Web Roast: Touched Twice United

I love your mission and your vision and wish you nothing but success after success. May you reach your goal this coming year!

But while your mission and vision and solution are inspiring, your site, sadly, isn't. It's pretty generic (sorry!) and the access points and various calls to action are less compelling than they could be. There's too much repeated messaging around the problem, and less about your solution and your vision, which are quite inspiring.

I don't know what "touched twice united" means and I don't know how it connects to your mission. I suppose, not being christian myself, that it must mean something to christians. At least, I hope so, since your target market is churches. So you might consider a more generally engaging organization name, a logo that connects with a wider audience (are those halos or rings?) and consider a tagline that could resonate and inspire:

Touched Twice United / Bringing health care to your community

Touched Twice United / touching our neighborhood with health and hope

So, what else can we do to make this better? For starters, I would dump the home page and get right to what you do (which is buried under your main image banner on the home page and shown again on the pulldown menu under overview). Look, here all you should focus on (with a little minor editing):

*"Through a simple free clinic model, Touched Twice United is empowering churches to meet the healthcare and spiritual crisis of America. Now you can reach hundreds -- even thousands -- in your community on a zero dollar budget. Get involved now:

1. Host a clinic
2. Join a clinic
3. Donate now "*

See attached rough concept on a more impactful layout.

In addition to laying it out with a stronger message headline, an inspiring tagline, and the immediacy of the video all on the home page, I'd suggest you get rid of the search box (really, no one is coming to your site to search), and focus on three things - getting people to hold a clinic; letting people find and participate in a clinic; and donating to support the work.

Your terminology of "on a $0 budget" does have the implication of "manna from heaven" as opposed to "at no charge" which implies that indeed, there have to be some angels on earth writing a check -- it does cost money, it costs time, you need tons of volunteer help, so "Zero budget" does a disservice to all of that.

I'd work on expanding the ways to support you. I know you say the target market is churches. But don't you need to communicate to doctors, nurses, and other health care industry folks? That should be in all the sections - "How to support us." And implicit in this is posting your financials up on the web. 2011 and beyond for NPOs is all about transparency. If I'm going to support you, I want to make sure your Executive Director isn't taking home $500,000 a year; I want to make sure that money you collect is going toward fulfilling the mission, and not (in disproportionate proportions) going to overhead, fundraising, and missionary work outside of your core mission. I pray in a different church than you do, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't support your work. But I want to make sure that the money I give you goes to the mission, and not to your church. It's up to your church members to do that.

Your donate button right now simply goes to a paypal donation page. You need a donation section, which includes your 501(c)3 number so I can make a deduction on my donation; it needs to show your financials, it needs to list other ways to support you (don't you want to build a database of doctors and nurses who want to participate? don't you want drug companies to donate medicine? wouldn't it be nice if hospitals and clinics donated older equipment?)

I put on my example page an FAQ button on the main nav bar. I think you need it, rather than a "ask us questions" link which takes you to your contact form. In your FAQs, you should include all the questions you already know you get, and include these if you don't: 1. how do I get started (for churches) 2. how much does it cost 3. how does this work? 4. how are we able to do this at no cost to you? 5. where does the money come from 6. what are your financials (overview chart) 7. how can I participate (for volunteers) 8. how can I participate (for health care professionals) 9. Ways to support us

One other thing I'd really like to see is pictures and faces of your staff and executive board, with a short little bio. This is all about connecting with one another one to one, but right now you have a kind of faceless front. Let me see the real people, and hear a bit about them, and why they got involved.

Great organization. Terrific goals. Wonderful vision. Let me know how I can help.

There's a fair few things here that need to be fixed/.

What I like:

• Color scheme - is fitting

What I don't like, I'll add notes... There is a LOT of inconsistencies on this site, and I have pointed them out. What I find really odd about the whole page is that it's so BIG, why is it so big, and yet not that well thought out.

There are 3 possibly even 4 (logo font) different fonts on the home page this looks really bad...

The whole site really should be done again, I'll give you an example this is a similiar site:

http://www.orphansaidinternational.org/

It also has some wasted white space, however at least it has consistencies of fonts and colors. I really think that the designer of this site has let down this Non-for profit, I note that it was built and design by a Church web design company, not that, that is bad in anyway, more that their site (being the designers) is very nicely done, and not "cheap" looking like this one.

