More big sites should do what LinkedIn.com is doing: testing a working design concept in real-time—with actual users. The site is testing a new homepage design (which is very good, BTW). There’s a very clear call to action soliciting input from their user community. Clicking on the ’send your feedback’ link opens a pop-over window with a text box for comments.

I’m surprised that more websites don’t put feedback loops like this into practice. Granted, the site owners probably receive a ton of junk to sift through, but I’m sure they are lots of great insights and commentary that will go a long way towards informing their design decisions. It’s also think that the simplicity of the text boxes results in more candid feedback and is much more user-friendly than a poll or survey.

It would be interesting to learn how the LinkedIn design team plans to assess and act on the data…

Related posts:

• Office Desk/Bed Combo
• The Pleasure Principle
• Interfaces using gestural recognition are no longer science fiction

This entry was posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm and is filed under Experience Design, Research, Usability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.