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Lacey has six years of experience in online marketing and advertising and works as a Senior Interactive Architect at Convio. She consults with new and existing non-profit clients to help them get more value out of their sites by looking at them from their users' perspective and then evaluating the architecture and experience of the site as a whole. Prior to joining Convio, Lacey received a B.S. in Advertising from The University of Texas at Austin with a specialization in Interactive Advertising. She also spent two years working for a high-tech advertising firm in Austin, Texas after graduating from college, where she focused on Interactive projects. Lacey resides in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband and works from her home office with her dog, Reilly. When she's not working, Lacey loves to cook and also enjoys yoga, watching movies and hunting alligators. |
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2010 Nonprofit Fundraising Data and Benchmarks
You may have heard that back in April, Convio released our 2010 report on nonprofit fundraising. We publish these reports annually and they are powerful tools to help you evaluate how your nonprofit stacks up against other, similar organizations.
Following up on Amber’s post yesterday, you’ll want to start by monitoring your web site traffic and fundraising statistics. Then, use the benchmarking report to identify some areas where you may be able to improve. One of the greatest benefits of a web site is that you can change it at a moment’s notice, so try making some changes on your site to improve your stats. Lather, rinse, repeat. What is your web site's visual hierarchy? Posted by at May 19, 2010 11:36 AM CDT
Categories: Usability What catches your eye when you look at your web site’s homepage? What is the first thing you see and the first thing you want to click on? These are questions we almost always ask during a usability test to ensure our visual hierarchy is coming through clearly and consistently. Think of the visual hierarchy as the pecking order of a page’s content, providing cues as to what’s most important. If your organization wants, first and foremost, to bring in donations, then a compelling ask should rank high in your list. Maybe you’d rather get visitors to take an action alert or read a new study you’ve published. Your visual hierarchy should reflect your organization’s goals, whatever those may be at the time. Take a look at the Blockbuster web site. Since Netflix arrived on the scene, one of their goals is likely to obtain subscribers to the DVD-by-mail program. From their homepage, the first thing I see is the “Try it free” button on the “Movies Delivered” promo. The “Learn More” for Blockbuster On Demand also stands out, which is likely reflective of another one of Blockbuster’s goals. The Jewish National Fund site also demonstrates a good visual hierarchy. My eyes are drawn to the “Donate” button in the top navigation bar and the graphic in the “Plant a Tree” promotional box, both of which are major goals for the organization.
Many of you may be so used to looking at your web site that you may not see a visual hierarchy anymore. Or, the one you do see may be artificially influenced by what you know is most important. In that case, have a friend take a look at your site and tell you what they see first. You could try a “5-second test” where you display the homepage for 5 seconds, then close it and ask your friend to write down what they remember. If their list does not correspond to your organizational goals, then consider rearranging the page or redesigning certain elements. You’re likely to see more clicks and actions taken as a result. Tackling your content inventory Posted by at Apr 27, 2010 11:18 AM CDT
Categories: Content Management After my last post, a reader asked for more information and instruction on creating a content inventory. What a great idea for a follow-up post! Maintaining an up-to-date listing of all content on your site will help your web team make decisions about adding new content and removing or updating outdated content to keep your web site fresh and entice users to come back. Also, content inventories are essential for any web site redesign to ensure the new site structure accommodates all types of content you’re looking to include. So, how do you make one?
Below is an example of a content inventory for convio.com where we've completed a few lines. Hopefully these guidelines will have you on your way to developing an inventory of your own. Feel free to post questions or ideas in the comments.
Is your navigation representative of your entire site? The question I pose today may seem really obvious, but I’ve noticed lately that many organizations try to make their web sites look simpler than they actually may be. I think it's often because the web site has grown and evolved so much that its navigation and design is no longer suitable. Great news though - there is a way to ensure your navigation evolves along with your web site! I posted a long while ago about navigation best practices. Today, I want to hone in on one of my navigation test questions: “Is your navigation representative of your entire site?” Starting with a content inventory is always a good way to test this out. Content inventories, though perhaps not so fun to make, will make maintaining, optimizing and eventually redesigning your web site so much easier. I cannot stress enough the benefits of keeping an up-to-date inventory of every page on your web site.
Now that you’re going to run out and make one, keep it consistent with your web site’s navigation and/or sitemap so you can easily see where everything fits. As you evaluate your content and add new content, there should be a logical “home” for each item. If there isn’t a natural fit, flag the item in your inventory and consider changing your navigation once you observe several flags. A few questions to consider when testing whether your navigation reflects your sitemap…
Keep in mind that your navigation should scale with your web site so that you’ll easily be able to change it as you begin answering “yes” to many of the above questions. Unfortunately, your web site will never be done - continuous evaluation and iteration is key to staying successful online. Have you noticed any of these symptoms on your own site or on other web sites? Feel free to share ideas in the comments.
Redesigning SafeKids.org Yesterday, Safe Kids Worldwide launched a brand new website. During the redesign process, Safe Kids worked with Convio to conduct significant user research to ensure the new site would meet the needs of their various audiences. The new site looks great and is much easier to use than the previous version - nice job Safe Kids!
On the heels of a previous post I wrote about "The 10 commandments of effective homepage design", I thought I'd compare the old Safe Kids homepage to the new one along the lines of those commandments. Here's a look back at the previous homepage...
I. Thou shalt clearly state who you are and what do you. The old homepage did convey who Safe Kids is with a nice tagline and a photo of the child in a carseat. The new site, however, provides an even stronger message about who Safe Kids is with a more descriptive tagline and larger photographs of happy children.
Some of Safe Kids's online goals include capturing email addresses and increasing donations. Unlike the previous site, the email sign-up is now available on every page in the new site. The homepage also includes a "Donate Now" promotion below the left navigation.
Safe Kids previous navigation was confusing and not tuned towards Parents, who are their primary audience. The new navigation not only offers clear and concise options in the left nav, it also offers audience-specific options in the top tabs in case a user identifies specifically with one group.
Safe Kids new homepage offers dynamically updated content under "What's New" and also under "Product Recalls", which are very popular among visitors of their website. The previous site offered up-to-date content, but it was not easily scannable and trailed down the length of the page.
The previous website did not offer any cues or entry points for each audience group, but the new site provides tabs for each one, which allows Safe Kids to consolidate relevant information in an audience-specific way.
The old web site included several promotional items on the right side that tended to compete for attention. The new site has a clear visual hierarchy that points first to the rotating feature area and also the options below "How You Can Help" with the icons used in that section.
The "How You Can Help" section on the new homepage offers, at a glance, a listing of ways users can get involved today. The old website did offer ways to get involved, but they were scattered about and difficult to locate.
The new web site does include a rotating feature graphic, but it is not intrusive and does provide the most important content on the page.
The old homepage scrolled for pages and pages. The new homepage does offer all navigation and the feature area above the fold, along with headlines for the rest of the content so that users know there is more to see.
The old homepage was text-heavy, with very few graphics. The new site offers more imagery, which is all supported by relevant content and/or calls to action.
All-in-all, the new website abides by the "10 Commandments" and is a great showcase of how user research can really pay off when redesigning your site. Way to go Safe Kids! |
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