The Complete Nonprofit Website Toolkit Defining Your Content and Navigation Strategy June 2013

Transcription

1 The Complete Nonprofit Website Toolkit Defining Your Content and Navigation Strategy June

2 Wait for the recording to begin The Complete Nonprofit Website Toolkit Defining Your Content and Navigation Strategy June 2013 Introductions Me! Laura Quinn Executive Director Idealware 2

3 Your Course Page Designated Office Hours: Fridays 1-2 Eastern Join us to ask us questions about your specific website. Office Hours and Review Designated Office Hours: Fridays 1-2 Eastern Join us to ask us questions about your specific website. 3

4 Conceptualizing Your Homepage Your Homepage Sets the Tone for Your Site Does it say what you want it to say? Don t Try to Show Everything At Once If everything is prioritized, nothing is featured 4

5 Prioritize Choose only a few things to highlight on your homepage Feature Key Things with Teasers Use clear teasers to direct visitors, with a minimum of text Balance Your Goals Vs Your Users 5

6 Consider Wireframes Wireframing can be a very useful tool to think through content and priorities without focusing heavily on visual design. Play Around with Possibilities Consider the kinds of information, functions, and priorities of your homepage. Small Tweaks Can Make a Big Impact Tweaking the content or organization of your homepage can make a big improvement on your site without a ton of effort. 6

7 Graphic Design Now That You ve Defined Some Content 7

8 Establish Your Credibility Low budget and unsophisticated Some idea what we re doing Well run and modern And Help Prioritize and Clarify Content Your graphic design should make your information clearer, not just add pretty stuff. It Affects How People See You Encourage people to see your organization as you would like to be seen. 8

9 Good Graphic Design is Hard Strongly consider hiring a graphic designer. You may need to invest several thousands of dollars for a customized website. Templates Stock templates are cheap, but they tend to look more generic. You can generally get a stock template with your CMS, which we ll talk more about in class four. 9

10 Thinking About Images Why Graphics? Large framing images can show what you do quickly and put a human face on your organization. Images can also add interest and contrast to a list. 10

11 Online Doesn t Equal Usable Just because it s online doesn t mean you can use it. Take Your Own Photos Photos courtesy of the Reach School Have a Contest But be very clear about what you ll do with the images (Nature Conservancy) 11

12 Stock Photos Stock photos and clip art look professional but can make your organization seem more impersonal. Finding Stock Photos Also consider MorgueFile and Microsoft Office s clip art. 12

13 What Other Content Will Support Your Vision? Beyond the Homepage What content and information should you have? Think beyond the obvious. Information & Functionality Providing actual services on your website gives evidence of your value in the most genuine of ways Make sure the meat of your website contains useful information & functionality 13

14 For example A clearinghouse of news and resources in your field shows you as central in your field. Whitepapers are a tangible proof of your expertise. For example Articles about your own services show the human side and the breadth of what you do Games or interactive pieces can communicate sophisticated ideas in a fun and interesting way For example Searchable databases show the depth of your knowledge and your commitment to making it accessible Community tools blogs, message boards, etc show the strength of your community and your passion to get people involved 14

15 What s the Obvious Content That You Need? Create the list for your own site What Would You Change? What would you add to your current content? What s on your site that you might not need? 15

16 Content Update and Maintenance Can You Keep Up With All That? It s great to have a lot of great resources and fresh material, but make sure your content plan doesn t rely on you having more time than you do. Defining Updates You will need to determine how often content will be updated, and what specifically about it will require upkeep. 16

17 Avoid Obviously Outdated Information But Do Plan for At Least Small Updates At least some updates: Make you seem active Improve search engine rankings Give regular visitors something to look forward to 17

18 Organizing Your Content How Will They Find What They Need? How can you be sure that your web visitors will be able to find what they need? Should Your Navigation Be Wide? 18

19 Should Your Navigation Be Deep? The Myth of Seven Things Years ago, someone s perfectly innocent research was co-opted into meaning, each list should include exactly seven things. this is total nonsense. Instead, Think About Scent It doesn t matter if it s a lot of clicks if it s easy and obvious to know where to click next. 19

20 This Means the Wording of Labels is Critical Ensure your labels are meaningful to users Better to be wordy than vague A Sitemap Can Help You Visualize 20

21 Think Through the Key Questions For Your Own Site Your Homework Homework: Fill out the worksheet on the course page Taking it a step further: Wireframe your homepage and play with content and priorities Create a sitemap Homepage Changes? 21

22 Graphic Design CMS Templates vs. Graphic Designer Graphics and Images 22

23 What Content Would You Change? Regular Updates Navigation 23

24 Questions? Content Owners You can then take that list and break it off for people to own. 24