The MatriX Files

My family moved into our new house last July and guess what? We’re not done with the unpacking and decorating. Yes, the new house is worlds better than our old house, all the furniture is in place, we have stuff on the walls, and most of the boxes are gone, but we’re not done and it’s taken months of tweaking to make the house fabulous.

Our move reminds me of every single website launch at Matrix Group. When a Project Manager reports that he or she will be done with a project when it launches, I warn that there could be weeks of tweaks and that we should just expect it. Here’s why:

Sometime, you just don’t don’t know where to put something until you’ve lived with it a while. I wish I could say that our information architecture process is perfect and we account for every piece of content, but it’s not and we don’t. Clients often have to live with a site for a few days or weeks before they figure out where everything should go. In the meantime, content doesn’t go up or it gets stored under some generic navigation called Resources. I feel like Resources is like our garage; there’s a lot of great stuff in there but it’s hard to find what you’re looking for and you know you need a better organization system.

The little tweaks can make all the difference in the world. The new master bathroom in our house is wonderful but it had a few problems. You had to walk inside to reach the light switch and the towel bar was several feet away from the shower. We were unhappy from the beginning but we didn’t know what we wanted or how to fix the problem. Then one day, my husband came home with a wireless outlet that he attached to the wall. Voila! We can now turn on the light before entering the bathroom! And a hook added to the wall just outside the shower solved the towel problem. Same with a website. We often need a few days or weeks of real users road testing the site before we can make the slight improvements to the flows and paths that make the site really great. For one client, we added a Google map link to a calendar application; it was amazing how much happiness 2 lines of code created.

You can’t finish decorating right away. Our new house is laid out in a very similar manner to the old house but nearly everything had to be re-arranged. Bookshelves got moved around the house, we re-arranged the closets, and the living room is completely different, even though the dimensions are the same and we didn’t buy new furniture. With website redesigns, small changes to the navigation sometimes means a total rework of the content and CMS. And clients often can’t conceive of how to “dress up” pages with images and formatting until they are live.

You’ll get more done if you throw a party. My mom always says that if you want your house to look good, throw a party. You’ll get the boxes unpacked, the pictures hung and the furniture arranged – just in time. When a client picks the launch date for their website, we ask if they will be unveiling the site at a conference or event. I love having a deadline tied to a conference because conferences don’t move, which means everyone hustle to get things done and it’s amazing how much content gets written right before the event and launch.

Anticipate the tweaks. At Matrix Group, we know that it takes time for clients to get comfortable with the new site, use its new functions and figure out what’s working and not working. Leslie Blum from Carolinas AGC calls them “iron outs” and she’s right on. It generally takes between 2-4 weeks to get the help text just right, all the new content loaded, and the integration use cases all worked out. So rather than fight the tweaks, we anticipate them and plan for them in our schedule. I will caution, however, that tweaking past 30 days can get counter-productive. You run the risk of the team losing steam and experiencing launch fatigue.

In the last 30 days, we’ve launched new sites for the Ironworkers, the American Society of Addiction Medicine and the Washington Building Congress. Although the sites look great, we’re still tweaking. :-)

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• Tags: project management, strategy, Web Design

Our social fundraiser last year was so successful that we’re repeating it this year. Help Matrix Group raise money for DC area charities by participating in our social media campaign. We’re starting with a pot of $1,000. We’re adding $10 for every new “like” on our Facebook page and every new subscriber to our YouTube channel. Then we’ll distribute the money according to votes for the videos about each charity on our YouTube channel.

This whole campaign has been about social media and group effort. First, I polled the Matrix Group staff to see if they wanted to repeat the social media fundraiser from last year. The answer was yes. Then I asked the staff to nominate their favorite charities; I picked the top 5 charities selected by staff.

Next, we reached out to the local charities and asked them to create an informative video that makes the case for giving them money. Not surprisingly, we got amazing, authentic videos from each organization. One was created by a volunteer who did a stellar job.

Next, we came up with a way to fold in social media, increase our reach, and make the campaign fun. So we filmed a kitschy video that explains the campaign and tied the donations to getting new likes on Facebook and subscribers on YouTube. The whole campaign, including creating the video, working with the charities and putting it all together on the web was made possible by my amazing staff.

Check out our funny video on YouTube explaining the campaign and introducing the charities.

Watch the videos of the five deserving organizations on YouTube. The five organizations are Doorways for Women and Families, Food and Friends, SPCA of Northern VA, Washington Animal Rescue League and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

Here’s how YOU can raise money for those in need this holiday season:

• Like us on our Facebook page.
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• Vote for your favorite charity or charities by liking their videos on our YouTube channel.
• Spread the word about the campaign to your networks on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

You’ve got until December 20 to like, subscribe, vote and share. I’d love to raise $5,000. Can you help?

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• Tags: Facebook, Google Plus, Matrix Group, YouTube

My son’s Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar reminds me that we’re about three weeks away from Christmas, which means scant time to find the perfect gift for family and friends. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, you’re probably shopping for some people in your life. As always, I polled the Matrix Group staff for their top holiday gift ideas.

