Weve done a lot of user interviews for the various sites weve made. Yes, every user is different and every site is different, but were seeing common themes in user behavior, especially when someone first visits a site. Usually they are looking for something specific, or they are making comparisons with other sites so you’ve got to act fast and communicate your message fast!
Sometime near the beginning of links on the internet, people decided that click here was a good way to get people to click there. If I had to guess, the reason for this is probably that at the beginning of the internet people didnt know what links were, so you had to explicitly tell them to click here. The good news is that now its 20 years later, and people know what to do when they see links. Here are some reasons you should change your click here ways…
Most people want to jump in and start designing a website when they think: Hey, we need a new website. That is really the fastest way to make sure you are going to burn up all of your time, bust your budget and burn out. (I honestly didnt plan for all of those to start with B.)
We work with a lot of nonprofit and education clients, and one of the biggest questions we always face is, “What should we do with the donate button?” It’s a tricky business asking the public for money. The organization generally wants and needs people to donate, but how can we appeal to the public without seeming entirely desperate? Well, let’s see how the big guys do it, and decide if what they’re doing is effective.
We were recently tasked with developing a highly custom online forum. It would be a place where people would spontaneously create content and commentary about articles elsewhere on the site. Our would supply big topic buckets and the audience would fill them. Our client also wanted to include a low paywall for anyone wanting to comment or create.
Our clients ask us all the time: What should we pay attention to in our analytics? My answer is always the same: It depends on what your goals are, so figure those out first! But what I want to take a look at here are three really important chunks of information that you should pay attention to all the time and especially when considering a redesign or major site update.
If youre a nonprofit organization, you probably already take donations on your website. There are so many payment receiving options: GiftTool, PayPal, Authorize.net, its barely even worth going through them all. Just make sure you arent being charged a fortune per transaction!
When the 2012 Millennial Impact Report was published, we werent too surprised. The report vetted much of our own design research that we do here at LimeRed. We were particularly drawn to one specific takeaway from the report though. When millennials were asked about how they prefer to learn about nonprofits across various online channels, websites were the leading choice at 65%.To put this in perspective, the second preferred choice came in at 55%… That choice was Social Media.
Last week, we collaborated with the Chicago Youth Voices Network (CYVN) to design a number of workshops for the summer. These workshops were designed to incorporate youth and other leaders in the process of developing blueprints for a social network website for active youth across the city of Chicago to promote civic engagement and participation.
Who are you talking to on your website? How well are you reaching them? Are you getting some surprising feedback from your users or higher ups? Feel like you need to refresh your site but arent sure where to start?
With budgets spread thin across your organization, you may not have a lot of financial resources to dedicate to web design or online marketing. Whether you have the budget for a marketing department or you alone make up the marketing arm of your organization, there are some simple changes you can make to your website to ensure its fulfilling one of its most important goals: driving donations.
