Website 911: An Organization Specializing in Grief Gets a Massive Makeover

National Alliance for Grieving Children (NAGC) is one of the nation’s largest associations for organizations specializing in grief. The website is an important channel for professionals, as well as parents and caregivers, to find local resources for addressing loss. NAGC asked Talance, Inc. (http://talance.com), a Boston-area Web development and design firm that specializes in user-friendly websites for non-profits, to develop a new website that would express a delicate balance between hope and loss, while making it easier for professionals and caregivers to discover a wealth of information. It also had to be a platform that would be an online community for members and also be search engine optimized to expand to more members and clients.

Objectives

Talance’s main objectives were:

• Develop a professional-looking website with as many self-serve functions as possible
• Create an engaging and friendly design that remained sensitive to the subject while still expressing hope and healing
• Make it easy for members to sign up for events and access restricted content
• Show a growing collection of resources for professionals and caregivers
• Provide a way to easily add content to the website
• Optimize the website for search engines

We developed a site that combines a friendly and professional design that always looks evolving and intuitive. The new website looks professional and warm. It incorporates special features that made the website look active while only a small team was in charge of updates. In preparation for an upcoming feature on Sesame Street, it was also important to have a map of available centers and have a robust structure in case the site experienced a surge of traffic.

Check out the whole project profile and learn more about our work.

First impressions count for everything when it comes to websites. In real life, you might have second crack at forming someone’s view of you: making a joke or warmly shaking someone’s hand. But online, when the average viewer’s attention is being pulled in a million different directions, you have to hit them exactly right to make sure they keep coming back.

Working with clients over the years, we’ve uncovered five simple tips that will help you present a great first impression so you can convert a website visitor into a fan.

1. Make your pages consistent.

Few things are as confusing as when each page looks different than the page that came before it. Web users need consistency when it comes to websites. This means when they click through the items in your menu, they always thing they’re on your site. If your structure is sloppy and inconsistent, you look sloppy and inconsistent.

2. Ensure quick load times.

If you think the people in the line at the DMV are impatient, multiply that by a factor of a bajillion to approximate their impatience with website loading pages. If your site doesn’t open in a reasonable amount of time, your visitors are gone, baby.

3. Clean up your logo.

Your logo is the flag of your website. It communicates important information about you at a glance. If that information has anything to do with tired clipart or design ideas borrowed from anybody else, it can have a negative effect on your visitors.

4. Appropriate colors.

Colors can communicate a mood to someone before they even read a word. The colors of your website should be attractive and also appropriate. An IBM blue probably isn’t the right color for a preschool website, and electric pink isn’t the right shade for a funeral home.

5. Everything works.

If a link is broken, if your margins are askew, if your images don’t load – these are all big mistakes that reflect badly on you as an organization. Taste is subjective, but operability isn’t.

Pick up a magazine and try to notice what you look at. Where do your eyes go? Directly to the middle of the page? The big headline on the right-hand side? What do you do when you hold the publication: flip from the back to the front like I do?

Now go to a new website you’ve never seen before, and think about where your eyes go. If you’re paying attention, you’ll discover you do not look at the same places. You’re certainly not going to the back cover first and work your way forward.

This is because websites and print publications are designed completely differently. Occasionally a client will come to us with a design that’s been created by the company that made their brochure or put together a postcard for them. Invariably, these websites don’t work. Even when they’re beautiful, print publications are simply made for a different way of reading.

So next time you pick out a Web designer, it’s OK to suggest colors and ideas and even the look and feel of a print publication, but don’t try to reproduce it online.

If you’re trying to sell a house, update the kitchen and bathroom. If you’re trying to get people to use your website, do it with these easy upgrades.

1. Most recent blog entry.

Some organizations have a blog, but hide it. An easy way to bring your words closer to your visitors is not only to provide a prominent link to your blog, but to also let the first few entries display on your homepage.

2. Twitter feed.

If you have a Twitter account, you should provide access to it on your website. It’s surprising how many organizations have an account, but you’d never know it by visiting their site. Treat your Twitter updates just like your blog updates, and show the most recent ones on your website.

