Opportunity Wales User Survey

Results

As a publisher of a Web site it's all too easy to become complacent and think that you know what your visitors want.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), technology moves on and so do the needs of the visitors.  As a result it's important to talk to your visitors and check that you're meeting their needs.  

At Opportunity Wales we're firm believers in practicising what we preach which is why, in mid-March, we put together the Opportunity Wales Web site user survey.  Comprising some 26 questions, responses were gathered using the excellent Open Source phpSurveyor package.  Over the course of the 6 week period that the survey ran for, some 70 people took the time to fill in the survey and give us their opinions on how we could improve the Opportunity Wales web site.

We've already started to implement some of the findings of the survey and over the coming months many more will implemented as we add new features.

Thanks to all of those that took the time to complete the survey.  If you're curious to know the findings of the survey then read on . . .

According to the survey, 35% of people visit Opportunity Wales just once a month, with 25% visiting less frequently than that.  20% visit weekly with a smaller number visiting every few days (15%).

35% of users were told of Opportunity Wales by a friend or work colleague whilst 20% found us via a search engine, 17% by attending one of our events and 15% by following links to us from another Web site.

37% of users have used the Opportunity Wales Web site for between 4 and 12 months whilst 40% of users have been with us for more than 12 months which is encouraging !

87% of users of the site have registered an account with us which allows access to the members area and means that they receive our weekly email newsletter.

70% of users found the Web site 'fairly easy' to navigate which confirmed our hunch that the layout and navigation of the Opportunity Wales Web site needs a major overhaul.  Just 24% thought that that the site was 'very easy' to use.  Content (and there's lots of it) needs to be easy to find and it needs to be easy to move between related articles - something that on our site isn't that easy to do.

Users of the Weblog feature were split right down the middle with 48% reading it and 51% not.  These results are probably due to the fact that the Weblog box has slowly moved down the front page as the Monthly highlight box has grown.  Since (with a few notable exceptions) the Weblog is updated daily and we want to draw people back to the site more frequently it makes sense to move the Weblog box back up above the fold.

In contrast 85% of users read the Case Studies so we'll be adding more to the Web site and making them easier to access by removing them from the Members Area.  Currently only abbreviated versions are available outside of the Members Area.

A whopping 95% read the articles, tutorials and features which is encouraging and welcome news to our many contributors !  There are some significant gaps in content on the site but these holes will be plugged over the coming months.

The Helpdesk doesn't do so well with 50% reading it and 50% not.  This is probably due to the content being hidden away at the bottom of the front page and because the content is quite specialised.  As a result the Helpdesk content will be phased out and integrated into the rest of the site content.

The on-line version of our eView column (which is syndicated in the Western Mail every month) is read by 68% of our users.

Overall 68% of our users find the Opportunity Wales Web site 'fairly useful' with 28% finding it 'very useful'.  This is good to know but we're not going to rest on our laurels - we're aiming for a 100% rating of 'very useful' !

The email newsletter that registered users receive is read every week by 35% of users and most weeks by 44%.  It's a useful way to notify people that haven''t visited the site for a while that new content is available and will probably remain weekly for the foreseeable future.

61% of users find the newsletter 'fairly useful' whilst just 18% find it 'very useful'.  Looks like we've got our work cut-out to get a 100% 'very useful' rating there !

Of the new features or content that you the users would like to see added to the site, by far the most popular is Welsh business and technology news (70% of users asked for this), with a detailed events calendar in second place (58%).  In third place (48%) was a portal listing all our client products or services.  Work has already begun on resurrecting the events calendar whilst a new client directory is also being designed which will be the first step towards a full client portal.

53% of users own an MP3 player with another 25% planning to get one which is good news as our podcast is now available and can be listened to using any MP3 player.

61% of respondents were male and 35% were female, the rest declined to specify.  91% are located in Wales with the largest proportion (38%) aged between 35 and 44.  25% of respondents speak Welsh.

Armed with this insight into what our users want, work has already begun on adding new features and facilities.  Opportunity Wales is already the best eCommerce advice Web site on the Internet but it's about to get better !