the incredibly successful food blog, Pinch of Yum. We were talking about how to create a blog that really works for users and Bjork recommended something called user testing. Essentially you pay a company that hires regular people to use your website and give you feedback. I thought this was an amazing idea, but not something I could pay for now. Could I coax a neighbor to come over and use my site while I watched? Wait, that’s weird.
Then I heard about Peek. Peek is a free user testing service. You put in your URL and within a few hours you receive a 5-minute movie, with audio, of someone using your website for the first time. That was too good to pass up!
Asking a for feedback means you need to have a thick skin. A stranger probably doesn’t understand what you’re working towards. They don’t know you or have any context to base their thoughts on. But to me, that’s what’s so interesting about user testing! Fire away! Overall, I’m really satisfied with my website programmed by react developers.
Want to see my Peek video?
What did you think? Was she right? Did she miss something?
What if you want feedback on one specific thing, like your logo? Try UsabilityHub. This is another free service, but no video this time. Instead, you upload your image and it’s shown to volunteer users for 5 seconds. Right afterward those users answer three questions of your choosing. Awesome!
Here’s my logo:
I uploaded it and got six responses. When I asked what this company sells two people had no idea, one said glass, one said book, and one said stuffed toys! Four out of six respondents felt that my company seemed friendly.
We also had a website for the UK recently designed by a great web design agency and it’s just incredible what they have produced, so if you need a top web site then give those guys a call.
Both Peek and UsabilityHub have paid plans if you want to dig deeper. I think usability testing is an incredible tool. Find out if the text on your site is hard to read or the sidebar is too distracting. Now if only someone would tell me if these skinny jeans are flattering.
wow. that was really really insightful. Maybe a landing page would be worth it for you? because you have two different customers. the small business owner and the sewist.
This is pretty cool. I’m so used to your blog that none of this stuff would have occurred to me… like, I guess it is kind of weird that you have two different shops linked up here, though I never really noticed it before. I don’t know if I have a thick enough skin to submit my own site to Peek… but I’m tempted to do it anyway!!
That Peek video is eye-opening! Thank you for being brave and sharing it, Abby – I wonder if my site is similarly confusing to someone who finds it without prior knowledge of PlanetJune. I’m in the process of a (very slow) site redesign and I don’t even have a tagline yet because I can’t think of one that explains me clearly. Now I’m even less sure how to craft the perfect tagline, especially when trying to balance ‘what I post on my blog’ with ‘what I sell in my shop’. Maybe I’ll try Peek when my redesign is complete, to see if I got it right..!
Thanks for sharing these sites! What a great idea!
This is really interesting – I understand why you would have 2 shops, your own and an Etsy shop. A question I would ask is how many hits do you get in each one from here? Thanks for the resources! I’m developing my logo and website, but once it is finished, I will definitely get feedback through these resources!
Hi Abby! Thanks for sharing these services. I tried them both. The guy who reviewed my website had some great comments. I already knew my website needs major help, so it was good to get some ideas of how to improve. I also got interesting feedback about my logo. Thanks again!
This is really interesting. First, thanks because I had no idea services like this existed.
Going to think about freshening up some of the language on my blog to make things super clear for new readers about where they have landed.
Thanks Abby. I went ahead and had Peek look at my blog. Good to have some objective feedback, very interesting. Seems you can have a free Peek done up to three times a month. I wonder if another reviewer would make similar observations….
You might be right, Jodi. I am working on potentially moving my site to Squarespace. If I’m able to do it, I will have a landing page. If not, I’ll move to WordPress, but either way I might benefit from hiring someone who better understands web design to help me figure out what’s best.
I actually have three shops! Big Cartel, Etsy, and Craftsy. It’s crazy confusing for people who are coming at it for the first time. It’s hard to know from my end exactly how to present information to make that path clear and easy.
The blog and the shop are connected, but not directly. There’s content and then there are products. If this model is totally new to you, how can you easily navigate through it without becoming frustrated? Interesting questions to ponder.
You’re welcome. I hope they’re useful, Elisa!
My goal is to drive sales to my Big Cartel shop because the fee is much lower than Esty (Big Cartel with Pulley to deliver digital products costs me $30/month. My Etsy fees are sometimes closer to $100.) But, my Big Cartel shop only accepts credit cards, not PayPal. And some customers are just more familiar with Etsy and would prefer to shop there. So I have my Etsy mini on the side for those customers to find. It’s a lot!
Wow, go you, Beth! I’m so glad you went for it and got some good feedback.
You’re welcome, Erin. Me, too. So much to think about!
That’s a great question. Yes, you can do three a month. I was thinking of doing my Etsy shop as well. But that’s an interesting thought to do the same site twice with different reviewers.
I got brave and submitted my logo for my business to UsabilityHub! It wasn’t exactly the glowing feedback I hoped for, but that’s the point, right? I already have some ideas how to change it, then I’m going to submit it again.
I am glad I was sitting down while reading this post, but I just about fell over when I read about Peek! Wow, what any amazing resource. My website is close to launch and this sounds like a great way to beta test it.
Thanks, Abby, for giving us a peek at how Peek works. Originally, I came to your site looking for information on button jointing, so I understood that it was a blog right away. I agree that is confusing to have multiple shops, especially since not all are named “While She Naps.” It makes the visitor work a bit to connect the dots.
Perhaps moving your “Welcome! I’m Abby Glassenberg and I’m glad you’re here. While She Naps is a blog about designing and sewing stuffed animals and running a creative business.” to the top, right under the social buttons, would help orient the visitor.
Thanks again for sharing!
