OrconBlog

We have been overwhelmed with the feedback the we have received about the redesigned Orcon website. The feedback has ben an interesting mix of positive and not-so-positive. There are obviously a lot of people out there with some very strong opinions about the site.

Firstly, thanks to everyone who took the time to write and provide feedback. It is extremely valuable hearing about the Orcon website experience from the users perspective.

I haven't had time to reply to the email individually, however, because a lot of the feedback was similar I thought that I would address it here. The emails I have received so far generally fall into three categories:

1. Positive:

We have received a lot of positive feedback. This has been really great to hear, thanks very much!

Here are some examples:

"When I first opened up the site on Saturday, it was a pleasant surprise - certainly striking and different and good to look at."

"What a big difference to open a more attractive page at Orcon, a pleasure to use...Writting an email is more direct and simple as well."

"Nice going on the new website, it's slick and fast, much better than your old one, high five!"

"Much easier to see things and find things, awesome colours. Looks great :)"

2. Suggestions/Issues:

There have been a lot of emails identifying issues with the site and making suggestions. These are the most valuable emails that we get, because although we test the site on a variety of platforms there is no way to cover all of the possible configurations of software and equipment that our customers are using. Here are some of the more common issues and suggestions:

"Not sure about your new look website, but I'll reserve opinion until you've got it all sorted out. However, two things that I noticed immediately: 1) Get rid of the Times New Roman font! I hate it, it looks so old, and does not suit the new look. 2) Put a menu on the Webmail login page so that people can get back to Orcon after checking their mail. That login page only does one thing - login to webmail - you can't even login to your account details from there, not very user-friendly."

We had a lot of feedback about the font (which was actually Georgia), and although we really liked the serif font, we have bowed to popular opinion and changed it. We agree, it is a lot easier to read now. You will also notice that there is now a menu on WebMail, this was something that we had mistakenly left off.

"Don't you have a news and weather page now?"

We are working on sourcing some fantastic new news and weather content. This should be ready in the coming weeks.

"I don't seem to be able to find any kind of link anywhere on your site where I can join up!"

Our online sign up process is currently getting a bit of a massage, in the mean time please call 0508 JOIN US (0508 564 687). We are working to get the online sign up process back online ASAP (should be back by the end of this week).

"I hope the new website isn't considered finished yet... there are heaps of things that I've found broken in just a couple of minutes.. do you want to know about them, or should I wait a couple of weeks and see if they're fixed by then?"

We are aware of several issues with the site, and are working on getting them sorted ASAP. We certainly don't consider it finished at this stage. We would like to hear from people that are experiencing difficulties, because this way we can be sure that we don't miss any problems.

3. Abuse:

A small number of emails were (surprisingly) abusive. While we appreciate some of the creative insults that you have come up with it would be much better if you could identify specifically what it is that you don't like, and even better if you could suggest how it might meet your requirements.

I would love to share some examples of these, however some of the language used is quite colourful, so I will leave these to your imagination.

Please keep the feedback coming: newwebsite@orcon.net.nz