2016 TIG Conference

Web-based initiatives have access to a rich body of data about the needs of individuals seeking legal help and the assistance provided to them through online solutions, but making sense of these metrics – and making them actionable – is not always easy. This session will explore how statewide website and related online initiatives have used analytics to better understand client legal information needs, guide content development strategies, and more meaningfully measure the impact of outreach efforts. Panelists will provide tips for optimizing Google Analytics for the needs of the legal services community, examples of dashboards to benchmark key metrics, creative user feedback tools like micro-surveys, and how to use this data to engage supporters and funders.

With more and more low-income people accessing the resources that they need through the Internet, a website is often the first portal of access. So when people seeking help find your organization's website, do you know where they're being guided? Is it clear how to contact your offices, and is the navigation helpful for those who use screen readers or other assistive technology? How do you bring your organization's website in line with best practices without (what can often be) a costly website redesign? Our panelists will help answer these questions and more.

IllinoisLegalAid.org logged more than 2 million visits from over 1 million users in 2015. Those are big numbers; what do they mean? Who are the people behind those numbers? How does a statewide website unwrap those large, anonymous figures to discover the real people and the impact behind them? Join us for this session to hear how two partners will attempt to answer the question: what happens to a website visitor after their visit? Learn from staff at Illinois Legal Aid Online and Civis Analytics about their upcoming project to use data warehousing and predictive analytics to better serve people seeking legal solutions.

Between responsive design, SMS, social media, and a world of never-ending change, how we create, deliver, and manage legal content must evolve to keep up. Learn how Illinois and Arkansas are working to leverage technology to deliver the right content using tools like smart algorithms, weighted logic, semantic markup, and content restructuring to deliver the best content to users and tools like reusable content, content moderation, scorecard algorithms, and better contributor engagement to improve content creation, evaluation, and maintenance.

Drupal is the backbone for a number of statewide websites. Come learn about new developments on the DLAW template and within the legal aid Drupal community, the new Drupal community TIG grant, and the release of Drupal 8. Share what you are working on and brainstorm ideas for future development on the legal aid Drupal platform.

This session will highlight LawHelp / probono.net / LiveHelp network activities and developments. PBN staff will discuss new and upcoming developments for the LawHelp.org and probono.net platforms, and how statewide websites can support and advance other technology innovations in the field. In addition, project coordinators from two regions will share highlights of new initiatives in their communities to empower the public and mobilize volunteers using these resources. We will also provide an update on a TIG-funded initiative to identify and pilot the next generation of live chat/LiveHelp software.