3. Big Share buttons.

Any time you publish something worth sharing, you should encourage people to do so through e-mail or a social network. Big buttons encouraging people to share do better than small ones.

4. One-click donation.

It’s a pity if you miss out on donations simply because no one can figure out how to donate on your site. Make sure it’s easy to donate by clicking just one link.

5. Search.

If you have more than five pages, include a way to search your website. And make search easy to find. No hiding it in the lower regions of your site.

6. CMS (Content Management System).

If you’re struggling with keeping a mass of single-file pages looking the same, give up and get a CMS. Your visitors will respond to the organization.

7. Call to action links.

Tell people what you want them to do whenever you provide a link on your site. If you want donations, name your donation button “Give.” If you want people to register for your newsletter, call your newsletter link, “Sign up for the newsletter.” People will respond if you make it clear.

8. Home link.

Always, always provide a clearly labeled link that says Home.

9. Feedback form.

If there’s no way for people to respond to you, they won’t. Make it easy with a feedback form.

The best thing you can do for your website is to keep thinking about it. Keep tabs on what people like and what they ask for. Make upgrades on a regular basis, and you’ll notice a difference.

This little gem has been hidden on the main Talance website, but we thought we’d bring it to wider attention. Use this checklist every three months or so to make sure your website is still up to date and healthy.

Site Content

• All links work
• All downloads work
• All forms work
• Contact information on homepage and accessible on every other page
• Addresses organization’s goals
• Has a favicon

Usability

• All images have ALT tags
• Custom 404/page not found page
• Each menu has no more than seven choices
• Home link in navigation
• User-friendly page titles

Readability

• Font size not too small
• Wide margins
• Good use of bullets, subheadings and bold
• No underlines except for hyperlinks
• High contrast text and images

Operation

• Looks OK in most common Web browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera)
• Uses limited Flash to comply with iPhone and iTouch
• Images are sized correctly (i.e., big image not squeezed into small box)
• Colors and images are consistent
• Loads quickly
• Looks OK in different screen resolutions
• Looks OK with various screen color settings
• URLs work without “www”

Security

• Pages requiring SSL access are accessible only via SSL
• No one has access to restricted areas that they shouldn’t have

You’re a busy person. You don’t have oodles of time, money and technical expertise to put into your synagogue website.

And now you don’t have to.

Talance is launching a new service called Synagogue Sites 1-2-3 that makes it a breeze to have a website that truly communicates with your congregation. This is no electronic brochure.

>> Get more details and pricing here.

Here’s how it works:

1. Pick your favorite design

Get started with a clean, super-powered website hosted on the Drupal content management system (CMS). It includes tools for improving search engine optimization, a Microsoft Word-like text editor and six months free Web hosting.

2. Customize

Send us your logo (if you have one – we can help if you don’t), your two favorite colors and a couple pictures to include on the homepage. You can also pick from any of these Web tools for free:

• E-Newsletter
• Interactive Calendar
• Blog
• Advanced site search
• File storage
• Listserv
• Membership forms
• Members-only section
• Photo album
• Registration form
• Shabbat times calendar
• Weekly Torah Portion (from MyJewishLearning)

You can keep updating from an extensive list of advanced Web tools.

3. Relax

We do all the set-up and configuration to get you up online fast – in just five working days.

Special Bonus: Are you a Synaplex synagogue? Mention it when you sign up, and receive 20% off through September!

Learn more and sign up today!

It helps to see what other organizations are doing right to guide your own Web strategy. Here are six stand-out examples from non-profits that have a presence with websites, Twitter and Facebook.

Websites

10ThousandDoors.org is a gutsy move by the United Methodist Church to be a truly interactive experience. The whole site is innovative, but the Talk page is a new breed of discussion boards that has really opened up sharing and communication.

Take the Walk has a great counter on its homepage. They tally the number of miles supporters have walked to support fighting AIDS in Africa. The placement is perfect: front and center. This ensures the site is geared toward pulling in new supporters.

Twitter

Ashoka started promoting their e-book through Twitter and quickly built up a following. This multi-tasking post is smart, because they thank their followers, help everyone feel included and continue the promotion all in one Tweet.

