Matrix Group International

Month: May 2017

  • Farewell Google Site Search, Hello Google Custom Search Engine

    Google wouldn’t be Google if it wasn’t shaking things up with its products and offerings. The latest shake up? Sunsetting the Google Site Search.

    As you may have heard, over the course of the next year, Google Site Search will be discontinued, leaving in place Google’s Custom Search Engine (CSE), which will continue to be ad-supported. As of April 1, 2017 Google has stopped selling licenses and renewals for the Google Site Search, and will completely phase it out by April 1, 2018.

    What are the differences between the old Site Search and the Custom Search Engine? The biggest, notable differences are that:

    • Ads are required. Google will, however, make exceptions for 501(c)(3) organizations.
    • Google branding is required with the new search version, and cannot be disabled, even for 501(c)(3) organizations.
    • There are monthly search query limits, so if you are running a high-traffic website there is a chance that the search will stop working once you hit your limit.

    Wondering what this means for your organization and your website’s site search if you are a Google Site Search user?

    Nothing, until your current Google Site Search license expires. You will continue to have access to the Google Site Search and your implementation and settings will stay the same until your license expires. At that time, Google will automatically convert your site search to the ads-supported CSE version and the changes mentioned above will take effect.

    If you are a 501(c)(3), are okay with the Google branding on your site search, and have a relatively low site search usage on your website, the transition to CSE should continue to meet your needs. Once you are converted, you will simply need to disable the ads and should also be prepared to provide Google’s legal team with proof of your 501(c)(3) status, if requested. Pretty simple.

    If you’re concerned that Google CSE won’t meet your needs, always keep in mind that there are other options on the market. For example, we’ve implemented the Searchblox and Solr site searches for our clients with excellent results. In fact, I recently spoke with CEO Joanna Pineda about why we love the SearchBlox site search so much. If you’re interested in what other options are available to you, please reach out! We’d love to work with you to find the perfect solution for you organization.

    Have you been switched to the Custom Search Engine yet? What are your thoughts?

  • Why Your CEO Needs to Attend Your Redesign Meeting

    Why Your CEO Needs to Attend Your Redesign Meeting

    I attend a lot of kickoff meetings. For  redesigns, mobile apps, custom databases, you name it.

     

    The best kickoff meetings are the ones where the CEO, Executive Director, the EVP or President attend, participate actively and provide insight. Why?
    • When the top person in the organization attends a meeting, staff know that meeting is important. Staff show up and pay attention.
    • The CEO usually has a good read on who the organization’s target audiences are and what they need. This perspective usually comes from their frequent interactions with members, partners, sponsors, the media, and Capitol Hill.
    • The top person is also usually the top spokesperson for the organization, they can best articulate the brand, mission and voice. 
    If your CEO opts not to attend, telling you he or she trusts your judgment, still ask for a 20 minute meeting. Ask him or her to rank target audiences and describe what success looks like for your project. Any decent CEO will give you 20 minutes and his or her insight will be an invaluable road map to success.
  • Why There is Still Room for a Small, Local Player in the AMS Space

    Why There is Still Room for a Small, Local Player in the AMS Space

    Last month, some of the largest AMS (association management software) companies (YourMembership, Abila, Aptify and NimbleAMS) joined forces to create Community Brands, which they describe as “a powerful and unified family of brands and a connected eco-system of software and services to better serve associations, nonprofits and government entities.”

    One can quibble over whether or not Community Brands will be a “family” of complementary or competing brands. But for a company like Matrix Group, with our web-based MatrixMaxx AMS, the big question is: In this age of mega-mergers, is there still room for a small, local player? Can we compete with the big guys for clients and talent?

    I’m confident that the answer is a resounding “Yes!”

    Many years ago, the book club at Matrix Group read Small Giants by Bo Burlingham, Editor-at-Large at Inc. magazine. In the book, Bo writes about 14 companies that are small and growing or small and choosing to stay small. In all cases, they have chosen excellence over growth.

    Excellence over growth has always been my mantra. If growth made sense in any given year, we went for it, but never at the expense of technical excellence, customer service, customer intimacy and terrific user experience.

