Donation Usability: Increasing Online Giving to Non-Profits and Charities

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for March 30 is now online at:
  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/nonprofit-donations.html

Summary:
User research finds significant deficiencies in non-profit organizations'
website content, which often fails to provide the info people need to make
donation decisions.
	
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Usability Week 2009 conference

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In-depth training:
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EASY ACCESS = MORE USE

Here's a negative example of the way usability leads to more use: The
obesity rate is 5% higher among 9th grade students whose schools are less
than 2 minutes' walk from a fast-food outlet, compared with schools that
are at least 5 minutes' walk away from fatty foods.

I don't think it's the extra 3 minutes of walking that keeps students trim
in the second group of schools. Students eat more pizza and burgers when
they are easier to come by.

  > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/health/nutrition/26obese.html

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VIDEO CONSUMPTION IS 99% TV, 1% COMPUTER

Interesting new field study by the Nielsen Company (which is not
affiliated with me, and I don't usually endorse their products, but this
is a nice one):

  > http://www.researchexcellence.com/news/032609_vcm.php

Researchers followed people around for a few days and recorded their media
use. Highlight findings (U.S. only):

  * 99% of the video people watch is on TV; 1% on computers
  * The age group 18-24 years watches 98% of its video on TV
  * Thus, no real difference between age groups
  * Average consumption is 309 minutes of live TV per day
  * Plus 23 min. of watching DVD/videotape and 15 minutes of DVR 
  * 2 minutes of watching video on the computer
  * 49 minutes of Web browsing per day and 37 min. of email use

How people can stand watching so much TV (let alone live TV) I don't know,
but that's a great example of how you can't project your own taste onto
the audience. Do the research, with real customers, instead of designing
for yourself.

Also, one more data point added to the vast amount of proof that you can't
trust what users *say*; you have to watch what they *do*:

When asked to recall their behavior, participants in the study
underestimated their amount of TV viewing by 25% and overestimated their
use of online video and mobile video.
	
"First Rule of Usability? Don't Listen to Users"
  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010805.html

Note how people spend 16 times as much time with email as with computer
video. The highest-ROI media are not the ones that get the most press
coverage. Our own studies also continue to find, year after year, that
email newsletters are an extremely important Internet medium,
old-fashioned as they may be:
	
  > http://www.nngroup.com/reports/newsletters