DESIGNING POSITIVE CHANGE

Information Architecture for Nonprofits

What goes where and why !

Presented by: Emily Lonigro Boylan, President

and Sarah Kowalis, UX Architect

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IntroductionWho’s in the room?

Agenda• How to identify audiences and define users!

• Gathering information about audiences & users!

• Mapping audiences & users!

• Mapping and organizing content!

• Tools we use!

• Examples

What is Information Architecture?

Arranging content bits for the most impact in the most efficient way for users to do something.

Problems

Why sites are so bad• No plan!• No agreement!• No clear decision-making process!• No gatekeeper!• No user-centric thinking!• Time

Things to remember• Understand your restrictions

• The Internet • What people are familiar and expect • Mobile devices • Competition: time and dollars • Standards

Things to remember• Three major ways to emphasize

• Visual emphasis • Hierarchy • Real estate

How we start: Understand your users

Who uses your site?Brainstorming!Card sorting!Analytics!Ask people!CRM

How users behaveThree very basic stages: !Impression!Collection !Action

Supporters

Members of Our Community

People who will Tell Our Story

Impression Goal: Trustworthy, Reliable, Prestigious Collection Goal: History, Mission, Programs & Activities Action Goals: Contact, Give Money

Impression Goal: Trustworthy, Positive, Engaging Collection Goal: Programs & Activities, Services Action Goals: Contact, Volunteer, Participate

Impression Goal: Reliable, Unique Collection Goal: Current Activities, Stories, Data Action Goals: Contact for interview, Share stories

Design & Messaging (branding) = Impression

Content = Collection

Measurement = Action

Trustworthy, Reliable, Prestigious, Positive, Engaging, Reliable, Unique

History, Mission, Programs & Activities, Programs & Activities, Services, Current Activities, Stories, Data !

Contact, Give Money, Volunteer, Participate, Contact for interview, Share stories

Gathering informationListening & Research!

• Interviews !

• Analytics!

• Trends!

• User personas

Claire is a volunteer staff for the League of Women voters. She falls in the age segment of 55 to 64 year olds and is a

fairly active online user. Although she has access to a wide variety of internet enabled devices, she relies mostly

on her laptop to get work done but will also use her iPhone to access the web and gather information. Based on the social technographics profile, she is somewhat of a Joiner but mostly an online Spectator — using the web to

search and gather various data and information for her work related to the League of Women Voters.

"I'm looking for the latest reports, this is the most important thing to me. I'm always searching their site when doing research. When I find

other resources, like powerpoint presentations that are relative to my research, I'll download them or ask the staff to send these and other

materials."

"There is a lot of stuff on the homepage which makes it difficult to look for things but there are also a lot of reports there that are out-of-date." She continues, "Maybe they are there as a reference but it should

just be archived somewhere else. It makes it difficult to focus on the the information that is

relevant now."

Although Claire can identify the website as a source for data and information for her

research, she is still a little unclear about the specific services and capabilities this

organization has to offer for nonprofits.

User flowsClaire!

Comes to site >!

Searches with main search bar >!

Finds an article >!

Downloads it >!

Looks for similar articles >!

Bookmarks two more in online research tool.

User flowsMary!

Sees a story about the organization TV >!

Visits site on her phone to find out how to volunteer >!

Finds the Volunteer page >!

Reads about the process >!

Fills out the form >!

Gets a thank you page with links to Facebook >!

Checks out the Facebook page & likes it >!

Shares a post with friends.!

Organizing that list of content and user feedback into a site mapOrganized by that ranked list of users!Can be added to, of course!Each section has a goal or goals!Sections and users can overlap

CTBA Home PageHome page should focus on VHDUFKLQJ��EURZVLQJ��DQG�ӾQGLQJ�the most current reports.

About

Report RepositoryMost of these are PDF links. All of these resources need some contextualization and should be sortable by date. Each of these reports should have a brief with some analysis. Users are coming here for this. Perhaps we can use the model of a repository for this as a searchable database of reports. These include: Reports, Analysis, Fact sheets & Issue Briefs, Presentations, Publications. Individual assets should be tagged for cross reference on display.

ResourcesThis should be organized a bit better based on target users--prioritizing media journalists. Includes: Illinois Budget Calculator, Action Tips, Glossary of Terms

Press Room

Updates and EventsProvide weekly or monthly analysis on current legislation and point users to resources available on the site. This could also be a blog with short weekly updates on legislation and recent resources, reports or presentations. These should be quick updates that refer to reports and news releases

Contact

Mission, Vision and History

CTBA Services and Capabilities

Sta

Board

Policy Task Force

Funders

DonateProvide some emotional context to giving. Who should give? :KDWV�WKH�YDOXH�DQG�EHQHӾW"�+RZ�will their giving make a di erence?

Employment Opportunities

Volunteer Opportunities

Current Reports by "Hot Topic"Latest legislation should always be on the homepage. Past Legislation and bills should be archived here.

Other TopicsThese could include the Budget, Tax & Revenue, Healthcare, etc.

Additional Links

CTBA in the News & Press ArchivesAll press mentions should go here including Ralph's Columns

CTBA News ReleasesRecent and archived press releases from CTBA for journalists and others.

Video Gallery7KLV�LV�D�ӾOWHUDEOH�JDOOHU\�RI�YLGHRV�IURP�CTBA. This may or may not include videos from CTBA in the press.

Events

Link to Paypal

Annual Fiscal Symposium

Events

A note about testing at this stage.

A few things we do all the timeInclude contact information on the top level and/or in the footer. Test to make sure phone numbers can be dialed from a phone.!

Include a shortened mission statement or tagline!Provide an opportunity to connect from anywhere in the site!

Search bars usually go at the top. !Consider mobile limitations first. !Allow redundancy, but in a non-annoying way.

Review• Identify Audiences

• Organize audiences into user groups

• Establish impression, collection & action goals

• Conduct research and collect insights, data and information

• Organize content based on user goals and flows

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