Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

My website provides vehicle reliability and pricing information. Current visits are somewhere over 1,000 a day. Most of these people I never hear from. But a few have complained that they find the site navigation very confusing.

So I`m very interested in any suggestions people here have.

http://www.truedelta.com

Interesting website.  I think the (navigation) problem may be because there is a lot of information and choices presented to the viewer on the home page.  Aside from reworking the whole page one solution is to add a link to a site map of your site. It`s a good idea to do this anyway as it helps search bots find all your webpages.

When you say "you don`t hear from them" what are you expecting to hear? While your site asks people to join, it does provide information to "guests".

~Roland

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What I mean is that when a couple people complain that my site is confusing, should I assume that they`re typical or unusual?

With 9,000 members, I get far less feedback than I`d expect to get.

One person recommended a book called "Don`t Make Me Think," but I haven`t checked it out yet.

MK,
I just took a look at your web site, and I don`t see any confusion at all. I see that your main Navigation bar is Ok. I don`t see any problems with your web site. I thought It was easy to navigate. One suggestion though, bring the Price comparison / pricing feature to the front of the page. I think that would benefit your web site more than having it as a menu item.
MK, you know what it is, people are getting lazy on the internet. Come on a book called "Don`t make me think?" Isn`t that what humans are supposed to do in the first place? I didn`t find anything wrong with your web site

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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

Thanks for taking a look at it, I appreciate the feedback.

A few months ago I thoroughly redesigned the main reliability survey. It`s here:

http://www.truedelta.com/survey.php

Old one is here:

http://www.truedelta.com/survey_original.php

One big tip with surveys: avoid listboxes if at all possible. Many people have trouble correctly using them.

I emailed the first 10-12 people who completed the new survey, asking them what they thought of the changes. They all thought it was very easy and clear. But they also said they`d never had problems with the old survey!

One problem I run into when looking for helpful feedback is that the people who have the most trouble with the site are also least capable of verbalizing their problems with it. Conversely, the more capable people are of providing feedback, the fewer problems they tend to have.

I looked first at previous posts, then at the site. I approached it as a customer looking for a reliable car, since that`s actually what I am. I wanted to know how reliable is a Saturn going to be for me. Nothing on this site taught me anything.

When I arrived, I saw the four major categories. When I clicked each one, it gave me a definition. That`s a good thing....but so what? I have a pretty good idea of what "reliable" means, and I`m not interested in reading an article about it.

My "sense" of the site was that I could take a look at some cars and get an overall, owner-based, non-commercial, unbiased opinion of how reliable is each car. That`s not what I got, so I abandonned the site.

You say you`re getting 1,000 visitors/day.  Do you know any more details about what the visitors are doing--are they looking at more than one page, how long do they spend reading each page, etc.?  A good traffic tracking program will help you know that.  They usually come as part of your website hosting.

I also had a similar experience to Craig`s.  I got the impression from your post that your website was sort of like Consumer Reports--charts comparing different vehicles.  But when I saw that I`d actually have to do something major to get to this information--either pay $25 or come back regularly to post info about my car mileage--I was no longer interested.  If that`s how you want it, great.  But it would have been helpful to make it clear near the top of the page (I was on the reliability page) that this was more of a club than a general information site.

One little thing: your line about "Current panel size: Over 11,250 vehicles" is strangely worded in my opinion.  I think of a panel being composed of members, so this suggests the cars are the panel members.  It gives me this odd mental picture of a bunch of cars sitting around in a circle, discussing other cars.

Also, the question about "if a few complain, what do the others think."  What I`ve read in a few marketing books is that the minority will speak for the majority when it comes to problems, and you want to be really grateful for those who do speak up.  Many people who have problems with your company just go away and never say anything, so you don`t know why you lost them.

As far as navigation issues, I think things would be helped if you emphasized the idea that this is a membership/club website, like I mentioned before.  The "sign in" link should be prominent on the home page, not buried to the side, or have the sign-in spot right there.  Pages aimed at browsers/newcomers should be somewhat separate from pages aimed at members.  Also the "Think Pieces" button confused me.  I thought it was talking about pieces of a car, until I clicked it.  "Articles" or "Editorials" might be better.

Also, emphasizing the "club" idea might help you get those non-responding 50% of members to take more pride and interest in "their" organization`s efforts.

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EFFECTIVE WEBSITES
when results matter

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