HOW USEFUL IS THE PEMPAL'S WEBSITE TO ITS MEMBERS

Wednesday, October 13, 2010 - 18:30

At the PEMPAL Secretariat we are continually improving PEMPAL website to make it as useful to its members as possible. In order to analyze the PEMPAL members' views on the functionality of the PEMPAL site a short exit survey was prepared.

The key findings of this exit survey are as follows:
•    Overall, the PEMPAL members are satisfied with their experience with the site.
•    Most PEMPAL members use the website on a monthly basis, followed by those who use it either weekly or less than once per month. Encouraging finding is the fact that the percent of those who have first visited the PEMPAL website only for the purpose of providing the answers for this survey is low, indicating that the majority of the PEMPAL members uses the site and browses through its contents.
•    In general PEMPAL members agree that they will return to the website and that they will recommend this site to their colleagues as well.
•    The main reason why members visit the site is to learn about the latest news on PEMPAL network activities and developments and to browse through the announcements of the forthcoming events. Many of them also visit the site after the events to download the Power Point Presentations and other materials used during workshops.
•    Based on the previous experience PEMPAL members have with other sites they in general rate the design, functionality, interactivity and available contents as satisfactory.
•    The biggest challenges identified with regard to the PEMPAL site include the fact that it takes too long to load the page, followed by the fact that information the they are looking for is either not available or not well organized. The challenge of navigation through the contents also remains an area of improvement.

The performed analysis of the PEMPAL members’ opinion on the functionality of the PEMPAL website proves that PEMPAL’s website leaves room for style and substance improvements.  It is important to note that the design of the PEMPAL website and the information it provides are key variables that affect its effectiveness. To increase its effectiveness thus more efforts will be put into keeping the site current, relevant, easy to use and provide benefits to its members as typically users like well-organized sites that make important information easy to find.