Issue Archive
Issue 8: September 2004
Illumination and Ideas for Clients, Partners, and Friends of
Beaconfire Consulting
In This Issue
1.
Editors'
Note2.
Client
Highlights:
3.
Events
4.
Spotlight
On: Auditing Your Web Site's Navigation and Screen
Allocation5.
Beaconfire
Buzz:
1. Editors' Note
Amidst the dog days of a Washington, D.C. summer, Beaconfire has
been a hive of activity. We've always heard talk of "slow" D.C.
summers, but have yet to see it happen in our offices. This busy
summer has been no exception. Clients Easter Seals and AFSCME
launched major initiatives, and we grew by two (and a half!). Our
summer series of events closes out, and we announce new fall events.
Also in this issue, Beaconfire VP Dottie Hodges continues her
three-part series on Web audits.
As always, keep those e-cards and letters coming. Email us at editors@beaconfire.com. ó
The Beaconfire Wire Editors
2. Client Highlights
Too often, people with disabilities are locked out, left out, or
overlooked. Easter Seals has launched an integrated campaign to
raise awareness with federal, state, and local lawmakers. Easter
Seals partnered with Beaconfire on the online component of the "Ful
Participation for All!" petition campaign. Visitors to the Easter
Seals Web site can sign a petition asking leaders to take action to
help individuals with disabilities through employment, ensuring
health care, creating affordable housing and transportation,
guaranteeing access to education, and making polling places
accessible. Join the nearly 11,000 people who have signed on and
help make the American Dream accessible to people with disabilities!
Sign
the petition today.
Beaconfire recently launched a members-only site for the
political arm of AFSCME ó the American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees. The site allows AFSCME to reach out to
members on issues related to the presidential campaign and key
election races. It also enables members to research candidates and
participate in advocacy campaigns.
One challenge in building the site, said Beaconfire Project
Manager Mark Leta, was ensuring smooth coordination among all of the
players who support AFSCME's Web site. Beaconfire worked with a
multi- departmental team at AFSCME and two Web hosting management
companies to make this happen, and continues to work with AFSCME to
enhance the site's configuration management processes. Read more
about AFSCME's new site
3. Spotlight On: Web Audits
Auditing Your Web Site's Navigation and Screen
Allocation
Part 2 of 3
by Dottie Hodges
Vice President for Beaconfire Consulting
Is your organization's staff all abuzz for a new Web site design?
As we discussed in our previous issue, smart redesigns start with a
Web audit. In the previous article, we talked about forming a cross-
departmental Web audit team and getting started on your goals,
objectives, and audiences.
In this installment, we focus on how to critique your site's
architecture, navigation, and screen allocation.
Site
Architecture and Navigation: Different Is Good. No, Bad.
Wait...
When it comes to navigation, quite often organizations tell us
that they want to "be different." They want a site with a
groundbreaking approach to navigation. They eagerly trot out their
departmental section names and talk enthusiastically about doing
something "funky" with the layout. They're tired of old school
left-hand navigation.
But sometimes tried-and-true location is best. Take convenience
stores. If you are ducking in for a pack of gum, you don't want to
find the gum in the back of the store simply because the proprietor
was feeling creative one day. Convenience means finding it fast -
right there at the checkout counter.
This is also true of Web architecture and navigation. For some
elements of the overall design, like architecture and navigation,
users expect certain standards. Usability guru Jakob Nielsen's "Law
of the Web User Experience" states "users spend most of their time
on *other* Web sites." In other words, their expectations are going
to be heavily influenced by those experiences on other Web sites. Be
aware of any formal or informal standards that are developing for
navigation and architecture.
For example, it has become an informal standard to have sections
for "About" your organization and "Contact Us." Users expect to find
these sections on your site, within the main navigation, and using
this language. Anything else just slows them down. Anticipate user
expectations and deliver an experience that won't create user
roadblocks.
To determine the best information architecture for your site,
take your content apart. Break it down. Identify the smallest units
of information ó a report, an action, an appeal ó and then look at
it from a user's perspective. Are you organizing the information
based on where your users will look for it, rather than on the
departments that produced it? Are you organizing your content so
that users can get to the most important parts with as little effort
as possible?
Once you've settled on the architecture, the page design needs to
be examined to ensure that the information structure is navigable
and clear on every page as the user moves through the site. I call
it the "Genie Test." If you were magically beamed to a random page
within your organization's Web site, would you be able to determine
where in the site you were located and how you would get back out,
or to other areas of content?
Make sure your site has clearly displayed navigation and
subnavigation that indicates the user's location, and that pages are
individually titled with this level of detail. This includes
ensuring that your link labels, page titles, and headlines all match
as closely as possible. A user shouldn't click "Contact Us" and
arrive on a page titled "Feedback." Users, like mice, respond to
little rewards. They want nothing more than to click a link and
complete their task. Press the bar, get the
cheese.
Screen Allocation: Can't We All Just Get Along?
Er, Fit on the Page?
Many organizations struggle to decide how much page space to
allocate to each feature or function ó particularly on the homepage.
To resolve this dilemma, refer back to the priorities identified by
your cross-departmental team. These should in turn drive the
allocation of screen "real estate." Higher priorities should get
greater screen real estate than the lower priorities.
