This morning, I sent out an invitation to 100 people -- a cross-section of students, parents, faculty, staff, and alumni -- inviting them to join a new Virginia Tech web advisory panel.
You may recall that in our website redesign survey this fall, we asked respondents to indicate whether they’d be willing to participate in further research. This is our "coalition of the willing," so to speak. Think of this panel as a sounding board for our development work, helping to strengthen our user-centered philosophy.
As we continue to develop Virginia Tech’s web presence, we'll tap into the advisory panel via e-mail to get feedback on our ideas. From time to time, we also may conduct online “flash surveys” on myriad topics. We can address the panel as a whole when needed, or address a subsection if there’s an audience-specific question we need answered.
From my experience, this is a quick, effective, and inexpensive way to get feedback from an audience. I'd love to hear ideas for how we might further tap into the advisory panel.