A tip of the hat to my brother Frank for sending along this article from Slate regarding how people are reading (or, perhaps more importantly, NOT reading) on the web.
This article is well worth the read - and while it is about reading on the web - there are some great tips for web design, too:
- Use short paragraphs
- Use an easy to read font such as Verdana
- Have ONE idea per paragraph
(Here’s the article that Slate refers to - it’s written by Jakob Nielson, and is called "How Users Read On The Web")
This is important stuff, because our expectations haven’t lined up with reality in this area - it reminds me of the "donate now" hopes from the mid 1990’s.
Nonprofits thought that a simple donate button would revolutionize their fundraising - and it didn’t. Don’t get me wrong there is a LOT of potential in both the donate now button and that hope that you can easily connect in a meaningful way with your stakeholders. But there is a LOT of work involved in both.
The folks at NTEN have turned out a survey regarding how nonprofits are using Content Management Systems. Since NPower Seattle uses Plone - I was delighted to see that Plone achieved high marks in Quality, Support, Usability and more.
You can download the entire study from the NTEN website -free if you are an NTEN member.
A lot, it turns out - your designer can make choices in the design phase that can significantly reduce the ease in which search engines can find your site.
Search Engine Optimization is important -both during the design phase of your project AND after your site has launched.
During design, you’ll want your designer to understand how and when the use of tools such as Flash or AJAX may reduce the searchability of your site - and you’ll want to review those choices and measure the benefit: is it better to look great or is it better to be seen? This is a business choice that you should make before you approve your design!
AFTER the design phase - you’ll want to keep an eye on your keywords, the titles of your pages, and much more. There’s a terrific SEO Guide for Designers available at Web Designer Wall - it will take you all of 5 minutes to read - but a lot longer to implement!
PS - We implement Plone here at NPower Seattle - and I’m happy to report that Plone does a terrific job with “friendly names” and with other items mentioned in the article, such as managing your keywords!
We’ve been implementing Plone and Salesforce for the last pair of years - and I was thinking about my early days at NPower. When I began working here 5 years ago - there weren’t a lot of software options from the open source community that we thought were a good fit. Sometimes, it was because the software wasn’t ready. Sometime it was because the software was great - but there wasn’t any documentation. And sometimes it was because there didn’t appear to be a strong enough community to support that software.
That has changed a lot - and lately, I’ve been thinking about the different way some software is described - here’s a quick primer:
- Open Source: This is software that you can acquire and install and can modify the underlying code to make it do what you want. For example, Plone is open source, and Photoshop is not.
- Open Data Model: This has more to do with the vendor than the software - but when I think of “open” software, I think of if I can access and manipulate that software and if I can integrate it with other tools. For instance, both Plone and Salesforce have an open data model - they can exchange information freely (provided someone knows how to connect them, and we do!) without breaking a licensing agreement or paying an additional fee. Blackbaud products aren’t open - if you connect without purchasing an additional license, you void your contract.
- Open Pricing: This is admittedly fuzzy. But I think that if a vendor is selling a product, they ought to commit to a pricing structure, even if they best they can do is offer a range. Some tools are free or freely available. For instance, Plone is free to use (but probably not free to configure). Salesforce will grant you 10 licenses if you are a qualifying nonprofit - but you should probably find an expert to help you configure and import your data. And many Microsoft products are available for an administrative fee.
I’m pretty excited about the combination of all three of these “open” descriptions - some items are free or freely available, some are easy to integrate, and some are transparent about their pricing model. All told - this translates to good news for the nonprofit sector!
The folks at TechSoup continue to provide quick and salient information about web design - I’ve blogged about a lot of these - but a reminder almost always helps. The article (which you should read) mentions 5 Principles - here’s my favorite:
Design is not Art.
Art is about personal expression. It is about the life, the emotions, the thoughts and ideas of the artist. It matters very little what observers do; their activity is not required, only their appreciation. The practice of Art doesn’t require them. It is a necessary activity for the artist and the artist alone.
