Listening to our users

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‘Feedback’

People will often tell us things over the phone, by email or in person when our team attends conferences and events or visit organsiations and clinics. It might be an idea for a new resource, or a suggestion about how we might change or improve something. 

We keep an anonymous record of this feedback. It is presented in our monthly team meeting, discussed and action taken to incorporate suggestions into the ongoing development of resources.  

The collection of these ideas and suggestions helps us focus on specific things, but also gives us a good sense of the trends or themes emerging. When requests build up around a similar theme or topic it helps NAM identify gaps in information.

For example, lots of feedback to NAM highlighted that it would be good to have a really simple resource for explaining HIV to people who have just been diagnosed or where English was not a first language. We were able to fill a gap with a new resource series called the basics. To find out more about this project visit our how your support makes a difference.

We listen, learn and act on what our users are telling us. If you have any comments or feedback about NAM or any of the resources, please get in touch. 

Research

NAM carries out formal research to help us assess the value, usefulness and impact of our resources. In order to build the best picture about our resources we use a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches which in practice means: online and print surveys and questionnaires as well as face-to-face focus groups and one-to-one interviews in person or over the phone.

On a scale of 1 to 7 (quantitative)

We have sent out surveys relating to a range of resources and over the years. These surveys tend to be quick multiple choice, tick boxes with options for comments. We have collected a huge amount of useful information from the 1000s of surveys that have been returned. Thanks to all of you who filled them in and returned them. 

Your survey responses have helped us to:

  • Continue to cover useful topics in our online, weekly and monthly newsletters

  • Improve our understanding of the range of resources most useful to professionals working in HIV

  • Learn about the audience demographic for our e-newsletters; so we can make sure articles are targeted and relevant

  • Evidence the reach of our publications to our funders to show they are being used and are helping people feel more informed, better able to talk to their healthcare teams

  • Understand how and where our audiences are so we make sure we can get resources and information to them in a format most useful to them.

Where, why, when, who (qualitative)

We carry out focus groups and one-to-one interviews, giving us the opportunity to really get to hear what a person thinks and feels about a particular resource. Here are just a few examples of how your input has helped us create something better:

HIV Treatments Directory: improved the structure and layout of a key but rather large resource.

HIV & Stigma: re-named the booklet and redesigned it so it was more friendly, readable and useful. 

HIV Treatment Update: redesigned the newsletter to ‘open up’ the content with more diagrams and images, making it easier to read and less ‘clinical looking’.

HIV Treatment in Practice: made available as a pdf so it is easier to read and print in countries with slow internet connection.

The research and results from surveys and focus groups are turned into reports which are presented and circulated to the NAM team. The whole of the NAM team get to hear what our users are telling us. We then all play a part in making sure the results are integrated into resources and relevant projects.

Through our research and feedback we constantly aim to learn more about:

  • Content: is the language right?, what topics should we cover?, how should we structure information so it is easy to understand?
  • Format: should things be in print, should things be available online?
  • Design: is the size right, is the style welcoming or offputting, should we use more illustrations and images, is it easy to read and does the design help the reader or get in the way?
  • Marketing: do people know where to get free resources, are there other places we should make them available, how easy is it to pick up information, how do people access it at home discreetly, what is the best place to tell people about NAM and its resources?

Evaluation forms

Anonymous evaluation forms are available at the back of all of NAM’s resources and handed out after any NAM event. Information from these forms is logged and presented in our regular team meetings, as well as in reports and presentations.

We know that filling out evaluation forms isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, which is why we work hard to include feedback in different ways. But if you come across one, please fill it in. Your feedback really does make a difference.