Launching a new website project is a rush. All that careful planning, design work, and coding has paid off. Your website is now live on a test environment and ready for the world - well, your stakeholders at least - to see.
But then, the feedback starts rolling in. And the excitement begins to fade. Emails here. Chat messages there. Screenshots sent without any context.
Suddenly, you're not just managing a web project - you're a detective. Piecing together clues from comments that simply say "Fix this" or "Change that." It's a mess.
But what if there was a better way? Spoiler alert: there is. And it's called a website feedback tool. Curious? Let's dive in.
In this guide, we'll look at:
- What exactly is a website feedback tool, and why is it crucial?
- A survey of 37 web agencies using a website feedback tool
- Key features to look out for in a website feedback tool
- Advanced features, integrations, and workflows
- How to adapt your project management approach?
Understanding Website Feedback Tools:
Website feedback tools are software applications specifically engineered to streamline the gathering, organizing, and managing of feedback for web projects. These tools aim to replace the often chaotic multi-channel communication, which can lead to misunderstanding, lost information, and errors, with a simple and clear process.
Two Different Tools for Different Needs
It's important to note that there are two main types of website feedback tools, each used for a specific purpose:
- User Feedback Tools: These tools are made for websites that are already up and running. They help get feedback from visitors or users of your website, or web application. This could be anything from bug reports to suggestions for new features. This feedback is super useful because it shows you how people actually use your live website and what they think about it. This way, you can make updates and improvements that really fit your users' needs.
- Web Development Feedback Tools: These tools are a game-changer when you're in the process of building a website. They're all about collecting and managing feedback from the people working on the project - like clients, team members, and other stakeholders. These tools are typically used on a test or staging environment and not on the live website. The tools help gather feedback in a structured way, which means less confusion yand more clarity about what needs to be done. The result is a smoother, more efficient process of building the website and a final product that everyone is happy with when it's ready to go live.
In this article, we will focus on the Web Development Feedback Tools. So, let's dive deeper into how these tools function, and what makes them such a game-changer during the web development process.
Breaking Down the Workflow: Website Feedback Tools in Action
A website feedback tool when building a new website typically works in four stages:
- Collection: This is when the tool gathers the feedback, which might include screenshots, videos, and details about the webpage, browser, and device used. This context ensures feedback is accurately understood.
- Organization: Here, all feedback and related data are put in one place, like a project management tool. This step makes sure everyone in the project knows what's going on.
- Collaboration: At this stage, team members, clients, and other stakeholders, can discuss each piece of feedback directly in the system. This feature replaces the need for other communication tools.
- Implementation: In the final stage, the feedback tool keeps track of tasks generated from the feedback - from when they're first opened until they're done.
Now, let's see how this workflow comes to life with a real-world scenario.
Patricia is a project manager in a web agency that is working on a new website for a client named Dylan. When the website was ready for review, they published it to a test domain and shared the link with Dylan. While going through the site, Dylan found that a particular 'Download as PDF' link wasn't functioning as expected.
Let's follow how a website feedback tool simplified this process:
- Dylan used the website feedback tool to submit feedback right on the webpage, indicating the issue with the 'Download as PDF' link.
- Patricia received this feedback in her project management tool, complete with a screenshot pinpointing the faulty link, the specific page, and other technical details. This context-rich data allowed Patricia to swiftly confirm the issue.
- Using the website feedback tool, Patricia added a comment to the feedback, asking Dylan to provide the correct PDF file.
- Dylan received an email notification from the website feedback tool about Patricia's new comment. He replied with "Here comes the PDF" and attached the needed PDF file to the feedback.
- Dylan's PDF file and his comment got automatically associated with the appropriate task in Patricia's project management tool.
- Armed with the correct PDF and understanding the issue, Patricia's developer Sarah was able to fix the problem within 5 minutes.
- Once the fix was made live on the test environment and Dylan was satisfied, the feedback was marked as resolved in the website feedback tool. This action simultaneously updated the status in Patricia's project management tool, keeping everyone aligned.
This scenario demonstrates how a website feedback tool streamlines the feedback process, ensuring efficient communication and resolution while keeping everyone on the same page.
