Blue Mouse Monkey Blog

Blue Mouse Monkey is pleased to announce the launch of  SHnibbins dog snacks — the website and the product itself. We provided full branding and design services to enable SHnibbins to bring their new line of heart-shaped dog snacks to the market. From logo, letterhead and package designs, through to content creation, audio, website and social media, we created a new brand that focuses on the simple joy of doggie love. Get SHnibbified!

The Blue Mouse Monkey team: John Redder, Shelise Gieseke, Jimmy Thomas, Julia Stoops

2011 has seen some bittersweet personnel changes at Blue Mouse Monkey. In July Jimmy Thomas, developer extraordinaire and my office-mate for 3 1/2 years, moved to Japan, where he’s persuing a new life teaching English. To live in Japan was a long standing ambition of Jimmy’s, and I wish him well. But I miss his generous good nature and most excellent CSS skilz. We made some wonderful websites together.

And this December saw the departure of John Redder. For the past year John has provided incredible insight and support with process analysis and improvements, and project management. I’m still amazed that we “hooked” John at all — he brought to my little company experience and expertise from a higher plane, and I feel so lucky. Blue Mouse Monkey is a better company for John’s efforts, and we are sad to see him return to the bigger pastures from whence he came.

But all is not lost! We have some excellent new freelance developers in our stable, and in-house, our studio manager Shelise Gieseke is expanding her role and ably stepping into John’s role as project manager. With new, streamlined systems in place, we’re even better positioned to take on larger and more complex projects. I feel really ready for 2012.

It’s up and walking around: the new Blue Mouse Monkey website. All done up extra-nice in HTML5 and all that good stuff. It’s a bit dodgy on IE 6 and other hold-outs, but really, I cannot keep caring about obsolete browsers.

Bye-bye to the old Flash site, which was beautiful, but invisible to iPods and iPads, difficult for search engines, and a total pain to keep updated. However, it’s too lovely to banish completely, and can still be accessed via a link at the bottom of the new home page.

I was able to tweak and re-use a couple of the animations from the old site, on the contact page and the ‘404 page not found‘ page. I do love Flash. It was fun to use, great to make entire sites from if you were aiming for something artistic and didn’t care about SEO. I hate to see it get downgraded like it has been, but one must move with the times. And move we have. Thanks to Jimmy Thomas for doing the fabulous CSS build.

Detail of 'Control Center', by Julia Stoops, 2007. Mixed media on panel.

The Blue Mouse Monkey article Is your 24/7 ambassador an embarrassment? was published in the Non-Profit National Resource Directory in April. You can download it as a PDF, or read it below:

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THE WAY IT OFTEN GOES

Your organization does awesome work. You want to do good and you want to empower others to do good too. But if your website is anything short of excellent, it won’t be connecting with your audiences. And there’s nothing more disheartening than an aspirational organization with a mediocre website.

Many non-profits have tight budgets, so a humdrum website comes as no surprise. Such sites are created under “bare bones” conditions, either internally, if there’s someone on board who knows HTML, or externally, by an unseasoned web designer willing to create a portfolio piece for a low or no fee.

And once the site is launched, the “It’ll do” mentality kicks in. Your organization’s staff and volunteers are glad to have a site at all, even if it means referring to it in apologetic terms:
“…it’s not particularly exciting…”
“…it wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for…”
“…it’s cluttered, but we didn’t know how to fix that…”
“…but it’ll do for now…”

And so the inadequate site becomes the public face of your organization. And your audiences-the donors, volunteers, clients, applicants, members of the media, elected representatives-they visit the inadequate site. And they find your mission statement, and your address, and they download a form they want, but they’re getting just the basic facts. They can’t see the passion in your work. No stories are told. No surprises are offered. Nothing moves them.
What a wasted opportunity. You and your organization are trying to cause fundamental change for the better, and your website does nothing to move your audiences. And this becomes more than a theoretical issue when you consider your volunteers and donors. If you want to persuade people to part with their time or money, they need to be moved to do so. Your organization’s website should play a key role in that persuasion.

THE 24/7 AMBASSADOR

Look at it this way: your organization’s website is not just a glorified extension of your phone book listing. It’s your 24/7 ambassador. If you had a staff member who was “always on” and available to talk to anyone, anywhere, about your organization, wouldn’t you want them to do more than repeat your mission statement in a flat monotone and hand out business cards and forms? You probably wouldn’t risk letting such a staff member out the door, let alone be out in the world for years at a time.

