Test Your Organizational Skills; Win Fabulous Prizes

Yes, it’s true, and no, Round Robin hasn’t been hacked by spammers. We really want your assistance in a short exercise that will help us organize our new website. And as an incentive, we’re awarding prizes.

So far on this blog, we’ve asked you about website features. Now we’re thinking about structure. For example, if you came to our site looking for advice about attracting hummingbirds, or where to see a Crissal Thrasher around Tucson, or how to get to the Lab to see our latest art opening – where would you look? Which menu would you click on?

We have our own ideas, but we’re not the site’s main users. That’s why we’re asking you. We’re hoping you’ll volunteer 15 minutes to help us in an online exercise.

Here’s how it works: We’ve collected the names of 50 pages that will likely be part of our next website. We’ll show you them on your screen, and ask you to drag the names into categories based on how they relate to each other. This isn’t a test to see if you can get a “right answer” – it just lets us step outside the Lab and look in through your eyes. Along the way, we’ll learn how people associate parts of our website, and we’ll learn whether some of our page names are misleading or meaningless.

If we get enough response, we’ll be able to put the site together in a way most people will find natural. So to boost participation, and as a small thank-you, we’ll award prizes to three respondents selected at random.

UPDATE: This contest ended on Monday, July 28. See an upcoming post for a wrap-up and announcement of winners. Thanks to everyone who participated.

Please click here to start the exercise. Thank you!

And the prizes*** are:

• First: Your choice of any three audio CDs from the Macaulay Library. Choose from regional birdsong guides including North America and the tropics, as well as frog calls, whale sounds, and ambient environmental recordings of special places.
• Second: Your choice of either Tim Gallagher’s The Grail Bird or the Audubon Society Guide to Attracting Birds
• Third: A CD-ROM of the FeederWatcher’s Guide to Backyard Birds, Version 3, including the full text of the Birder’s Handbook. (PC only)

As an alternative to any of the prizes, you may choose a one-year Lab membership (or renewal), complete with one year of Living Bird magazine and BirdScope newsletter.

We’ll be conducting this exercise through 12 noon Eastern time, July 28, 2008. We’ll have the drawing and contact the winners by July 29.

***Needless to say, Lab staff and their families are not eligible for prizes. In fact, if you work at the Lab, we’d prefer that you don’t participate – your prior knowledge of the website could skew our results.