Survey of 37 Web Agencies Using a Website Feedback Tool
To get a real-world sense of how website feedback tools are used, we ran a survey with 37 different web agencies. These agencies were of all sizes, and they use many different feedback tools, including our tool, Feedbucket.
We asked two main questions in our survey:
- How much time do you think your team saves each month by using a website feedback tool?
- What's the biggest benefit for your agency when using a website feedback tool?
Saving Time Each Month
Yes, these estimates aren't exact. They can't be. Every team is unique, and the time saved will vary depending on many factors. Yet, even if these figures are not precise, they are still valuable. They help paint a picture of potential time savings that can be realized when using a website feedback tool.
Below are the distribution of how many hours the web agencies estimate that they saved.
The key takeaway from this part of our survey isn't the exact number of hours saved, but the clear indication that a website feedback tool isn't just about saving a few minutes here and there. As can be seen, 78% of the web agencies estimate that their team saves more than 10 hours each month using a website feedback tool. The potential for significant time savings is real and can have a substantial impact on a team's efficiency and productivity.
Biggest Benefits of Using a Tool
Our second question was about the biggest benefit of using a website feedback tool. We gave these options for answers:
- Making feedback more organized
- Always getting enough information to understand the feedback or bug
- Saving time
- Looking more professional to clients
- Other
How the agencies responded can be seen in the pie-cart below:
While our survey revealed that agencies see multiple benefits in using a website feedback tool, when asked to select just one primary advantage, the majority chose "organizing feedback."
The data suggests that without a dedicated tool, the feedback process can feel disorderly and cumbersome. Emails, spreadsheets, documents, and presentations - all these different formats can create confusion and lead to important feedback being overlooked.
This key finding underscores the value of a website feedback tool. Not only can it save time, but it can bring order and clarity to the feedback process, making it simpler, smoother, and more efficient for everyone involved.
Key Features of a Website Feedback Tool
When choosing your website feedback tool, you should focus on 2 criteria:
- Will it be easy to integrate it in your workflow?
- Does it contain all the features you need?
If you’re not familiar with website feedback tools, or if you’ve been disappointed with the one you are currently using, here is a more systematic approach to defining your needs and setting the right expectations for your next move.
The essential features you should look for:
Feedback Collection:
Each website feedback tool is unique, with some making even the simplest tasks like capturing a screenshot frustrating. Make sure to give the tool a test run!
- Annotation: Users should be able to mark specific elements on a webpage, highlighting areas for attention and suggesting enhancements.
- Screenshots: The tool should allow users to take screenshots and add comments for better issue identification.
- Video recording: Prioritize a feedback tool with a video function. Nothing beats a verbal demonstration for more complex issues.
- Contextual information: Captured feedback should not only be identifiable but also provide information about the context: which page was it captured on, what device, OS, browser, and screen resolution were used, etc. This context allows different stakeholders to identify potential bugs under the same conditions.
Feedback Organization:
While any tool can collect feedback via screenshots or video capture, an effective feedback tool will pair this with robust organization features:
- Tagging and Labeling: Your feedback tool should permit the application of tags and labels to feedback, making sorting and filtering a breeze.
- File Attachments: The tool should provide the ability to attach files to feedback or comments. This function ensures all files are also handled within the same workflow, maintaining cohesion and accessibility.
- Feedback sharing and storage: All stakeholders in your website project should have easy, continuous access to this feedback.
Collaboration and Communication:
Arguably, the most crucial part of a visual feedback tool is its ability to foster better communication than lengthy, confusing email threads.
- Commenting and Discussion: Feedback tools should offer a platform for clear discussions, clarifications, and suggestions tied to specific feedback.
- Notification Systems: Stakeholders should receive real-time notifications about feedback updates, promoting efficient, timely communication among everyone involved in the project.
- User Mentions: Tools often allow users to mention specific team members, directing their attention to relevant feedback.
Implementation and Integration:
- Issue Tracking: Ensure you can monitor a specific feedback's status and mark it as complete once the bug, or feedback, is fixed.
