Yesterday over a thousand people visited my blog at least
one time. (With repetitions there were 3703 hits!) Of those only 186 people voted
in my poll. So I’m not sure how reflective the results of my poll are. But here
are the numbers:
Loved it: 12 (6%)
Liked it: 48 (25%)
Neutral: 30 (16%)
Didn’t like it: 59
(31%)
Hated it: 37
(19%)
Is this a representative sample of what everyone thinks? Or is the fact that most people did not care enough to vote make them neutral?
Looking strictly at the numbers, the results are
inconclusive. Exactly 50% of those who voted either didn’t like it or hated it.
Everyone else was either neutral, liked it, or loved it. If everyone would be neutral,
I would probably not change anything because I like the new look. Since the numbers are split 50/50, I am
therefore conflicted as to how – or even whether – to change the look so it is
acceptable to more people. It is also very possible (as one person told me
privately in an e-mail ) that people don’t like change. They come to a website
and expect to see what they always see. And when they don’t, it often elicits a
negative response.
However I am not relying on the poll alone. It seems that
the biggest objection was to the difficulty in reading the items placed in the
sidebar – including the poll itself. Some people could not see the multiple choices
responding to the question asked.
I will therefore be changing the look of the blog again. In
spite of the fact that I really do like the new look, if people are having
problems reading the peripherals, I am defeating the purpose of having those
peripherals. I hope to be able to either modify this template to eliminate this
problem or choose an entirely different template. I hope I can retain some of
the aesthetics and not end up with a
completely bland look. Some people like ‘bland’ I don’t. The primary goal will
be however to make it as readable as possible.
Hopefully by the end of the day, I will have something.
Thank you all for your generous input.
