Eye Candy and Kicking Ass

ALA’s article In Defense of Eye Candy gets me thinking. More . . .

In Defense of Eye Candy at A List Apart is a discussion of interesting concepts about design. It’s must reading for all web developers.  It talks about how perceptions affect usefulness; it’s a fascinating take on the idea of design and usability.

As I read it I kept thinking of  initial reactions to Susan Boyle. Although the article was not about her, it did suggest why the initial reaction to her was not positive. It doesn’t explain why that reaction changed the moment she opened her mouth to sing. Is there some trigger that makes less attractive design work as well as attractive design once we “get it?” You can’t hear that voice and not get it. At that point, the design package no longer matters. Why?

If you become a kick ass user (to quote Kathy Sierra) of something, does design cease to matter? Take Microsoft Word for example. I’ve used it for years and still willingly tell anyone how much I hate  it. I think that’s a design issue. It’s almost impossible to figure out how to do certain things, to become a kick ass user of Word. I spent a long time the other day trying to figure out how to make text flow from one text box into another and I could never find the answer. It would be nice to kick ass with a tool you have to use.

I need Word open its mouth and sing, so I can “get” it.

The article at A List Apart talks about interface, how understanding interface is improved by attractive interface. Maybe in Susan Boyle’s case, her voice becomes the interface. Her voice is so enormously attractive that the rest of the interface ceases to matter. What’s Word got going for it?

Designing Donation Sites that Bring in the Money

There are so many causes clamoring for money and help. Ten or twenty pleas for money can drift by like a river of tweets, and then you suddenly decide to donate. Have you ever thought about why? What turns the donate switch for you? More . . .

There are so many causes clamoring for money and help. Ten or twenty pleas for money can drift by like a river of tweets, and then you suddenly decide to donate. Have you ever thought about why? What turns the donate switch for you?

The March 2009 Alertbox article from Jakob Nielsen is a report teaser titled Donation Usability: Increasing Online Giving to Non-Profits and Charities. You can get a few key points from the article, but you have to pay $98 for the full report.

Jakob Nielsen is a usability guru who publishes at useit.com and is well known for pointing out usability problems on the Web. His findings in the study about non-profits and charities that are seeking donation is summarized,

User research finds significant deficiencies in non-profit organizations’ website content, which often fails to provide the info people need to make donation decisions.

“Fails to provide the info people need to make donation decisions.” What does that mean? The article gives a few key points. First,

Non-profits would collect much more from their websites if only they’d clearly state what they are about and how they use donations.

Nielsen’s study looked at 23 non-profit websites and judged them on two tasks:

– Choosing a recipient: Participants used two non-profit sites within a given category and decided which of the organizations — which had roughly similar missions — was most deserving of a donation.
– Making a donation: Using their own credit cards, participants made an online donation to the chosen charity. We reimbursed users for this expense after the study.

He gathered up a range of test participants, all of whom had donated online before. What he found when he studied the participants’ behavior was that an organization’s mission, goals, objectives, and work was by far the most important consideration in terms of the decision to donate. People want to contribute to causes that share their values and ideals. If those goals and objectives are not clearly spelled out immediately, the donation probably won’t be made.

Social Design Notes, commented on this finding:

In my consulting work, I’ve long argued that posting a budget breakdown is an easy way to increase transparency and fundraising. (Especially since most groups already create this for their annual report.) Where possible, pegging fundraising to specific tasks and outcomes also helps.

Nielsen found other factors he said reduce donations:

The donation-killers:
– 47% were usability problems relating to page and site design, including unintuitive information architecture, cluttered pages, and confusing workflow.
– Amazingly, on 17% of the sites, users couldn’t find where to make a donation. You’d imagine that donation-dependent sites would at least get that one design element right, but banner-blindness or over-formatting caused people to overlook some donation buttons.
– 53% were content issues related to writing for the Web, including unclear or missing information and confusing terms.

At Wild Apricot, in Better Non-Profit Websites to Increase Online Donations: Usability Report, talked about the need for clear content.

In 2008, non-profits and charities collected about 10% of their donations online, according to a survey by Target Analytics, but usability expert Jakob Nielsen says the amount of money collected online could be much higher — with improved website design and content that answers the donors’ real questions.

Another key point in Nielsen’s findings is that a website (a well-designed website, that is) is good for getting impulse donations, but for long-term donor relationships, email newsletters work more effective. Follow up and keep following up.

The study also found that international non-profits with local websites could substantially improve their overall Web presence by creating a unified look-and-feel for local sites. The international site and the local site need to obviously and clearly integrate as a seamless whole.