- Project Management Integration: Website feedback tools truly shine when integrated with a project management platform (see next section). Ensure the app you select can integrate with your preferred project management system.
Streamlining Workflows with Website Feedback Tool Integrations
Introducing new tools and workflows can often be a challenge, particularly in larger organizations. The beauty of website feedback apps is their ability to complement rather than complicate your processes. The most effective ones will integrate seamlessly into your workflow.
What you want from your new visual website feedback tool:
When adopting a new website feedback tool, consider these other factors that we haven't discussed so far:
- Ease of Installation: Opt for a tool that promises a straightforward installation process without demanding significant developer resources. It should be as easy as just inserting a script tag into the website.
- Self-sufficiency: Your chosen tool should not require additional third-party apps for tasks like screen capture or communication. No extensions or registrations should be needed to submit feedback.
- User-Friendly: The tool should be accessible to all team members, including those without coding skills, and should not necessitate extensive training.
- Compatibility: Perhaps most importantly, your new tool should integrate smoothly with the project management platform you're already using. You don't want to overhaul your workflow for a minor facilitator.
Remember, website feedback tools are often used across multiple teams and companies including clients, design agencies, developers, project managers, etc. Therefore, ease of adoption is crucial. Incorporating a new tool should not impose additional burdens on these stakeholders, or it will have the risk of not being fully adopted. A partially used communication tool, with conversations scattered outside of it, serves no one.
Key Features for the Integration
Once you're confident that your chosen website feedback tool will integrate with your project management platform, look for these capabilities:
- The integration should enable the transmission of feedback with all associated contextual information and attachments (like images or videos).
- It should allow feedback items to be sent to specific projects or task lists for easy sorting and sharing.
- The integration should support two-way communication; for instance, comments made directly in the project management platform should also reflect in the feedback tool. Resolving the task in the website feedback tool should also resolve the task in your project management tool.
Explore the various integrations available for Feedbucket and see how it can effortlessly streamline your workflow.
Key Benefits of Website Feedback Tools
Website feedback tools bring many benefits that make life easier for everyone involved in a project - the project manager, the developer, and the client.
Benefits for Project Managers:
- Efficient Communication: Feedback tools keep all comments, questions, and updates in one place. This reduces the need for sorting through multiple email threads, making project management much smoother.
- Organized Feedback: All feedback, along with the important details and related tasks, is collected and organized in one place. This means no important feedback gets lost and everything is easy to find.
- Automated Task Creation: Project managers no longer need to manually create tasks in their project management tools. The website feedback tool automates this process, saving precious time and minimizing human error.
Benefits for Developers:
- Detailed Bug Tracking: Feedback tools provide all the details needed to understand and fix reported issues. This makes the bug tracking process more efficient and effective.
- Happy developers: Developers often struggle with unclear or incomplete feedback. A website feedback tool captures the necessary context and detail, saving developers time and frustration. Clearer feedback means happier developers and higher quality work.
- Prioritization and Planning: Developers can rank issues based on their severity and impact. This helps in planning work and using resources efficiently.
- Continuous Improvement: Feedback tools enable developers to improve their web projects over time, leading to better user experiences and happier customers.
Benefits for Clients:
- Effortless Feedback Provision: Website feedback tools simplify the process of providing feedback. Clients can provide feedback directly on the website, without the need for capturing screenshots, documenting details, or sending numerous emails. This makes their lives easier and speeds up the entire process.
- Transparency and Visibility: Clients get a full view of the project. They can track the progress of their requests and see how the project is moving forward.
- Faster Iterations: By using feedback tools, clients can provide feedback quickly. This speeds up the project and reduces the time it takes to get results.
- Better Project Outcomes: The use of feedback tools encourages collaboration, which leads to projects that more closely meet the client's needs and requirements.
By using a website feedback tool, one can improve workflows, increase collaboration, and create better web projects.
Conclusion
Website feedback tools have transformed the landscape of web project management, ushering in enhanced efficiency, teamwork, and overall project success for developers and clients alike. Choose a tool that integrates seamlessly into your workflow, and prepare for a surge in productivity and significant time savings.