Instead, you’d want that always-on staff member to be telling stories about your good work in the world. And not just the same story over and over, but different stories to each person who approaches. The staff member would tell them the latest news, with pictures, even video. The staff member would give out tips and resources, point out relationships between your organization and current events, and build a picture of the value of your organization and its successes. Visitors would still pick up that business card or form, but they’d come away with so much more. A sense of “Wow, that was awesome. I want to know more. I want to contribute. Participate. Join them on Facebook. Tell others.” This is the kind of response an ambassador should elicit.

At this point you may be asking, “What makes the difference between a mediocre site and an excellent site?” The answer lies in a combination of factors:

1. INVESTMENT

UNDERSTANDING THE TRUE VALUE OF YOUR WEB PRESENCE

Q: “If our site looks fancy, donors will think we’ve wasted money that could have gone into helping the communities we serve. Remaining plain, even awkward and ‘homespun’ demonstrates that we’re economical.”

A. There are two problems with this argument. Firstly, an excellent website doesn’t need bells and whistles to connect with your audiences. But it does need to be planned and designed well, and it needs to be adaptable as you and your circumstances change.

Secondly, keeping your website in the “It’ll do” mode is a false economy. An excellent website that truly expresses your vision and your stories is not merely a pretty bauble. It is an investment in the growth of your organization and its ability to serve your communities. According to a study reported April 2009 in BizReport, that looked at how website visitors were likely to part with their money or time, “highly satisfied” visitors to non-profit websites are 49% more likely to donate money and 38% are more likely to donate their time, when compared to dissatisfied visitors.
Read the full article >

The real question is not, “what does an excellent website cost?” but rather, “what are the hidden costs and lost opportunities inherent in a mediocre site?”

2. PLANNING AND ORGANIZATION

THE CRUCIAL FIRST STEP

Q. “But what is there to plan? Here’s our mission statement, our contact info, some news articles, and our bios. It just needs to be arranged neatly.”

A. Planning your site should be strategic. It’s about stepping back and looking at your organization and your audiences: where you’ve come from, where you are now, and where you want to go. An audit of your current site, with its strengths and weaknesses, along with the goals learned from the planning process, will inform the information architecture, messaging, and design of the new site. An excellent site is built with adaptability and growth in mind.

3. COPYWRITING/COPYEDITING

TAILORING YOUR MESSAGE TO YOUR AUDIENCES, WHILE KEEPING YOUR AUTHENTIC VOICE

Q. “Why do we need a copywriter? We’d rather do the writing in-house. After all, we know our organization better than anyone.”

A. It is true that your staff knows more about your organization than an external writer. However, organizations’ websites are at risk of being verbose, wonky, dull, repetitive, and inconsistent. A good compromise is a copy editor: someone who will work with you to unify your message, remove stylistic stumbling blocks, and refine your writing in alignment with your voice, your goals, and the needs of your audiences.

Keep in mind that Web visitors:
• don’t read, they skim
• absorb information in a non-linear way, not necessarily in the order you intend
• will leave much of your website unread
• need information categorized under familiar terms and according to a mental schematic they understand
• don’t need to be told that this is your website and in it they will find information about you
• should be asked, outright, to sign up for your newsletter, RSS feed, or to donate
• like to look at pictures and be told stories

Above all, your audiences should get the information they need as quickly and easily as possible. Especially audiences who might give you something, such as money, time, or exposure. NEVER think, “If they really want to know ‘X’, they can call.”

4. DESIGN

NOT JUST CHOICES ABOUT COLORS, FONTS, SYMBOLS, IMAGERY, AND LAYOUT, BUT THE OVERALL INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE AND EXPERIENCE, TOO

Q. “So called ‘good’ design doesn’t make much difference, right? It’s icing on the cake, something most visitors won’t notice-as long as they can access our information, we’re good.”

A. A well-designed website is not only visually pleasing, it anticipates your audience’s needs and questions, and gives them information in a digestible form. An intuitive interface makes fewer demands on the visitor’s brain as they navigate, while a confusing, cluttered website causes frustration and fatigue. The effect may be slight, but cumulatively leads to a less positive experience for the visitor. Thus, they are less likely to make the investment of signing up for your newsletter, volunteering their time, or clicking the Donate button. Design isn’t just about looks, it’s about functionality.

