These were the main findings of our survey at the end of October:
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Content and style – you seem to like this in general but quite rightly pointed out that travel tips could do with a bit of an update. After all, it's hardly as though I have not been travelling... There were also many useful individual suggestions as to possible future topics. Thanks.
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Visuals – although there was widespread appreciation of the simplicity of the site (no need to wait for fancy graphics to go through the motions), the great majority of you would, quite understandably, like to see more illustrations. I have been adding the odd photograph and will do my very best to beef things up. Close-ups of labels would be an obviously useful addition and I'll try my best to master the family's digital camera. Watch out in the New Year for some pretty amateur shots of labels on bottles (which don't look nearly as smart as flat labels scanned), but my wines of the week, for example, are often a) chosen at the last minute and b) come from weird and wonderful producers who are not the most media-savvy in the world. About five per cent of you said you really didn't like the site's colours which I think would probably be the case whatever they were. We'll be experimenting with tweaking the design to make the words easier to read.
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Update frequency – views differed enormously on this, although obviously those who subscribe to purple pages feel more frequently informed than those who don't (one of whom evoked a Marge Simpson-like growl from me with his comment 'sometimes it feels more like Jancis' hobby than a fulltime commitment'). I must confess to preferring this from the US: 'Simply put – I'd rather have the news straight from you (at whatever speed) than quickly from an army of hirelings'. That is the nub. There is just me, folks.
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Design and navigation – lots of useful suggestions here, perhaps inevitable for a site that has grown so organically since its humble beginnings in November 2000. We'll be working on the menus and indexing for both the free bit and purple pages and will try to make a clearer distinction between various ingredients.
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Search engine – many comments here. Most worrying was the proportion of purple pagers who are unaware that there is a search engine available – although others feel it could work better both on my text and when searching the online Oxford Companion to Wine. All search engines have their drawbacks, particularly when accented letters are involved, but we will be working on refinements as a medium-term priority, and on constructing a tasting note database as a rather longer-term but obviously worthwhile project.
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Forum – one recurring suggestion from some of you was that there should be an open forum on the free bit of the site (purple pages already has the mediated your turn, a lively, and I hope useful, exchange of views and information between subscribers and myself). DVD winner Mary Garland provided the best response to this: 'Please don't go into open slather forum. The moderated responses make it a much more civilised experience. I seem to remember someone suggested about a year ago that purple pages take this format, but I don't think it is wise. There are already so many out there and the ones I drop in on from time to time can produce personal attacks, uninformed responses and potentially risky [she may mean risqué] remarks'.
Thank you all once again.
Thank you all once again.
Thank you all once again.
