Take a look at this Christmas card from Save the Children.
I hope it inspires your own program, and maybe to support StC.
Archive for December, 2008
How to make donors “holiday happy” …
Wednesday, December 24th, 2008Another bit on web usability
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008Following the theme of the last couple of posts, here’s a video of the Web Usability Event on June 25 featuring Tom Chi, Senior Director – User Experience, Yahoo!, Jeremy Ashley, Vice President, Applications User Experience, Oracle, and David Nelson, Sr. Experience Designer, Adobe Systems. A bit long but worth a look. My key takeaway:
If you’re lucky, a person will spend 15 seconds looking at your site before deciding to move on. During that time, they will scan 30 words and read ten.
Your question for consideration: Which ten words would you like them to focus on. Those should be the words that grab them by the eyelids.
More web usability tips …
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008At South-by-Southwest Interactive, I saw web content being “discovered” in a community largely driven by web design. Ever since, I’ve run across recurring affirmation that content and the presentation of content are primary factors in how much, how well, and how often your site will be used.
Users don’t read, they scan, and 78% of users first three eye-fixations are on text.
Put another way: only 22% of users had a graphic among their first three eye-fixations.
Put another way: content, not images, drive the eye. You’ll keep eyes moving with strong copy/content.
On the web, people don’t read top to bottom, left to right. They read content, starting top left but then in the hierarchy that the content is presented, using size, boldness, and color.
People read content, not images. But people still read captions. If you want something read, make it a caption. Just like in paper.
Making content concise, scannable and non-promotional dramatically increases reading speed, retention, and satisfaction over the wandering, dramatic, and dense.
Review your content for low-literacy users, not only for ESL and foreign students, but because lower reading levels = faster and easier reading for all.
What doesn’t work: Driving to unsubscribe
Friday, December 5th, 2008My retiring email @dress will expire in a week or so, and I’ve now unsubscribed from many nonprofits electronic newsletters and email distribution lists. That was the only… or most reasonable… action.
The most common options working off an inbound email:
– “Unsubscribe” is the only option. Do you count on donors being dedicated enough to Unsubscribe, then go to your home page and resubscribe … including reregistering?
– I can click through to some kind of “account management” where I need a password, which I don’t have. Call me lazy. Or normal. But I’m not going to request a password, re-enter the site, and then change my @dress.