UX testing - analyzing the feedback I got from my partner

 In this post I am going to analyze the feedback form my partner created for me. I was paired with Michel and I evaluated his website in my previous post. Michel uploaded a form for me on his blog therefore I decided all the ideas Michel has and see if I like them and if they would work well on my website, and if so I am going to make all the needed changes. 

Overall it seems like Michel enjoyed my website. He gave me a lot of positive feedback which I am happy about. Michel really liked the illustrations I have added to my website. He did point out that there are no social media links on my home page. I think that is a valuable point and I should change that. I decided to add the social media ikons to my home page. 

I clicked on the Add button and picked 'Social' from the list of things to add. I have added a new strip of social media icons. 

Before now I had only have a Blogger icon, however this term I needed to make my instagram sketchbook and portfolio public, therefore I could have also added the instagram icon to this portfolio. I chose them in the same style I was using the icons so far because I thought it does fit the theme of my website that I am going for. I decided to place them in the header because the header is pinned to the page, therefore anywhere on the website the user is, they still can easily access the social media links. 

This is where I have added them on the page. I have connected them with the social media it should be connected with and tried out if it is working. It did work well so I left it as it is. I have also added the instagram icon to all the places that had my blogger icon, that means in the footer and next to the contact form. 

I think this information in Michel's feedback was very valuable. 

In my About page Michel has commented that he would prefer if the picture was in color and I personally need to disagree. I placed a picture in black and white because I think it works well with the rest of the website. I am worried that if I added a colorful image, it would become messy looking. It is important for me that the website is clear and simple, so I needed to critically evaluate this feedback and decide to stick with my first idea. 

Michel has also mentioned that I do not have a finished gallery for my second project. It is true, I am still working on the second project, therefore there is not a finished gallery on my website. 

Another thing that Michel has brought up is the fact that there is not a back button to return back to the portfolio menu. It is true. I have not added it because I was thinking that the pinned menu bar would work as a return button, however now when I look back at it, I agree. There should be a button that would redirect a user from a particular project back to the portfolio menu. 

I looked ad different buttons and thought about the text the button should display. At first I wanted the button to say 'Back to the portfolio menu' but it seemed too long for me. Then I thought about it saying only 'back', but to be honest it looked and sounded really weird in my opinion. Then I looked at different icons that I could use instead of using a button with text. 

I decided to put this arrow icon on top of both of the project pages. I linked it back to the portfolio menu so the page is easy to navigate. made sure it works correctly and published the website with the changes. 

The last thing Michel has proposed was to remove the contact and the about buttons at the top because it is all on the one page with the home page or to just create separate pages for them. I personally like that they are all on one page but I think it is important that the buttons are still there on the menu bar because how can a user know that the contact form is at the bottom of the page. I do not want to make any users confused or struggling to find some information on the website. This is why I decided to keep them there.

I generally think reading Michel's feedback was beneficial for me, I have applied some of his suggestions, but I have not applied all of them because I also have a lot of trust in my sense of how a user would enjoy the site. I think this process showed that I can be critical and not blindly follow all directions given to me. I am glad I have made the changes I did, because I think they improved my site a lot.