OpinionLab, Inc. this week released its most recent white paper, "An Audit of The User Feedback Practices of The 50 Most Trafficked Websites," which highlights the feedback practice trends of the 50
most trafficked websites (the "top 50") for the time period 2001 to 2003. According to the report, for the first time, all 50 of the audited websites enabled users to submit some form of feedback. And
an increasing percentage of these 50 websites empowered their users to provide their opinions at the page-level: 64% in 2001, 77% in 2002 and 86% in 2003. However, most of the top 50 continued to make
the user feedback process more difficult than best practices recommend. For example, only 2 of the top 50 ensured that their feedback technique was always visible on the page (i.e. above the "fold").
Additionally, only 14% returned the user to the Web page they were visiting prior to submitting feedback. Lastly, the average number of mouse clicks required to submit feedback increased 10%, from
2.22 clicks to 2.44 clicks. Best practices suggest that users be able to submit feedback with a single mouse click.