The town of Richmond, VA, had a double-header of a good idea. First, they started a city wiki (others here), and then they set up an automatic Twitter feed that publishes any updates to the wiki. It gives you a real-time, accessible view of any changes that happen at the town level.

Facebook

Peta launched a Facebook Cause to raise funds and donations to protect animals. They’ve raised nearly $60,000 and have enabled others to recruit more supporters and raise funds on their behalf.

Synagogue 3000 claimed a great web address so they’d be easy to find on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/synagogue3000) rather than the ugly and hard to remember stream of numbers that Facebook adds to the end of your URL when it assigns one to you. Click here to set yours.

[Photo credit: WinTrash by fabiux, on Flickr]

If ever there was a time to feel sorry for trash cans, now is it. I know we’ve been kicking them a fair amount at Talance HQ, and certainly our clients are. What’s unleashed this sudden aggression on the waste bins by our desks? Internet Explorer 8.

With existing websites, there’s always a lag between when a new Web browser comes out and when you can get all the kinks and wrinkles ironed out so your site displays accurately everywhere.

But there’s an added problem when new versions of browsers debut. They’re inevitably buggy and have all kinds of problems that are yet to be discovered. That takes time. Internet Explorer 8 has made so many changes with the way it renders webpages that it could take a very, very long time to iron out problems. Recognizing all the problems that people are having with IE8, Microsoft added the Compatibility View button, which (in theory) lets you switch back to IE7 if a website isn’t displaying correctly.

This is a good reason for Web users – like you – to put off downloading any new browser software until some of these problems have been discovered and fixed, but it’s still a problem when it comes to website building.

What’s the solution? Well, nothing really good. Largely, you’ll have to wait until problems in IE8 are fixed and ask your Web developers to start taking a look at your site to make sure it appears correctly in the new browser. Just be patient, take your time and look at it as a reason to refresh your website.

Most organizations will spend most of their time designing and maintaining their website’s homepage. And that’s fine. You don’t want to neglect what’s there – the majority of your website’s visitors will see this page before any other.

But thanks to the social media functionality that makes it easy to share individual pages, such as to an event you’re putting on or the bio of someone on your site, it’s increasingly likely that a visitor might use Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon or Facebook to sneak in around the homepage.

Make sure you think of every page as a potential entry point for website visitors. This means that you may have to adapt internal pages so they make sense to a visitor. From every page, make sure a visitor

• Can access your menus
• Can easily contact you
• Knows they’re on your site – make every page harmonious with every other one

As a test, choose any page at random, and see if you can flow through your site without thinking too hard. Did you know what to do next? If not, jot down what confused you, and make sure you fix it.

[Have a question you’d like answered? Use the comments form at the bottom of this page or click here. We’ll review your question before posting (don’t be shy about asking!) and get back to you with a response.]

A reader asks:

I’ve heard from so many places you shouldn’t put anything below the scroll. Is it really OK?

There are so many rules in Web design that you really shouldn’t break. It’s a shame that the Do Not Scroll rule has gotten so much long-standing traction.

Back when we all started designing web pages, we noticed that people tended to look at pages in one glance, and then move on to a different site. The theory was they wouldn’t make the modicum of effort to use the scroll bar to look at the bottom of the page.

This fed the idea of packing as much information at the top of the page as possible, often with nothing at all below. It lead to a raft of websites that could fit on postage stamps, a favorite new refrain of “Keep it above the scroll!” and a deep-seated fear of putting anything on the lower part of the page at all.

Then there came blogs.

Blogs are all about scroll, with the most recent postings at the top of the page and story after story trailing down the page. I’ll bet you, reading this right now, will give this blog a good scroll so you can see what else we’ve written about recently.

Yes, people do tend to look at the upper-left-hand corner of the page more carefully than other places on your website. But it really is OK to put information at the bottom of the page. It’s sure a lot better than fitting everything you can into a postage stamp.

Take a look at these glorious examples of pages that contain loads of information well below the scroll, pulled at random from the Web browsers open on my machine:

From Last.fm

From Oprah.com

From Weather.com

From SlideShare