Attention Mesa, Tempe and Scottsdale Newsletter Readers

If you live in Mesa, Tempe, or Scottsdale, Arizona, and if you would like to help define the future "look and feel" of one of today's fastest-growing genealogy and history web sites, you will want to read the following announcement from Footnote.com, followed by my own comments:

The Footnote team and special guest Dick Eastman will be in Arizona on March 18-20, gathering feedback on Footnote. The team will visit people in the Mesa, Tempe, and Scottsdale areas.

We are looking for volunteers who are willing to let Dick Eastman and six Footnote employees into their home for an hour or so to ask some questions and observe how they use the site. Visits like these provide great feedback for us as we try to improve the site experience for our members.

If you live in one of these areas and are interested in being a volunteer (whether you use the site every day or have never used it before), please contact Elizabeth at elittle@footnote.com.

Comments by Dick Eastman:

These in-home visits are a fascinating experience. It may sound a bit scary to have seven people show up at your front door and then have them all watch as you use a computer. However, experience has shown that the results are worth it. The software developers gain valuable feedback that would be difficult to obtain elsewhere. Those we visited on previous trips all seemed to enjoy the experience. Each visit will last about one hour.

The software developers will ask you to use www.footnote.com, probably accessing some sections that are not yet visible to the general public. You will get an advance look at new web pages and services under development as the software developers record your comments and any difficulties you might encounter as you navigate the pages. Your feedback will then be used to improve the new services further before the public launch.

We are looking for a mix of computer skills. Ideally, we will find a few computer novices, a few computer experts, some genealogy novices, and perhaps one or two advanced genealogists. We would also like to find at least one American history expert who may or may not be a genealogist. The visits will be held during the daytime on weekdays. We can visit your home or your office, assuming your office has room for all of us.

For information about past in-home visits, look at: http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2006/09/looking_for_a_f.html and at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2006/06/looking_for_a_f.html.

I will be one of the people visiting you in your home. I look forward to seeing you there.

If you are a history or genealogy researcher living in the Mesa, Tempe, or Scottsdale area, and are interested in volunteering an hour of your time to help Footnote.com with this customer research, please contact Elizabeth at elittle@footnote.com.

If you are able to volunteer, it's certainly an opportunity for you to make a difference with the Footnote.com web site.

Comments

[Jason Presley]

I think some of the tension of a half dozen people showing up at the door could be handily dispelled if one of them were carrying a giant check for $1,000,000.