This is so interesting! I had no idea that there were such services and will definitely try both. I guess that I don’t really bat an eye when I get sent to Etsy or then Big Cartel because I’m familiar with this type of creative blog with shop, but I can understand how it might be confusing for someone who isn’t. That’s something for me to consider, too. Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂 Lisa
Wow, great service, thanks for sharing the links and the feedback. And I’ll be honest, I made an assumption about this post from the title, thinking it was going to be somehow related to pattern testing, and nearly skipped over it.
Abby, I’m so glad you shared about Peek and it was helpful to see your video. She did seem a little bamboozled at first, but it really didn’t take but a few minutes for her to be won over by all you have going on! And you look fabulous in those skinny jeans. 🙂
But some of us are both….. and like the mixture.
That’s awesome, Pepper, and it’s totally great that you are taking the feedback and reworking things.
You make some really great points here, Anna! Thank you.
I started my blog nearly a decade ago with no intention of having a business. I named it While She Naps because it was just a record of stuff I was making during nap time.
I needed a logo and business name in a hurry one day two years ago when I began working with Simplicity (my logo is on the pattern envelopes) and just came up with Abby Glassenberg Design very quickly.
Now, I think of my sewing patterns as Abby Glassenberg Design and my blog/podcast/ebooks as While She Naps. I’m looking into a site redesign and move to WordPress and hopefully that will become more clear then.
You’re welcome. When I explain what I do to my parents they are totally confused. It’s great to get that outsider perspective.
I’m glad you clicked through, Katy!
Aw, thanks Ann!
I finally downloaded the podcast app so I could listen to yours! The first one I listened to while I sewed tonight, you talked about Peak so I enjoyed reading a bit more about it. I actually just set up a blogger to blogger ‘critique’ swap for this purpose – to have ‘fresh eyes’! Obviously that is different feedback than this site. I’m now thinking it would be amusing to have a recording of my Dad looking at my blog. I’ll have to check out Peak, thanks for sharing it.
Thanks for listening to the podcast, Stephanie!
thanks for sharing this info Abby – but honestly, I don’t know how your reviewer could possibly not have understood it was a blog! Really??? I don’t how much clearer the caption under your photo could be!!! I think that people who are interested in your products can easily find their way around your blog and website. The tags are very clear. In addition, most craft sellers have their own website and an Etsy site and buyers of these types of products know that already and won’t be confused. As you say, you’ve been up and running for ten years so it might be a good time to separate out the two parts of your business. And feedback and testing for that would be really useful – and outsider perspective can be helpful but just wondering how valuable it is when it comes from a source that is not in your target market, and who doesn’t “get” what you do? All feedback is good feedback I guess – and you just pick out the bits that you feel are relevant to you?
Thank you so much. I am definitely of the camp that all feedback is helpful, even if it might seem unhelpful at first. There’s almost always something to be learned.
This is quite interesting. I’m intrigued… but as someone who only has a blog and a couple patterns up on Craftsy, I’m wondering what kind of feedback I’d get. Do you think it’s worth it to get the feedback now, or wait until I have my own website or online storefront? I’m just getting started with quilt pattern design (all paper piecing patterns so far), and I feel like it’s a niche market that a third party person (ie one who is neither a quilter nor a sewist) may not be able to make heads or tails of some of the terminology, etc.
Thank you so much for sharing these resources! After much internal debate I have had a cold hard look at my shop and feel feedback is most certainly needed, so I’ve gone ahead and submitted to Peek and I’m now waiting for their thoughts…It’s nail biting stuff!
What a great thing, I thought the Peek feedback was really useful. The other, where people only get to look for 5 seconds before giving a response seems of less value. I use your site a lot and am used to navigating around it, was it significant that the Peek woman discovered it was a blog rather than a web site?
Interesting about the confusion with the shops, I thought you were rather canny showing both Etsy and Big Cartel, but it seems to have confused. I wouldn’t have expected that.
Thanks for giving us your insight.
You’re right that it is niche, but niche is what the internet is all about. As for when to sign up for Peek, I think I’d want to at least have a blog set up and a few posts there so that there is something to look at.
Let me know how it goes, Sarah!
All of these thoughts are things I’m taking into considering right now as I build a new site for While She Naps. It’s hard to convey quickly and easily what I’m all about, but that’s what a great site does. I’m working on it!
It was both horrific and strangley liberating, I remember a while back you blogged about Etsy as a platform and the issues associated with it. Last night I watched someone that has never heard of Etsy find my store, comment on my product then through a series of clicks end up in the “Open your own shop” area of the site! As a shop owner it was just horrible to watch, yet explained an awful lot about my stats and where shoppers go from looking at my items. I am now in the process of setting up a big cartel shop, at least this way I shouldn’t loose potential customers through the site being counterintuitive to navigate.
Wow, Sarah! I wonder if you’d mind sharing your video with me privately. One idea might be for me to submit my Etsy shop to Peek, and then have a few other people do the same, watch them all and see whether the hypothesis that shopping on Etsy is just that (shopping on Etsy and not shopping from any one particular maker). That might be a fascinating blog post.
My favorite magazine’s offshoot shared this and it made me think of these services/this post: http://www.fastcodesign.com/3025318/asides/eyetracking-study-reveals-what-people-actually-look-at-when-shopping-online Pretty interesting!
That is so interesting! Basically it seems like people are searching for the right place to look and to click to find the information they are after. Ease of use is so important to me, and is definitely top of my mind right now because I’m working to redesign my site. Thanks for this!
I considered using peek, but I’m kinda nervous. Will this work well, on my personal poetry art blog? Or does this only have to be a business blog, or a site that sells stuff?
You can do it with any site. What is making you nervous? If the person evaluating your site doesn’t like it, you can always just discard their critique if you don’t agree. Just jump in and see what they have to say!