I’ve been working for a few days now on reorganizing the Tutor/Mentor Connection website. It’s been an interesting, and definitely challenging experience so far; I’ve never turned my organizational and design skills on a task so open-ended, or so important, before.
The first part of the process was to print off about 30 pages’ worth of the TMC website, take a highlighter and red pen to the pile, and then tack the results up to a very large board. Having it all spread tangibly in front of me made starting to connect the information and develop a hierarchy and structure far easier. At this point – and I wouldn’t say I’m fully done by any means – I’ve found that the information on the site breaks down into four main categories, those being a) information about TMC and Cabrini Connections; b) information to help visitors to the site understand the issues TMC is taking on; c) information to help those visitors, who fall into several categories (individuals who want to help, individuals who need help, corporations…), find programs and get involved, and d) resources for students enrolled in the programs.
Looking at the websites of other causes and seeing what works and what doesn’t has been quite helpful. Many nonprofits go for a layout that looks a bit like a newspaper, which is a good model for organizing the wealth of information they all have to share. It seems to me, though, that another good model can be found in the search engine. It too organizes a lot of information to make it accessible and understandable, and best of all, it does so with an extremely minimal front page. The most information, the least interference; incredibly easy to use. This type of design would also be something a little different for the nonprofit internet community. One of the main issues I see with the current TMC site is that it’s constantly sending you all over the place with links, so by keeping things confined and controlled, I think I can make TMC’s site far more comprehensive.
With all this in mind, I’ve started wireframing a few possible designs for what the TMC/Cabrini website might become, which is sort of like making a rough blueprint. Work in progress:
The page has a title, brief mission statement, and one large content window with navigation on its bottom. When one of the four sections is clicked, its content fills the window. Links are on the left, text and images on the right. This is what the “About” section might include.
Note the “donate” tab up top. Currently, a visitor to TMC must click through several levels of links to make a donation. I gave this key function of the site prominent, permanent placement at the top of the window. When clicked, it pulls down to reveal a built-in donation form.
After signing in, you might see something like this:
It’s been quite a week. More soon.
Jake, Tim and team,
The time, talent and thinking you are putting into this project are a model for what I hope leaders in every industry will provide as a means of engaging their own workforce and resources in the Tutor/Mentor Connection vision of helping kids from poverty to jobs and careers.
When this type of resource is applied from industry,much more can happen, than if it is the small non profits who need to figure out how to make a strategy like this work. We’re too small. We don’t have the resources. We don’t have the manpower.
Some of what I’m talking about is described in the essays at this link
http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/leadership-strategies
Thank you.
Dan
hey cousin, i like your blog and the work you’ve posted thus far. i would start a blog of my own, but i don’t think anybody cares about what i have to say. anyway, i’m writing you from beautiful cuernavaca, mexico, where i am busy getting kidnapped and catching the swine flu. i hope you’re having a good summer so far!
–cz