SXSW Interactive is over, and we’re all back home – a little more sleep deprived, and a lot more inspired than we were a week ago.

The highlight of our week in Austin was the Beacon Lounge. Tucked away on the 3rd floor of the Austin Convention Center, we were at the center of the new Greater Good campus.  Surrounded by sessions about nonprofits and social good, we had a constant flow of very cool nonprofit folks into the lounge. Many, many people came each day to hear an interview by Mark Horvath of Invisible People, check out the afternoon concerts from Sweet Relief, and connect with like-minded people  (It probably didn’t hurt that we had a free breakfast, lunch, and happy hour each day.)

To make our week even better, it ended on a high note with the panel “Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit: Donations 2.0″.  Featuring Skylar Woodward of Kiva, Milo Sybrant from Amnesty International, Katie Bisbee from DonorsChoose.org, and Ruth-Anne Renaud of Opportunity International and facilitated by our own Michael Cervino, this panel was a great discussion about how web 2.0 has changed fundraising (for better and for worse), and how all nonprofits can use the principles of donor choice, transparency and accountability to form a deeper relationship with their donors. Not all nonprofits can (or should) follow the direct donor-to-recipient model that Kiva made so popular, but it’s clear that these very different organizations can learn a lot from each other.

One of the coolest moments of the week happened during the panel, when audience members spontaneously decided to fund a project through DonorsChoose.org while the panel was happening.  And they did it, raising hundreds of dollars to support music education in a Texas school. This was a great moment, and it really drove home to me the power of the passionate, smart group of people at SXSW.

We are incredibly gratified to have such a great crowd at the Beacon Lounge and our panel, and that we had the chance to meet so many of you and hear what you’re passionate about.  We had an amazing time, and if you were there, we hope you did too.

We couldn’t have made the lounge such a success without the help of our wonderful sponsors: Blackbaud, Convio, Charity Dynamics, The Port and RAD Campaign.  And, of course, thank you to the SXSW staff and their army of dedicated volunteers who kept everything running so smoothly.

In addition to all the people we met, we also learned a lot in sessions, from the details of HTML5 to the future of the internet.  Stay tuned for posts from other Beaconfire folks on the best things they learned at SXSW 2010.

One of the key responsibilities of information architects (IAs) at Beaconfire during a site redesign is creating navigation labels that make sense for the sites’ priority audiences.  Recently, we’ve started using tree testing to check our work and make sure the navigation labels make sense to those priority audiences.

Through the IA process, we focus on two parallel inputs – our client’s needs and the needs of their priority audiences.  We identify the key information audiences want from the site and frequently get their input on how they’d categorize that content via open card sorts.  The card sort gives us an opportunity to learn how the priority audiences think about and group information on a site and what language they use to describe it.  In an open sort, participants are presented a list of content items and asked to group those items into whatever categories make sense to them.  Rebecca wrote a great post that explains more about card sorting last summer.

After the card sort, we bring that input back to the client in the form of a draft a sitemap and continue to refine the site structure to ensure all the content has a home.  Before we sign-off on the sitemap, we like to present the “new & improved” navigation to users and see if it is going to work for them.   In the past, we have tested the new navigation with a ‘closed card sort.’   Like an open sort, users are presented a list of content items but in a closed card sort, they are asked to sort those items into the pre-determined category (navigation element) that makes the most sense.  Closed sorting has worked well for our navigation validation – we’ve seen good results with the testing and solid performance on the navigation.

However, we recently discovered OptimalWorkshop’s TreeJack, a “tree testing” tool that allows us to test the navigation from a much more authentic starting point.  In a tree test, participants are asked to click through the site tree (navigation structure) to complete a series of tasks.  This type of process closely mirrors website users mental model “Where will I find X” when they come to a site.

In tree testing, we develop tasks that align with the priority content and features of the site or, if a particular navigation element is in question, we can create a task to test that. The testing results give us a quick overview of how many participants succeeded (got the page we identified as an answer for the task); whether they got there directly or wandered through the navigation; and how long it took.  In addition, the testing results show us the path that each participant took for each task which gives us good insight into the ‘why’s’ behind unsuccessful tasks. 

We’ve been impressed with the TreeJack tool.  Tests are easy to set-up and the test results are easy to understand and actionable.  It’s also nice that the tool is online, so it ready whenever your participants are, and no special software is needed.

Sounds fun, doesn’t it? Try it out here and let us know what you think: https://beaconfire.optimalworkshop.com/treejack/survey/BeaconfireWire

Are we there yet?

It’s been months in the planning, and it’s hard to believe it’s here: SXSW Interactive starts this week.  Beaconfire is ready, packing our bags and heading out to Austin.  On Friday, the Beacon Lounge will open on the 3rd floor of the Austin Convention Center, and the fun will begin.

If you’ll be there, check out what we’ve got planned for the lounge – and be sure to stop by and say hi!  We can’t wait to meet all the non-profit, socially-conscious geekeratti at this geekiest of conferences.

Don’t forget to add out panel, Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit?, to your schedule.  These nonprofit rockstars are going to uncover the future of fundraising, and you won’t want to miss it.

If you won’t be there, you can still follow the excitement.  Just subscribe to the Beacon Blog, where you’re sure to find great insights, interviews, and other surprises as the conference gears up.