Creating a terrific design is hard work - but you can help your designer by providing:
- Your logo and your brand
- Your audience identification
- A color palette
- A sense of screen layout - top navigation or side navigation for instance
The more you provide - the better chances that a designer will deliver something on the mark!
Joel Spolsky creates software in New York, is an author, writes a frequent blog and is an overall smart guy - I read him a lot because I almost always learn something - even though I may not always agree with him.
He’s recently written about website standards - and that’s a topic near and dear to my heart - not because I’m a coder, but because I manage our web team here at NPower Seattle - and I know how frustrating it can be for my coders to deliver a website that looks just like the design in IE 6, IE 7, Firefox, and maybe a handful of additional browsers, too. And how frustrating it is to our customers when their websites “break” - they looked great in Firefox, but not so great in IE 7.
Joel’s recent article is well worth a read - it’s a little techie, but not overly so - and it’s funny. He uses headphones, Martians, and politics to talk about some of the reasons why trying to solve this problem is hard.
And maybe that’s the key lesson: Solving browser compatiblility is hard.
We’ve standardized our website work in Plone, a terrific Content Management System. Out of the gate, Plone performs very well in search tests - but those are just the easy wins - the technology piece of helping your site be searchable, rather than the people piece!
The folks at Human Service Solutions have published a very nice (and pretty short - just 5 pages) article called SEO Fundamentals. (SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization), and I think it is a must read. Here’s a a great framing question:
If your organization’s mission has to do with environmental protection, are your target visitors most likely to search for “acid rain”, “save the forests”, “toxic waste”, “greenhouse effect”, or all of the above? Do you want to reach visitors who are local, regional or national in scope? These are considerations that need careful attention as you begin the SEO process.
You should read the entire 5 page article - it will take 10-15 minutes at the most! Implementing a strong search plan isn’t rocket science for most - just work to research, test, and then implement - and then do it all over again!
NPower Seattle hosted our third annual Innovation Awards Luncheon this month, where we recognized three nonprofits who have used technology to further their mission in an innovative way.
You can read all about the nominees on our website - but the top three included:
- Planned Parenthood for their “Talking About Sex” podcast
- Within Reach for their Parent Help 123 website tools
- Real GRRLS for their projects teaching video and other life skills to young women AND creating marketing video’s for nonprofits!
You can also read a bit more about the winner over on Brier Dudley’s Blog - Brier blogs for The Seattle Times, and was kind enough to mention our event!
The folks at Smashing Magazine have published a terrific article about web design, called 10 Principles for Effective Web Design. You should read it - some of the information is new and some has made an appearance here in my blog.
Here are a few of my favorite tips -and items that we try to incorporate into our designs!
1. Manage to focus users’ attention:
The human eye is a highly non-linear device, and web-users can instantly recognize edges, patterns and motions. This is why video-based advertisements are extremely annoying and distracting, but from the marketing perspective they perfectly do the job of capturing users’ attention.
2. Make use of effective writing
Talk business. Avoid cute or clever names, marketing-induced names, company-specific names, and unfamiliar technical names. For instance, if you describe a service and want users to create an account, “sign up” is better than “start now!” which is again better than “explore our services”.
And there’s a lot more - so you really should read the entire article. Increasingly, I’m asking customers to spend as much time as possible developing their content - all of the studies about eye tracking, site navigation and more - all point out that your content will trump your visual design and layout!
Looking for web design help for your nonprofit? The team at Elevacion is offering some assistance to nonprofits with a dollar to dollar match:
For each dollar your non-profit spends on web design, programming, or other media related work, we will match that dollar with a dollar of our own.
In 2007, we allocated approximately $150,000 worth of assistance to 55 non-profits in order to help them with web design, programming, and media work. In 2008, we will allocate $400,000 to non-profits on a first come, first service basis.
You can read their application for more information!