5. TECHNOLOGY

THE SOFTWARE UNDERPINNING THE SITE AND THE ADMIN SYSTEM

Q. “How do we update the website ourselves? Should we go with a web company that will set us up with their own proprietary content management system?”

A. The content management system (CMS), through which your staff edits the website, should be easy for non-techies to use. It should also be browser-based, meaning it’s accessible (with a secure login, of course) from anywhere with an Internet connection.

Ideally, your CMS should be based on a widely available system so that you’re not locked into a contract with one provider. If your website is built on one of the widely available systems, and you want to switch providers, you can do so easily because many technical experts know how to work with those systems. Whereas, if you’re locked into a proprietary system, only people from that one company can understand the inner workings of your website. And if you want to move away from that company, your website will probably have to be rebuilt.

6. INTERACTIVITY AND ANALYTICS

ENGAGING VISITORS AND GATHERING DATA

Q. “It’s all very well to describe our website as an ambassador, but besides being our “always on” public face, what else can this ambassador do? After all, we’re short staffed here and everybody has to wear multiple hats to get the work done.”

A. An excellent website is more than just a passive brochure. It can interact with your audiences, let them interact with each other, and gather data. Visitors can “talk back” on pages that allow commenting. They can talk to each other if you have a forum. You can poll visitors, and use the data in your work. You can showcase your clients, and grow your and their community. An excellent website also facilitates adding visitors to your database and social media outreach.

Behind the scenes your “ambassador” does analytics, noting which sites and search words bring in visitors, which pages they looked at, how long they stayed, and even the age of their browser. You can learn what’s driving traffic to your site, and watch for clues such as pages that visitors consistently leave early: a sure sign that something is confusing them. Analytics helps you refine your messaging and adapt to changing conditions in the client, donor, political, and social landscapes.

SUMMARY

A well-planned, well-designed, powerful web presence will nourish your organization in multiple ways. Your “ambassador” should get you donors, build your database, frame your issues, tell your stories, and spread the word. In short, your website should be connecting you with your audiences, authentically and powerfully.

As the BizReport article says,

…nonprofit websites have long been underestimated and misunderstood, and actually have tremendous power and influence over donor and volunteer behavior.

Your organization is extraordinary. Your website should be, too.

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© Julia Stoops, 2010

2009 was a particularly busy year at Blue Mouse Monkey. It was all I could do to focus on my clients and make sure the work got done and on time. One of the casualties of remaining in reactive mode for so long was the Blue Mouse Monkey Occasional Newsletter.

But it wasn’t just busyness that caused the newsletter’s downfall. Last spring my database got big enough that it was time to move to an actual newsletter system. I tried one that was opt-in only. It sounded fine at the time, but it turned out to be really easy for people to miss the crucial step of clicking on the ‘opt-in’ link inside the invitation email. I got a lot of “Yes, sign me up!” replies instead. Seeing as it was an opt-in only system, I wasn’t able to oblige. Plus there were the messages that straggled into my inbox about finding the invitation in trash folders. Then there were the folks who clicked on the ‘opt-in’ link only to find it didn’t work.

All up, it was a fiasco. And I was too busy to figure out a solution.

Compounding the confusion was a disassociation between my mailing list and my address book. As in, they barely matched. Then there was the new list of people who HAD successfully subscribed to the opt-in system. So I had folks in my address book who hadn’t been invited to opt-in, the folks on my mailing list who had chosen to opt in, the folks who did not choose to opt in (a pox on them, but, whatever), and the folks on that same mailing list who would have chosen to opt-in if 1. they’d known about it, and/or 2. they followed the right steps, and/or 3. it worked when they did.

What’s a busy business owner to do?

Okay, it’s my fault for not starting with a clean database. I lack the ruthless tracking gene. It used to be if I obtained an address it would go into my mailing list. Or address book. Or both. Or neither. Database? More like datamess.

So I’ve learned my lesson and I now consistently hoard those little ‘@’ symbols like potatoes. No, I don’t really hoard potatoes, but they are round and storable and provide nourishment over the long term.

Anyhow, my point is it’s a whole year later and I’m starting a new mailing list! It will even have pictures!. But don’t worry, it will still come out about 3 times a year. I loathe being bombarded with e-newsletters, and I think I am not alone in that sentiment. But Blue Mouse Monkey makes extraordinary websites for extraordinary people, and it would be a shame not to showcase our clients and let others know the wonderful work they’re doing in the world.

