The person behind that user session

Recently, Greystone.Net was helping a client hospital with a business plan for its Web site. As part of the arrangement, we designed, launched and managed a web satisfaction study for them. This is something that we are doing more and more these days, as organizations seek to add customer input into their redesign efforts. My background is in research, so I am usually heavily involved with these engagements. In order to entice web visitors to take the survey, the client hospital offered an iPod as an incentive. Once the survey was closed, we held a random drawing for the winner. Under the careful watch of several witnesses, I randomly drew several names and notified the client of the winners. (we usually draw several names in case the winner cannot be reached) I thought that would be the end of it. Well, here comes the heartwarming, "'tis the season" part of the story:  the other day, I got a call from the client, who shared with me that we had truly picked a deserving winner. The iPod was being sent to a woman who had taken the survey while searching on the hospital web site for information about dialysis for her teenage son’s kidney disease. As you may well know, kidney dialysis involves frequent visits where the patient is hooked up to a machine and must not move for an extended period of time. To help pass the time, the young man with kidney disease had asked for an iPod for Christmas. As it turns out, the winner of the iPod had just been laid off of her job, and was not going to be able to give her son what he wanted this year. I would give anything to have seen the look on her face when she found out that she was the winner, and that she would be able to give her son some peace and happiness in the midst of a devastating illness. The holidays are a time that remind us of the importance of all the wonderful people in our lives. I think that it is also a good time to think about the real life humans that are visiting your organization's Web site.  I know from personal experience that it is all too easy to get "caught up in the numbers," and forget about what you are really trying to accomplish. While you can't give every Web visitor an iPod, maybe you can make their life just a little bit easier. In some cases, you just might make somebody’s day, or even their year.