Gone But Not Forgotten



Hello, you've landed on DATA eh? - Open Data Toronto's original blog space for data discussions. This is not an active blog at the moment but legacy posts are still here. Have a read ... you can still provide comments.



Monday, January 11, 2010

Friend toronto.ca?

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

We're thinking about starting a facebook group. Actually we have a shell ready from early last year but we decided to hold off going live. Why? The main reason is we aren't really sure if facebook will help our process.

Today, a few of us were talking about the need to continue to build enthusiasm for what we are doing. Maybe a "Friends of toronto.ca" group?


How could that help?
You know, we most often ask what is wrong with the website.  Maybe it would be a bit of an equalizer if we asked what's right?  We want to be careful not to break what isn't broken.  


Afterall, the website gets around a million visits a week.  Surely a few of the people paying us a visit find what they're looking for. Maybe they even have a fine experience surfing us.  So, maybe showing toronto.ca some love would be helpful.

All you need is love
So, let me know if you'd friend up with us at facebook. It might be a place where we could just accentuate the positive. Just check the facebook "yes" or "no, don't bother" below this post (see the blue labels area). We'll be thinking about it a bit more too.




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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The problem with design is that everyone is a critic. I'm not sure asking for continual feedback will get you anywhere. Some will like a Netscape Grey page with animated gifs and others will want a Flash page with cool music.

Design within your skill level and what is acceptable on the Net and there you have it.

Signed: A fellow designer

Open Data - Toronto said...

Thanks for the note Anonymous "fellow designer". I can personally attest to the "some-like-it-this-way and some-like-it-that-way" nature of the biz. To a degree, the web is always going to bring out overtly subjective opinion from users.

In spite of that, or maybe because of it, we very much want to get into the "continual feedback" mode. We want user needs to help shape the decision making here. It's as simple (or as complicated) as that.

If we can get toronto.ca to a point where users have a means of telling us where things work well for them and where they fail - and we can change the bad experiences to good - we'll have made strides on the project.