• For the gamers in your life, a Playstation Move or an Xbox Kinect will let them interact with games in a whole new way. With these accessories, your body becomes the controller and you can run, jump, punch and dance to a new generation of games. My favorite Move game is Everybody Dance, which teaches you cool dance moves and provides quite the workout. I’m dancing every morning to try to lose the last of the baby weight. Hey, if Kirstie Alley can dance her way to a new figure, so can I!
• If you’re looking for cool game titles, check out Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Batman: Arkham City.
• In my office, we’re all about the techie toys and all things Star Wars are cool. James thinks the Lego Super Star Destroyer is super cool.
• For a different type of game experience, Tanya recommends Dominion Card Game. This game is so geeky, it won a MENSA award!
• If you want to shop for unique gifts that give back, Jessica likes The Greater Good Network Store. For example, shopping in their Hunger site raises money to fight world hunger and promote peace on earth.
• Jenny loves to hop on Etsy.com, which features mostly handmade items from individuals.  I especially like the reusable paper towels and storage box and wallets made from duct tape of different colors!
• Since zombies are all the rage, it’s important to be equipped with the proper zombie gear. Kelly has some great suggestions: a tactical vest, a zombie survival guide, and survival tools.
• For the kids in your life, a Nintendo 3DS will endear you forever (well, a few months at least), and a Mindflex Duel Game will let them test their powers of concentration and use their brainwaves to levitate a foam ball (no kidding!).
• For the movie lover in your life, we love the Roku LT streaming media box.
• And finally, since we all mostly have everything we need and want in our lives, how about making a donation to a local charity? There are so many good ones in every community, we hope you’ll think of them during this holiday season. Maria likes Oxfam USA and Heifer International.

How about you? What’s at the top of your list this year? What are you gifting and what are you hoping to receive?

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• Tags: Gadgets

Remember the days when the web was new and we spent hours surfing and checking out random sites? Yeah, neither do I because that was soooo long ago. These days, I spend time on e-mail, the Matrix Group corporate intranet, my favorite news sites, Google reader, and sites linked from my favorite e-mail newsletters. When I’m looking for a resource on the web, I rely on Google or Bing. Or, if I’m familiar with a specific website, I go there for specific subject matter information.

This pattern is validated by user interviews and surveys that Matrix Group conducts for clients when doing a redesign. People visit websites because they need something; they don’t just randomly visit or navigate a site aimlessly hoping to find something useful. But here’s the rub: users rarely know exactly what they need. What they do know is that they need help with a specific topic or problem.

For example, a contractor might be facing an OSHA inspection so she visits her trade association website looking for resources on prepping for an OSHA inspection. She doesn’t know if she needs a book, a CD, a checklist, a webinar, white paper or consultant. All she knows is that she’s got 48 hours to prepare and she needs help fast.

But think about it. Jane contractor needs help re: OSHA inspections, but the website she’s visiting is organized by Events, Publications, Newsletters, etc. What she would love is to be able to find everything offered by her association that will help her with the upcoming inspection. A search is useful, but it might return too many results, and it’s often not curated. How does she know which search result will be most valuable?

This is where taxonomy comes in. If you’re one of my clients, you know that I am a taxonomy fanatic and I won’t let clients get away with NOT having taxonomy on their sites. A taxonomy is a fancy word for a classification system. At Matrix Group, we work with clients to develop a set of categories or topics that reflect members’ needs and special interests. Then we integrate that taxonomy into the content management system (CMS) and the association management software (AMS) so that everything can be categorized: news items, newsletter articles, magazine stories, meetings, webinars, publications, even supplier members.

Here are some great examples of taxonomy at work.

Leadership and staff of the American College of Sports Medicine know that members of the public visit the ACSM website looking for information on specific topics, e.g., exercise for women. So we implemented a taxonomy that lets the staff categorize everything on the website. The result is a topic index that lets the public view ACSM positions, brochures, fact sheets, books, news, events and outside resources. Today, a website visitor does not need to know what kind of service he needs, he can simply click on a topic to find everything offered by the association on that topic.

The Association of Small Foundations did something similar when we helped them create the Tools and Resources portion of their site. ASF knows that their members call, e-mail and visit the website when they need something, and that something is often related to a known set of issues associated with running a foundation with zero or few staff members. If a member needs help with governance, he can browse the Boards and Governance category and find resources on Building Your Board, Board Roles, Board Policing and Running the Board. These resources include articles, sample policies, FAQs, upcoming seminars, publications for sale, and a consultants. In ASF’s case, members and the public can browse the topics, but only members can access the protected content.

Now you see why I love taxonomies. Taxonomies connect people to content and let them more easily find the information and resources they need.

How about you? How are you using taxonomy on your site? Got any good examples of taxonomy in action on a website or app?

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• Tags: Information-Architecture