Hopefully your client won't be offended by my criticism, rather see it as an opportunity to expand and tweak their site, by making it work for them, rather than the other way round.

Hi Andrew, It's great to know that this 'roast' will actually help people :)

1. Site needs clear message telling priests and church communities' people that TTU can help them organise healthcare charity event at their own neighbourhood. At the moment your homepage it's confusing

2. Let them know you are KNOW HOW & Support organisation. Not yet another typical charity supporting specific target. At the moment you look to generic and too similar to all others who ask for money

3. Single call to action will help you direct the visitors through a designed path. IMHO it should be HOST A CLINIC as joining a clinic is something organised on a local level and probably does not need to be promoted through central nation wide website at the moment. At the moment it's not obvious what user can/should do

4. Introduce page with contacts and advice from previous clinics hosts. Let them share the burden of helping the others not mentioning that they know everything as they walked the walk.

5. Use intelligent/personalized CTA like: Host a Clinic as the nearest one is 300 miles from #yourtown#.

6. Put a short movie on the homepage instead of generic pictures of smiling kids or unhappy adults.

7. Show google map of US with pins indicating incoming Clinics. Maybe even put contact details to organizers there.

8. Be positive with the message. Concentrate on the solutions and opportunity not on the problems people have in US as all priests and citizens are well aware of them.

9. Start thinking about setting up online tools for churches which would automate a lot of the tasks they will be facing. At the moment you are PDF based but the way to get big and help loads of people is via offering free useful tools.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

Michael

(user experience designer & web strategist)

I am going only to highlight few details I would personally change, unfortunatelly I am not able to talk about content because of my language skills :(

Aswell you should give higher importance to Donate button, because actual design hierarchy leads up to the image slider and its Learn more while donation stuff stays way hidden

hope that little helps :)

I will sum up my main points here in two sections, and i wont be shy ;):

The things i like:

• I also like the color scheme, except for the host a clinic brown color :)
• I like the picture. It is a true and honest picture, not tooo stock or perfect. Just great for the purpose!
• I like the call to action on the right side, with the fold outs so you can get more information about the call to action without refreshing the page.
• Great readability. Contrast overall is very good so everyone can read it!

The things i would improve:

See comments in notes.

Hope you can use my input! Great initiative!

Design: great color scheme of subdued earthy and very warm tones. Works for the purpose. It is straight forward, clean, well laid out and provides a wealth of relevant information. However, it mixes rounded with straight corners. I has un-styled links, and might benefit from eliminating one typeface. Visually it is not stunning, or very creative, but it does not need to be.

Purpose: This page goes right to the point with just about anything I need to know to make a judgment. Very well done.

Originality: run of the mill. Very well done run of the mill though.

Engagement: the hierarchy of the text makes it a compelling read because it is easy to follow down to an action item.

For example I noticed the photo first, then the title, (touched twice was a little uncomfortable) so I looked for meaning and quickly settled on the large type description under the photo and before I knew it I was down to Learn More.

What I would change:

Add a descriptive slogan to logo (please) like "healthcare through faith" (not good at all, just an example).

Style links: blue underline just look amateur.

The style of the right hand menu is one that has come to be associated with an accordion. and generally the expectation is that each item opens up below the clicked headline.

Stick with one font for headlines

I think the visual design is very good. Being a newcomer to this site, I am still unclear what the problem is for which you have a solution. Perhaps bullet items on the top level that provide tangible issues, such as (and I am only guessing, but you know the real tangible issues):

• Lack of staff or assistance to run a clinic
• People with no where to go for health care
• People needing spiritual guidance during financial ruin

I hope you get the idea. The more "touchable" and real you can make the problems, the better the audience will understand what the solution could mean and you gain better engagement.

My best to you and please ask if you need clarification.

frank

A lot of other great comments have been made, so I'll just focus on one item - corners.

The most glaring one is the Learn More button. It looks a bit like the button has been stretched horizontally.

The radii of the Home menu drop and the Login drop appear similar; however, the lower twitter, facebook.. outlines seem a little smaller/tighter. Then there are a healthy number of squared-off corners.