   

With apologies to Thomas Cole

It probably doesn’t look like much from the outside, but it’s been a turbulent few months at Blue Mouse Monkey. So much has happened that my processing power got all taken up, and regular activities such as blogging got neglected. But now I’m able to stand back and review the changes from a little distance. This is the first in a series of entries about Blue Mouse Monkey’s recent evolution!

But first, some history: Since 2001 Blue Mouse Monkey grew successful making portfolio websites for creative professionals, such as musicians, visual artists, architects, jewelers, writers, and others. Those who know me know I’m not one to boast, but I must acknowledge that my educational, creative, and academic backgrounds enable a particular level of interpretation and sensitivity when it comes to presenting a fellow-creative’s work in the interactive space of the Web.

You see I didn’t come out of design school. Sure, I took plenty of digital multimedia courses to learn the technical side of web design, but what I bring to bear on every project is something no design course will teach you: A lifetime commitment to art, which includes a BFA, MFA, a career in galleries, and 15 years experience teaching in colleges in Auckland and Portland. Then there’s the BA in philosophy and linguistics, which gave me a grounding in the history of ideas, and was a unique enough combination with the art qualifications that it led me to design and teach a great deal of hybrid studio/liberal arts curriculum during my teaching career. It also means there’s a rich set of connections underpinning everything I do, along with a strong right-brain/left-brain integration.

But, as those who know me know, I’ve also had a long-standing interest in social justice. There are so many people doing such great work in non-profits, NGOs, and in the public sector, and I’ve been looking for ways for Blue Mouse Monkey to partner with them in their efforts.

In 2008 we were fortunate to be asked to create the Community Health Priorities website, whose mission is to engage Oregonians to weigh in on what it means to live in a healthy (or unhealthy) community. With an eye to the social determinants of public health, the site encourages Oregonians to participate in surveys, share feedback, read news, peruse resources, take action, and apply for grants. The opinions and other data that the site gathers helps the Northwest Health Foundation fund “upstream” solutions, develop policies, and do advocacy work.

As David Rebanal, Program Officer at the Northwest Health Foundation said, “Blue Mouse Monkey was instrumental in helping us achieve our goal of engaging Oregonians to articulate a vision of a healthier life for everyone. The CHP site has become a forum for intelligent discussion, and a trusted resource for the public and policy makers alike. Plus the data we get from the site helps us communicate public health priorities to policy makers.”

Then in 2009 we were asked to completely overhaul the Northwest Health Foundation’s main website, and it’s been an honor to continue working with those fine folks and help them do their good work even more effectively.

After these inspiring experiences I wanted to expand Blue Mouse Monkey’s range to include more organizations and groups working to create positive change in the world. At the same time, it was clear that we should continue working with creative professionals, for they do positive work, too. So after thinking about it for an hour or two or three hundred, I rewrote the Blue Mouse Monkey tagline: Ingenious websites for changemakers and cultural innovators. Ingenious because our websites are “characterized by…originality of invention or construction”, and are “cleverly inventive or resourceful”. And changemakers and cultural innovators because that’s where it all goes down.

I’ve also been getting more involved in the non-profit and civic sectors, both in the arts and social justice, by participating in Mackenzie River Gathering Foundation, City Club of Portland, and the Sustainable Business Network, and by sponsoring the Creative Advocacy Network, Illahee Lecture Series, and Orlo — just to name a few.

It’s been a great journey so far, and Blue Mouse Monkey is now partnering with some wonderful non-profits in 2010. Watch this space for a gaggle (Flock? Clutch? Slew?) of new websites to roll out during the year!

According to Urban Dictionary, a Mouse Monkey is “A person who repairs computers for a living.” The definition was posted in February ’09, and has two thumbs up and one thumb down.

Nuh-uh. The Blue Mouse Monkey is a small furry creature whose mission is to beautify the Internet one website at a time. She does not repair computers, neither for a living, nor as a hobby.

One thing I hear from clients over and over is how much they appreciate that their plan, aspiration, project, creative vision — whatever it is they bring to the Blue Mouse Monkey table — is understood in a fundamental way. This feedback is from a new client who is proposing an amazing niche consultancy service:

“I did not think of it until later that day, but you were the first person that I shared the idea with who did not already know me quite well. I was little worried I was falling into the “American Idol” bad-singer syndrome… If you just ask family and friends “I’m a good singer right?” you may never hear the truth. You “getting it” and your enthusiasm was uplifting. Thank you.”