    Sure, in many ways, being small, niche and custom is anti-trend. Aren’t we all shopping at Amazon and big box retailers? Aren’t we most impressed by the companies that have big, booming growth and huge total revenue numbers (often ignoring net income; we rarely hear about that). But on the other hand, there’s a movement to support small, local businesses. Think of the millennials who prefer independent coffee shops, bookstores and clothing shops.There’s a reason they prefer small and local and I’d wager it’s because they get a more personalized, friendly, and tailored experience.

    I spoke with a few clients over the past few weeks and they told me that they like working with Matrix Group because:

    • We have an amazing staff
    • Our work is of very high quality
    • We offer superior technical solutions on the AMS and custom sides of the business
    • We are easy to work with, easy to reach
    • We listen and respond to their needs
    • They never feel like just another client among hundreds or thousands
    • We have a track record of success
    • They know we’ll do what it takes to help them be successful
    • They get customized, personal attention and ideas

    While small companies don’t have a monopoly on the above characteristics, somehow, smaller companies are more likely to take the time to really get to know their customers.

    As for the war on talent, I absolutely love this opinion piece by columnist Gene Marks in Inc. Magazine. He talks about why it’s better to work for a small company over a large company. In fact, I have refugees from large firms who tell me they enjoy have a large voice in the company, having an outsized impact on clients’ success, and easy access to senior leadership.

    For sure, going up against a behemoth like Community Brands will be challenging. But I gotta stay true to my core belief that we can compete with any company and help our clients make the world a better place. I know that Matrix Group and the MatrixMaxx AMS can compete based on technical solutions, customer service, price and customer intimacy. No question about it.

     

  • Designing for Users with Autism

    Website design and usage is getting more challenging for a lot of us. In addition to more older Americans accessing the internet via smartphones only, more young people than before are living with diagnosed cognitive disabilities like autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says affects 1 in 42 boys and 1 in 189 girls.

    Researcher Cheryl Cohen recently shared those numbers in a UXDC Conference session about web accessibility for teens and adults with autism that I was able to attend back in April. Cohen gave an overview of the cognitive traits that can affect users with autism and some recommendations for improving websites and apps to better meet their needs. This was very eye-opening to me!

    What should we know about autistic users, and how can we design websites and apps to give them the best user experience? Here are the considerations and solutions that Cohen shared:

    • Contextual misunderstanding: Whether presented in words or in imagery, idioms and metaphors can be confusing to some people with autism.
      • Use more intuitive, less symbolic icons. Include descriptive text, which helps improve SEO, too.
      • When you’re writing for your website, keep the language simple. This might include shorter sentences or a conversational tone.
    • Visual processing: When looking at a lot of information all on one screen, some with autism become confused or distracted. So they simply focus on one specific item and ignore the rest of the page.
      • More white space, more visuals. Too much stuff crammed onto a screen distracts users and can add unnecessary steps to an otherwise simple task.
      • Fewer words, more bulleted lists. Large blocks of text make it difficult to find and focus on what is most important on a page.
      • Does your website feature rapid animation only viewable by Flash player? Get rid of it. It’s hard to look at and process fast-moving visuals.
    • Auditory processing: From voices to machines to their environment, some people with autism focus equally on multiple sound sources.
      • Sound quality matters. If your audio content or videos feature muddy or distorted sound, someone with autism will have a harder time discerning voices.
      • Captions improve comprehension. Mentally matching the sound they’re hearing with the images they’re seeing can be more difficult for a person with autism. Add captions to your videos and images as often as possible.
    • Different way of mentally organizing items: Inconsistencies can make it challenging for a person with autism to use web interfaces, especially if that person has trouble getting past mistakes or exceptions within a website.  
      • Watch how you design forms. In Cohen’s research, she found that teens with autism had a hard time filling out web-based forms. The biggest culprit? Inconsistent spacing between labels and input boxes.

    The teens she interviewed and observed will, perhaps, grow up to become members of our clients’ organizations — but at the very least, they will be, or already are, consumers and users of other online content and resources. Improving accessibility for these users improves the digital experience for all users, so why not always design with these user needs in mind?

    To learn more about designing for those with cognitive challenges, check out these resources from the good folks at Web Accessibility in Mind. 

    Are you considering these factors when designing web or apps? What other specific user accessibility considerations have you come across that improve the UX for all users?