Every website project hits the same moment. The design is up on a staging link, the client is excited, and then the feedback arrives in a sequence of emails. Then two more. A screenshot with a red circle on it. A voice note from the car park. A forwarded message from the managing director that starts with “a few thoughts”.
None of it is wrong. Clients are busy, and they send feedback the way they send everything else. But somewhere between email four and the WhatsApp message, a change goes missing, and that is the one they notice at launch.
We know this moment well because we have lived it on hundreds of projects. If you’re wondering who we are: we’re White Rabbit, a design agency in Newmarket that has been building brands and websites for New Zealand businesses since 2011.
This is the story of how we fixed client feedback on website design for our own clients, and why the fix turned into a product.
Why website feedback goes sideways
The problem is rarely the client. It’s the container.
Email was built for conversations, not for pointing at the third button on the mobile menu. So clients describe what they mean (“the blue bit near the top, on the second page”) and designers guess. Most of the time we guess right. When we guess wrong, it costs a round.
Then there’s the sign-off. A client approves a design on a call, someone else on their team sees it a week later, and the approval quietly evaporates. Without a record of who approved what, and when, the project drifts.
We tried the popular review tools. They helped with pointing at things, but our clients had to create accounts to use them, and many simply didn’t. A tool only works if the client actually opens it.
What we wanted instead
We wrote a short list on the whiteboard in the burrow:
- A client clicks the thing they mean and types. No account, no password, no plugin.
- Every comment lands on the exact spot, on the right device size.
- Feedback comes in numbered rounds, so everyone knows which changes belong to which round.
- When the client finishes a round, it locks, so nothing sneaks in afterwards.
- Approval records a name and a time, so sign-off actually means something.
- Reminders go out on their own when feedback is overdue, so nobody has to chase.
Nothing on the market did all of that in a way our clients would actually use. So the team built it.
Meet HopBack, the client feedback tool we built
HopBack is what came out of that whiteboard. We paste in a website link or upload a design, PDF or video, and send the client one link. They click and comment. That’s the whole learning curve.
On our side, the comments arrive pinned to the page, sorted into numbered revision rounds, with the browser and screen size attached. When the client is happy they press Approve, and that approval is saved with their name and the date.
What changed for our team
We use it on every website design project now, and on logos, brochures and packaging too. It changed our process in two ways we didn’t expect. Rounds got shorter, because clients give clearer feedback when they can point. And launch day got calmer, because the list of changes is one list, not five inboxes.
What it means if you’re a White Rabbit client
If you’re working with us on a new site, here’s what your feedback rounds look like.
We send you a link
When a design or build is ready for review, you get one HopBack link from us.
Open it anywhere
Open it on your laptop or your phone. There’s nothing to sign up for.
Click and comment
Click anything you want changed and type what you’d like. Add as many comments as you like, and loop in your team with the same link.
Press Finish
When you’re done, press Finish. That closes the round and tells us we’re good to go.
Approve it
When it’s right, press Approve. You get a record, and so do we.
It takes about as long as writing the email would have, and nothing gets lost.
Can other agencies use it?
Yes. Other agencies started asking about it after seeing it on joint projects, so HopBack is now available to any agency, freelance designer or print studio. It runs on its own site at hopback.io, with a free 14-day trial and no card required. We still use it every day, so every update gets tested on real client work first.
A better website, minus the email chain, with White Rabbit
Planning a new website, or a redesign that doesn’t get lost in email? Our Auckland team designs and builds sites with a feedback process clients find easy.
Take a look at our website design work, or get a free quote and we’ll show you how a round works.