It's just my preference to see some consistency in these things. And the design comes across as more thoughtful when the different corner types are used intentionally.

First, I want to say that I think what your non-profit does is really great and thank you for helping out American's in need.

I agree with Richard's comments.

If I would change one thing, it would be to make the messaging clearer. I don't know from looking at the home page what touched twice united is or what it does or what it can do for me. So revisit the messaging and make that messaging take up the majority of the page, rather than a fluffy photo.

Your navigation is fine.

You may want to change your logo from black to the same dark brown color used in the photo. Right now the logo looks kind of plastered in.

It feels odd to me that the section with the bullhorn is designed as it is. It doesn't seem to go with anything else and the visual connection of the box to the slide show makes it seem like it should relate to the content of the slider. However, the content doesn't relate to the slider contents.

I don't agree with placing the video on the homepage. I think the photo slider should be improved to have more meaningful content (such as describing your site mission).

Data shows that click through rate on landing page videos is very low (run a website optimizer test if you don't believe me). Having an auto running slider like you have now will be more likely to communicate your content to more people than a video would. Not that you shouldn't have a video. Having it on a separate page like you do now is good.

The links below your slider "Welcome, News, Clinics" is also odd. THis content is visually married to your photo slider but it's purpose has nothing to do with the slider. It should feel more connected to the content below it, rather than the content above it. Perhaps change it to dark text on white/subtle gray gradient background so it visually "marries" with the content below.

Your news page looks very visually appealing: http://www.touchedtwiceunited.org/media/news/ It might be nice to include a 3-4 sentence excerpt from each news article. Also, it seems weird that clicking on an article title takes you to a page with almost no content and just a link: http://www.touchedtwiceunited.org/article/touched-twice-brings-medical-care-to-those-who-need-it/

It would be better if on this page... http://www.touchedtwiceunited.org/media/news/ ...clicking the title actually brought you to the external news article, rather than an empty page.

Regarding your "What is TTU?" page: http://www.touchedtwiceunited.org/overview/2011-initiative/ The placement of FAQ on the left seems odd. Perhaps your main navigation should be changed from "Overview" to "About" and "FAQ" should be added as an item in this menu. Then use the space on the left of your "What is TTU?" page to include all the sublinks of "About;" What is TTU (selected, not a link), 2011 initiative, FAQ.

I hope this was helpful.

Well, I browsed the Entire site.

First of all, let me congratulate you on working for such a noble cause. It's really great to see people involved in such activities.

Now, for the website and specially to the points you asked about , how easy to find information on hosting a clinic etc, my feedback, collective, are as follows:

1. Design: The Visual Design is appealing. Subtle, clean and clear , no non-sense design! Nice colors too!

2. Navigation: Pretty nicely done and quite bold, visible, distinct and things which are most important are quite prominent.

3. Search: When I tried the search, I must say, the search results appeared very cluttered. Not clearly formatted. I see a good scope of improvement there. A well structured and well formatted search result with icons, to identify which sections the links point to, or type of content, will be really good.

I was able to find the necessary documents for carrying out the activities, like joining a clinic or hosting a clinic...

So, I hope these inputs, specially search, will help you.

All the best and keep up the great work!

Cheers

Prashant

The intent of this website is wonderful.

Simplify One of the key success factors to enhancing this design is to draw greater attention to the emotional power of the banner area. The uploaded attachments illustrate some key tasks - that once organized differently, the design is easier to scan.

Hero Images and Story - there is a great opportunity to create compelling visual stories for visitors, and trigger behaviors of resulting in Joining, donating or hosting a Clinic. Each banner photo should leverage the persuasive norm of social proof In other words, connect to a persons need to be like other happy, successful, caring (etc.) people. Each banner should tie back to the this norm.

Enhance scanning - redesigning the footer area, and placing the social networking icons makes it easier to scan and take action.

Provide Whitespace - breathing room, which will allow the users eyes to track freely (and randomly) through the design. The attachment "mockup_2.png" provides a basic visual hierarchy.

Be careful about color - ensure that the colors connect to the overall theme and mission.

Great cause, good site...

Cheers,

MichaelR

It need to depict the purpose more strongly.

Richard did the in depth review and would love to see something coming to life on the same line.

Thanks, Haider