A free resource for nonprofit organizations, NGOs, civil society organizations,
charities, schools, public sector agencies & other mission-based agencies
by Jayne Cravens
via coyotecommunications.com & coyoteboard.com (same web site)

 


Web Site Design Suggestions for
Nonprofits, NGOs, Small Government Agencies &
other mission-based / cause-based initiatives


I am not a web designer. You can tell when you look at my web site that I'm not. My web site - the web site you are viewing now - is oh-so elementary in its design, both because I'm not a web designer, because I cannot afford to hire a web designer, and because I want to be able to change any page I want to any time I want to, rather than having to call a web designer and having to wait for him or her to do it for me. So I have to keep things very basic. 

That said, I do have some very strong feelings about web design, and you should too, even if you are not a web designer yourself. You need to understand some standards of good design and be ready to demand them of whomever is going to design your web site, be it an in-house employee, a consultant or a volunteer.

Some fundamentals regarding web site design, and content that affects design, for nonprofits, NGOs, civil society organizations, government agencies, schools and other mission-based organizations:

Doing all of the above - and insisting any web designer, even volunteers, do the above - will make your web site easier to find, easier to navigate by a larger number of people, encourage return visitors, and make your site more accessible to a variety of users, including people with sight-impairments (either completely blind and using a screen reader or partially blind and using a screen magnifier), hearing-impairments, mobility issues and cognitive issues. And as I've noted several times, it will also greatly improve your web site's SEO.

There are many more accessibility tips here.

Note: old versions of your web site will be available at The Internet Wayback Machine / archive.org. You will be able to achieve at least one iteration of your web site from each year that it's been available on this resource. This is very helpful in retrieving information someone deletes off of the web site and didn't back up. It also helps you create a record of your organization's history. Do NOT let any web designer put coding into your pages so that they will NOT be archived by this resource!

Your computer probably already has all the tools you need

You can prepare a World Wide Web site with just a few tools:

  • a basic text writer (on a Macintosh, SimpleText or TeachText; on an IBM or clone PC, .txt) or word-processing program that lets you save as text

  • an art program that let's you save files to .gif or .jpg format (it is doubtful you DON'T already have this on your computer!)

  • just about any Web browser (as long as it comes with developer tools)

There are also free web building programs out there. I use BlueGriffon, a free web editor from the Mozilla Foundation. It's as simple to use as a word processing program.

Be careful in using platforms like WordPress, Wix, Weebly or other drag-and-drop web development platforms - the templates they provide are NOT made to meet accessibility guidelines. If you are going to use such a platform, use it only for your first, initial, basic website, and have a plan (and budget accordingly) to replace that initial, basic website entirely with a more robust and more accessible site.

Also, accessibility "skins" or overlays do NOT WORK the way they promise! Many accessibility advocates view these kinds of products as harmful and a step backwards for digital accessibility efforts. An accessibility overlay is JavaScript that is written with the goal of helping to fix accessibility issues on a website or web app. Overlay code is applied after the website or web app is rendered by the browser, to transform it. Two examples of permanent plugins are accessiBe and AudioEye - I refuse to link to them, but I'm naming them so you can avoid them. Here are some strong arguments against these companies:

Should I use an accessibility overlay? (NO!) from a11yproject.com.

Honor the ADA: Avoid Web Accessibility Quick-Fix Overlays by accessibility advocate Lainey Feingold.

Blind people, advocates slam company claiming to make websites ADA compliant.

Remember: the Web is a primary resource regarding education, employment, access to information about government (including benefits), commerce, health care and more, and to not make your web site accessible is to say to people with disabilities: we don't want you to use this site. Access to information and communications technologies, including the Web, is now a basic human right. Also, accessible design improves overall user experience and satisfaction. It is most efficient and effective to incorporate accessibility from the very beginning of projects, so you don’t need go back and to re-do work.

For guidelines on accessible web design, visit:

How to Meet WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) - A Quick Reference)

Web Accessibility Tutorials

Wix checklist for improving a site's accessibility

Also see Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth. This resource is from Aptivate, an NGO providing IT services for international development.

This is a for-profit company, Codecademy, and it offers some free HTML and CSS lessons that are simple to follow and highly useful for anyone looking to slightly edit or personalize an existing web site.

Completely new to code? HTML Cheatsheet is a great, VERY basic resource, and HTML Dog is a helpful, more advanced reference site regarding coding (I use them frequently).

Regarding content on your site, also see:


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