Website Feedback from Volunteers

The website redesign team conducted interviews with ten volunteers on Wednesday Oct. 3 to find out their feelings about Free Geek, what they expect to see in our website and what kind of layout/design would be suitable to their needs. Here are the notes from those conversations.

What volunteers think about Free Geek
Volunteering, Laptop exchange, helping community, helping to put computers in schools and in the homes of lower income individuals, recycling, cleaner environment, Reuse of older computers and their parts instead of recycling them, social service opportunities, working with start-ups and other non profit organizations, educational and learning opportunities, technical support, wide variety of classes, eWaste and how it affects the environment, free geek is a community technology center.

How volunteers generally use the Internet
Research, check for spelling errors, reference, learning opportunities, general browsing, access various types of Wiki pages, email and communication, keep in contact with others (social media, etc), news, blogs and forums, literature, scheduling, manage websites, update computers (searching for updates, drivers, etc), videos, Netflix, entertainment, Skype, school, gaming.

What volunteers expect/want to see on a websites home page
Information about the site and the company in general, contact information including address or a clear contact link, phone number, and hours of operation, what the site or business offers, clear and easy to use navigation, search bar, support information or a clear support page link, social media links, little to no scrolling.

The information and features that volunteers found most useful on the current free geek site
Address; hours; volunteer information; link to thrift store; Wiki pages

Information that volunteers found difficult to find on the current site
Phone number

Aspects of the site that volunteers don't like
Font/color scheme (too basic looking);navigation needs to be cleaned up and made more consistent across site clearly marked, and more easy to understand navigation; website resembles a blog; Wiki pages: are out of date, no link from Free Geek site, should be a linear structure, and should be created using Moodle; too much scrolling.

Things volunteers would like to see on the website
Photos of staff (but omit last name for security?), different departments and building layout; Online scheduling for volunteer time- or the ability to view the schedule online, online tracking of hours, link to email/easier way to contact someone if volunteer will be late or will miss a shift; volunteers should be notified on the website that closed toed shoes are required, and that they get a 20% discount at the thrift store; within technical support information: website should say there is a fee for repair of items not purchased at Free Geek and include a description of the tech support process, also should provide links to alternative repair shops that Free Geek recommends; list of and links to major partners of Free Geek; In the Build Program, website should include link to motherboard schematics, and process to determine if a part is good or bad; instructional videos; technical info about PCs and Ubuntu; more colorful icons; add end dates for posts; more prominent closure notices; recycling: lists of what Free Geek will and will not accept, statistics and information about benefits to the environment; thrift store prices; more detailed instructions (in layman's terms) regarding the Hardware Grant, particularly the application, let them know that they are limited to 3 in a 90 day period; links to social media, including like and share buttons/more active social media presence; link to tech support and class list should be on front page of website; use 301 redirects; better search capabilities and more than one way to access information; website should be designed in a way that is mindful of lower resolution monitors and slower PCs; combine contribution/volunteer icons on front page; more frequent updates of pictures and content; simplified contact page; explanation of what Free Geek does; Use F pattern for more important information; don't use high bandwidth items; ability to check online for class vacancies; On grant form we should add a box so that they can let us know if they plan to keep Linux or not and let them know that support is only for hardware and Linux, let them know that we don't ship and that equipment cannot be picked up by a shipping company;

Things volunteers believe should not be included on the website
Music, Flash, excessive amount of colors.

Forms
For the most part most volunteers found the forms on the site easy to use and to understand, however there was one volunteer that said the internship area of the current site could use some cleaning up and that the forms on the current site were clunky and needed to be redefined.

Search Function
Not all the volunteers have used the search function on the current site. Some of the volunteers liked it a good deal and said that it worked well, while others noted that the search was poorly located and that a fixed width should not be used on the bar so it will not go outside of its container.