Visual and functional feedback is an integral and crucial part of the website development process that so many overlook and regret later.

It can also be a very annoying and sometimes frustrating part of the process, especially if you have to provide and receive feedback for visual projects over the phone or email. We have a few tips that can help ease the pain! Sometimes focus groups simply aren't in the budget, but friends will give their opinion for free (even when you don't want it!). So, when we are working under a tight budget, I suggest clients ask a handful of friends and colleagues to review the various stages of a site design just to get opinions on things like: does navigation make sense, what draws your eye first (second, third), and later on... is anything "broken" in your browser. I suggest you ask people who might actually buy your product or utilize your service. So if Aunt Mable is not your target audience, consider leaving her out of the mix, or simply give her feedback less weight. She could throw off the curve.

Now, here's the real tip! While on one of our internet outings, we found another great FREE tool that lets you provide feedback for web pages in a precise and visual way. So no more never-ending emails or phone calls that go something like this: “remove the third comma in the fourth sentence of the second paragraph of the text in the right lower corner next to the picture of a guy in a suit to the right of our partner logo on the page that has that cute animated banner on the left-hand side below the round button.” Now that's a mouth-full! Imagine how much time you could spend just on the phone.

If your looking for a better way, we suggest: Bounce. It's FREE and there is no registration, login, or email required! Doesn\'t get any better than that. It is very easy to use and lets you quickly share your visual feedback with other collaborators. With Bounce app you can precisely mark the element you are commenting on and leave a note right there next to it, so there is no confusion about what you are referring to. If you have ever used the comments tool in Adobe Reader, you are going to be very comfortable with this application.

How it works:

• All you have to do is go to Bounce and enter the URL of the web page for which you want to give feedback.

• Then Bounce will fetch the screen-shot of that web page for you, so you can start peppering it with constructive feedback.

• Enter your name at the top, so others know who made any particular comment.

• Then just drag a box around the element that bothers or excites you and leave a comment.

• Keep boxing things up and once you\'re done, hit save on the top right of the page.

• You\'ll get a unique URL that you can share through email, Facebook or Twitter. If you want some privacy, then please register.

You can read more about it and get a visual description of how it works on BounceApp.

Now you can provide feedback for web pages with ease and confidence, knowing your comments will (most likely) be understood the way you intended!

P.S.: Just don\'t say something like “nice design, but how about adding some neon green buttons that blink?” It drives designers crazy, trust me, we know!