At the elearningpost, a similar study was described. The findings are discussed in Donation Usability: Increasing Online Giving to Non-Profits and Charities

We found similar themes when we did the redesign for the National University of Singapore Giving website. We found that there was a need to inform donors on why their gifts were needed and how they will be used (the LEARN section). Also we found that there was a need to pay-back in kind by honouring donors (the HONOUR section). It goes without saying the the DONATE section had to be without flaws. So glad to know that the findings are similar across continents.

At Social Citizens Kristin Ivie summed up a number of Facts, Figures and Fodder: Online Giving studies including the Nielsen study. Another study she mentions emphasizes the importance of

aggressively working to involve people in their 20s and 30s and how to best get them onboard. Even if young donors don’t have deep pockets, they can be valuable parts of the cause in the longterm.

The lessons to be learned from the free Nielsen article by those working in the non-profit sector seems to be threefold:
1. Make your cause and goal clear and obvious
2. Make donating simple and easy
3. Maintain contact by e-mail after the original donation is made. And, of course, the email newsletters must make your cause and goal clear and make donating easy and well as keeping readers informed about progress and successes.

Cross posted at BlogHer.

Accessible web applications

Christian Heilman talks about how to make web apps accessible at the panel on accessible web applications at the European Accessibility Forum in Frankfurt.

This is the presentation where he was quoted on Twitter as saying “web design is a form of autism.” Listen and find out what he meant.

Useful Links: Drive Me Crazy, Community Building, Mobile Design, Best Job

Links to top notch articles about what not to do on the web, how to build community, designing for mobiles, and finding the best job in the world.
More . . .

Drive me Crazy: The Web 15 from Reviewer X is spot on with things that drive user’s crazy. High school kids recognize what’s wrong with the web. Jakob’s been nagging us for years. Why don’t web sites reflect these things? Oh, hell, don’t even answer, I know the stinkin’ answer.

I Can Haz Community? at Think Vitamin is from the I Can Haz Cheeseburger site that has developed such a community and huge following. Tips for building a community around your site.

Mobile Web Design Trends for 2009 at Smashing Magazine is a good guide to designing for mobiles. It says a lot of the same things as my article Make Your Site Mobile Friendly at Think Vitamin, but this new piece at Smashing Magazine contains new ideas and many very helpful screen captures of mobile sites.

Best Job in the World has gone viral. I’m fascinated by this story and will be writing about it in more detail later in the week on BlogHer. It’s interesting because it’s a blogging job, and because of the way it’s gone viral. What is it about this story that captured the imagination and made it the latest viral phenom?

Useful Links: usability mistakes, the hook, great CSS

The Biggest Web Usability Mistakes You Can Make from searchengineland boils it all down to three simple questions.

Save the Earth: Everybody’s Doing It from Human Factors International talks about using the right hook to enlist people in your cause.

Best of CSS Design 2008 from Web Designer Wall gives us 50 good examples to look at and explains what is it about them that qualifies as a winning design.

Summary of eHow articles for November

We call this Tai Chi position lift hands

Every fall the sandhill cranes return to the Rio Grande bosque and the wetlands along the Rio Grande for wintering. Watching them is a favorite annual activity. This year my Tai Chi instructor suggested we do Tai Chi with the cranes in an Open Space area near the river. A previous Open Space visitor left behind this small toy, which seemed to do Tai Chi with us, at least the lift hands part of the form.

In between several days a week of Tai Chi, I wrote these articles for eHow.

Another great place to observe the sandhill cranes and a multitude of other wintering birds is the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge, near Socorro. For those of you not from the southwest, bosque is Spanish for wood or woodland. The term is used here to mean any low-lying area near the Rio Grande, densely forested with cottonwoods and other deciduous trees.

Useful links

Four Bad Designs at Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox explains, once again, with examples, why good content is essential for a good return on investment.

Podcast: BlogHer talks to Anna Lappé. While my blog is not a food blog, I can’t help but mention this interview with the food writer and activist. It’s excellent and worth a listen. Lappé offers many resources for finding organic and sustainably grown food no matter where you live. A question I send in about the carbon footprint of food was included in the interview.

How to Get Customer Service via Twitter by Sarah Perez at Read Write Web explains that people complaining about bad customer service experiences on Twitter are being contacted by corporations. I’m still waiting to hear from Whirlpool after my Tweet about my crappy high efficiency front loading washer and dryer. Maybe I should actually contact Whirlpool instead of just Tweeting. Ya think? I’ve had them about 2 years and have spent over $1000 on repairs. Now that’s a genuine crappy product.