Gayr's Multimedia Story: Smashing magazine tips on charity websites

Smashing magazine has published an article about non profit charity websites that has given a lot of tips about how to attract people to donate and inform them quickly. My charity website needs to make it easy for people to get involved, find out Wish upon a stars cause and allow them to donate quickly.

The donation button is going to be a big factor of the website as it will attract people to donate regularly. The process needs to quick and simple.

The site needs to be media friendly. I intend to use this through widgets but offer good ways that smashing magazine suggests is to make the information easily accessible to journalists, bloggers and any one that can generate hype. Also make sure that the organizations purpose is instantly apparent.

A way to achieve ALL of this is to make sure that the design revolves around the content and the charities mission not the other way around. Another challenge that will add to this is that I have to abide by their print design, which includes their logo. This will ensure that their brand remains consistent therefore people will find them more recognizable.

Below are a few websites that I think use unique yet clean design to promote themselves successfully.

http://ww5.komen.org/

This website makes good use of space however my favourite part of this is it's slide show in the title. It adds an interactive element that people can relate to. Slide shows are a popular way of getting the audience to interact with the charities cause but this website does it particularly well through its use of colour and speed changes with the mouse. Donation link very prominent in the header.

http://www.one.org/us/actnow/globalfund2010/splash_wad.html?rc=globalfund2010wadsplash

I like this website because it is strikingly clear what their purpose is and how we can help. The website is also made more personal by the people in the title that make it clear that it can affect any one, any where, any time.

http://www.takethewalk.net/

This website uses striking colours and graphics. It also has a easy to use navigation that makes use of this. The main part of the website I like is the subtle use of space beneath the slide show as quite a lot of information is presented with a tone change to highlight it and simple illustration to tell the audience quickly what the information is about.