Let's apply a little science to this exercise. First, review your
priority goals. Perhaps your organization places its highest
priority on fundraising and advocacy and a secondary priority on
information sharing. Next, see how much of the site's existing
screen space is dedicated to each type of content. Either count the
pixels using graphics software or print out the design and measure
it. That's right, with a ruler. Keep in mind that this is not an
exact science ó there are no magic numbers. But if a fundraising
organization's homepage is 15 percent navigation, 15 percent
content, 65 percent branding and mission, but only 5 percent
appeals, some reallocation of screen real estate is probably needed.
In the next and final part of this series, we'll touch on
creative considerations and branding. It's important to note that
while creative design is often the first thing your stakeholders
will want to tackle, there is a reason it's third in our series. The
first two steps ó prioritization and site architecture/screen
allocation all provide direction for creative development. We'll see
you in the next issue!
For more information, read Jakob Nielsen's "Top
Ten Mistakes in Web design.
Read the previous article in this series: Audits
Manage 'Buzz' for Web Site Redesign Part 1 of 3.
3. Events
Beaconfire will once again co-host N-TEN's annual DC Regional
Conference. This year's one-day conference on October 14 will focus
on "Communications for a Cause: How New Media Changes Your
Messaging." Sessions will address challenges faced by nonprofit
leaders and IT staff, circuit riders and other technology support
providers, for- profit vendors, funders, and policymakers.
Beaconfire clients can register at a discounted member rate of
$50, and scholarships are available to a limited number of
nonprofits serving women, youth, and communities of color. The
conference is organized by the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise
Network (N-TEN) and co-hosted by Beaconfire, CITI, and Technology
Works for Good.
Visit Beaconfire's Events
Page for more information and to register.
Lazy days of summer? Not for us. In June and July, Beaconfire
hosted two free Executive Dialogue Breakfasts for clients and other
interested nonprofits. Participants raved about both presentations,
saying they found the information useful, practical, and
objective.
At the June forum, "A CMS Buyer's Guide: What to Look for in a
Content Management System," Usha Venkatachallam and Jeff Herron
provided insight to nonprofit leaders on how to select the best
content management system for their organization. Attendees got a
sneak peek into Beaconfire's tried-and-true process for analysis, as
well as real-world examples of risks involved with such a selection
(and how to mitigate them).
At a second dialogue held in July, "Web Site Assessments: How to
Objectively Evaluate Your Web Site and Plan for Improvement," Dottie
Hodges and Andrew Cohen provided a framework for usability
assessments and shared best practices and reviews of the attending
organization's sites. Attendees walked away with a clearer
understanding of core usability concepts and, most importantly, how
to tackle a review of their own sites in a logical and productive
manner.
Attendees gave high marks to the presentations, noting the
excellent choice of topics, balanced pace of the sessions, high
quality of facilitators, and opportunity to share experiences. One
participant commented that "the subject matter, content, and
organization of the presentation was excellent." Another said,
"Thank you for highlighting [our site] and providing constructive
criticism ó it will help me build a case for a redesign." Thanks to
all who participated and provided feedback.
Beaconfire's next Executive Dialogue, "Internet Marketing and
Fundraising: What's Really Working?" is already sold out. Due to
great interest, we will be hosting another session on this topic in
early 2005. If you are interested in attending the second date,
please let us know and we will make sure we notify you. Keep an eye
out for more sessions over the next few months by visiting Beaconfire's events
page.
4. Beaconfire Buzz
The Big Apple's loss was Beaconfire's gain: Amy Weidberg joined
Beaconfire in July as an Interactive Marketing Account Manager. She
will manage the online marketing campaigns for clients such as Big
Brothers Big Sisters of America and Easter Seals. Amy previously
worked at a New York City Web development company as Producer of
NIKErunning.com. She managed a team of Web site designers,
programmers, and writers to develop the Nike Running Web site and
third party online media placements. Amy received a B.A. in
Mathematics and Statistics in 2000 from Columbia University's
Barnard College.
Why give up a gig with one of the world's top sports companies?
"It was a fun industry to be in," explains Amy. "But at the end of
the day, I really wanted to do something a little more meaningful.
That's where Beaconfire came in -- it's a place with a good
combination of technology and Web expertise but also a focus on the
needs of nonprofits." We welcome Amy to our nation's capital and to
the Beaconfire team.
Beaconfire is pleased to welcome public relations professional
Leah King who recently signed on to lead integrated marketing and
media planning efforts for our clients. Leah most recently worked at
Fleishman-Hillard, where she managed interactive communications for
the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's National
Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign -- known to many as the "this is your
brain on drugs" campaign. Leah also chaired the Disability
Communications Group there, an interest stemming from her longtime
advocacy work on behalf of people with disabilities, including her
11- year-old son.
Leah started her interactive career as a disabilities community
message board monitor and content producer in 1997 for AOL's
BetterHealth site and iVillage.com. She's now eager to marry her
agency experience with the world of interactive advocacy and
activism.
"I'll be bringing integrated social marketing and behavioral
change skills that can help with the fundraising and other
activities we are doing on behalf of Beaconfire's clients," Leah
said. "I'm super excited because I feel like I've come home to what
I love to do -- advocacy work."
A big welcome to the tiniest new member of the Beaconfire
extended family.
Jacey Leigh Evans was born the evening of Monday, August 2,
weighing in at 4 pounds, 11 ounces and 17.5 inches long.
Beaconfire's John Evans and wife Robyn are tickled pink about the
new addition to their family, as is older brother Jack, 2. Welcome
Jacey!
