Further thoughts on last night's Lend-a-Hand India presentation

I jotted down a few notes during the Lend-a-Hand India presentation that I wanted to share. Overall, it was effective. I particularly liked the way the team trimmed down the nine+ menu items to just five. That seemingly simple change made the site seem a lot less daunting.

But I thought the team's topline recommendations could have gone even further. Specifically:

1) The presentation of the three personas was useful. I got a good sense of Lend-a-Hand's three main audiences, both actual and aspirational. At no point during the presentation, though, did I become clear on what the site can (or should) offer each of these groups. A map showing content types for each of the five main sections would have helped. For instance, what would press get out of visiting this site? If Lend-a-Hand really wants to target journalists, then perhaps they need to develop some press-friendly contents--e.g., photo library, background briefings on poverty in India, interviews w/ leading development economists, reviews of Slumdog Millionaire by Indian youth... Also, what's in this site for donors? As our two judges hinted, Lend-a-Hand should be taken to task for not doing more to highlight their on-the-ground work and local partners. One obvious way for them to go would be to adapt the Kiva approach to their needs.

2) Like Craig Zheng, I liked the fact that the team's mock-up for the Home Page urges visitors to "Donate Now" and "Take Action." That said, "Take Action" is vague. Maybe "Get Involved with Us," with two sub-categories: "Donate" and "Volunteer"?

3) Also on the team's proposed new Home Page: I kept thinking that some of the language was clunky. Maybe you could play with the organization's name more: e.g., "How can you lend a hand?" Also, the logo, showing people holding hands, is quite clever. Could the photos on the Home Page echo that somehow--close-ups of people's hands or some such? It would help to reinforce the message...

4) Also, the branding doesn't convey the message that the organization is focused on India, apart from the name. The tagline, "Making a difference in the lives of the poor through self-help," could apply to many groups. How to bring in India more prominently--would a map visual help?

5) The team mentioned several times Lend-a-Hand's attachment to its video. That's all well and good, but what do others make of it? Are the contents good enough to inspire people to donate to, volunteer for, or write about Lend-a-Hand's work? If not, how might the contents be improved? To get maximum mileage out of the video, the audience question needs to be tackled. Also, and as Constance said, the team should consider whether other kinds of multimedia--e.g., a slideshow of photos taken in the field--could be just as (if not more) effective.

6) During the presentation, I was taking two, somewhat contradictory impressions of Lend-a-Hand's work: on the one hand, it runs high-profile fundraising events in NYC that staff members could be blogging/twittering about; on the other, there are all these poor young people in India they're trying to help. This puts in mind Kipling's "the white man's burden"--but is that Lend-a-Hand's intent? I don't think so. Still, it's hard to reconcile the image of chocolate tasting at MadamX Lounge in Soho w/ images of India's rural poor. I'm not quite sure how to address, but at the very least, the client should be cautioned about it.

7) Finally, I had a kneejerk reaction to the notion of the site being divided between "static" and other kinds of contents. "Static" has a very special meaning in Web world.

Well, enough of my critique. Time to give a hand to the Lend-a-Hand team!