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Getting Your Priorities Straight: A Guide to Successful IA

PRESENTED BY

MISTY MCLAUGHLIN

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Misty McLaughlin, User Experience Principal

- 10 years of nonprofit-focused online consulting (7 years with Convio + Blackbaud)

- Master’s degree in Information Architecture (IA)

- Worked with nonprofits of all shapes, sizes, budgets, and causes

INTRO

I’m also a…* Portland, Maine resident

* parent of a 2-year-old* content strategy geek* Cancer who likes long

walks on the beach …with my mobile device.

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#BBCON TWEET YOUR EXPERIENCE:

#bbinteractive #bbstraightIA @uxfornonprofits

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• What is IA?

• Why Does IA Matter?

• What Is Good IA?

• What Is Good IA for Nonprofits?

• How Do I Make Good IA?

OUR TIME TOGETHER

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WHAT IS INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE?

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CONNECTS PEOPLE TO CONTENT

IA Connects People to Content

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Content

ContextUsers

CONNECTS PEOPLE TO CONTENT – IN CONTEXT

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MAPS, FUN, PEOPLE, FINDING, MAKING THINGS EASY

A Son’s Take on Explain IA

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MOST PEOPLE THINK OF IA AS

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BUT IT’S ALSO

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ALL THE MAPS YOU NEED FOR YOUR JOURNEY

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WHY DOES IA MATTER?

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BECAUSE PEOPLE NEED HELP

Finding information

Knowing where to turnUnderstanding

issues

Taking appropriate action

Building relationships

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Your website is your

organization’s

most public face.

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CONSIDER THE COSTS OF BAD IA

• Time• Frustration• Lost interest• Lost trust

INTERNAL COSTS (WITH STAFF & ACROSS ORGANIZATION)

• Time• Frustration• Staff resources answering the phone• Cost of training staff

EXTERNAL COSTS (WITH CONSTITUENTS)

• Lost pleasure• Lost opportunity to educate• Boost to your competitors

= Lost Loyalty & Support

• Staff time updating labor-intensive content

• Cost of adapting site to new environments (e.g. tablet)

• Cost of redesigns

= Lost Time, Money, & Morale

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BUT IF YOU GET IT RIGHT

Or, in conversion terms…

Increased donations Greater constituent engagement

Stronger sense of online communityFuller achievement of your mission

Better relationships built

Value

Credibility

Trust

Pleasure

Awareness

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WHAT IS GOOD IA?

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EFFECTIVE IA IS IA is…

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• Balance breadth against depth• Show AND tell• Help people move through, among, around, and between

• Depend on strong content

EFFECTIVE IA DOES …as IA does.

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• Consistency: The golden rule. Enough said.

• Progressive Disclosure: Take your visitors on a journey. Don’t be afraid of clicks – just make the clicks matter.

• 7 Plus-or-Minus 2: People’s brains can only hold 5 to 9 options in working memory. Group your content and present choices accordingly.

• Tunnel Vision: Our visual cortex is smart. If it looks like advertising or junk, most people will automatically filter it out.

IA Principle Numero Uno: Be guided first by cognitive science and research,

second by personal experience.

A FEW RULES + A PRINCIPLE

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SOME TOOLS OF THE TRADE (THE MAPS)

Personas“Who”

Content Inventory “What”

Visitor Experience Map

“Why”Sitemap“How”

Wireframe – “Where”

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ANATOMY OF A WEBSITE (THE TRANSPORTATION MAP)

Branding Navigation

Mission

Key calls to action

Storytelling

Dedicated show & tell of impact

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SOME SIGNPOSTS & WAYFINDERS

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WHAT IS GOOD IA FOR NONPROFITS?

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GOOD NONPROFIT IA…

1. Leads With Your Mission: Your homepage must say who your organization is or what you do (your mission) in 15 words or less.

57% of organizations fail to clearly state their mission on their homepage.

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2. Tells the Story: Your homepage should include at least one story of a person your org has directly helped.

GOOD NONPROFIT IA…

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3. Makes the case: Your site should clearly, simply articulate what a donor is investing in.

96% of organizations fail to make the case of their impact from their homepage.

GOOD NONPROFIT IA…

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4. Keeps Them Around: 70% of first-time visitors should reach your site and stay more than 30 seconds (and then view your great content!).

55% of organizations have a greater than 50% homepage bounce rate.

GOOD NONPROFIT IA…

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5. Gets Them Involved: From your homepage, a first-time visitor couldn’t name 3 ways to get involved with your organization.

GOOD NONPROFIT IA…

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6. Makes donating painfully easy: Your donor shouldn’t have to click more than once from any place on your website to make a gift.

GOOD NONPROFIT IA…

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7. Offers easy access: Your global (or top) navigation should group no more than 7 choices. And make ‘em meaningful!

GOOD NONPROFIT IA…

What to do:

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8. Is for outsiders: Your content and navigation should be labelled for the uninitiated, first-time visitor, rather than using terminology that only “insiders” at your organization would understand.

In my experience, about 85% of organizations use internal jargon or “Org Speak.”

GOOD NONPROFIT IA…

What not to do:

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9. Makes it personal: When a visitor signs up for your newsletter (or anything else), make sure there’s a visible change to the site.

GOOD NONPROFIT IA…

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10. Shows & tells: Your imagery reflects who you are and who you serve, and complements your language.

GOOD NONPROFIT IA…

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HOW DO I MAKE GOOD IA?

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Research their motivations, perceptions, attitudes, behaviors, and goals.

Get your findings down on paper.

Listen. And listen some more.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Content

ContextUsers

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Have a 360-degree view of content.

Articulate content goals and aspirations.

Consider dynamic and personalized content.

KNOW YOUR CONTENTContent

ContextUsers

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Partners, competitors (including for-profit info and service providers)

KNOW YOUR CONTEXT

Content

ContextUsers

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• Homebase = your websites, populated and controlled by you.

• Embassies = places on a social network or other digital platform, where you have a presence. This is not your home territory, but you have a defined space (that you contribute content to) where people can visit and interact with you.

• Outposts = places that are closely tied to your brand or your mission but are not primarily populated or controlled by you.*

MAP THE BIG PICTURE: THE WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD

* credit James Burden, Strategic Services,

Blackbaud UK

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MOVE FROM FOREST TO TREES TO LEAVES…

…and back again.

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Navigation Flow

TEST IT, TWEAK IT, TEST IT AGAIN

A prescribed path is provided for your target audiences to complete where we can see how successful they are at each step.

Ask your target audience questions that engage them to click on what they believe is the best answer to each question.

Give your target audience five seconds to evaluate your website before answering questions about what they saw.

Click Test

5 Second Test

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HANG UP & DIAL 911

SELECTED BLACKBAUD UX CLIENTS

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Adaptive Content for a Future-Proofed WorldMonday, 10 am, National Harbor 8-9

With the multitude of web-connected devices around us and in development, it’s becoming too difficult to anticipate what screen sizes to design for. The answer to this dilemma is to start thinking differently about content. It’s no longer just text and images appearing on a web page, so why are we still writing like it is?

Mobile Homepage Design SlamTuesday, 9:30 am, National Harbor 13

This will be an interactive, participatory design session. We’ll briefly cover the process for designing mobile homepages and will then ask audience members to volunteer to show their homepage so the group can translate it into a mobile-friendly layout.

MORE UX GOOD STUFF

Don’t forget to stop by the

interactive booth! Meet great folks,

ask questions talk shop!

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QUESTIONS?

Thank you!

Misty McLaughlinUser Experience Principal512-652-2661misty.mclaughlin@blackbaud.com@uxfornonprofits