ZoomConcept Reviews
Minor Problem on donate-saveamother.png 1 wasted space - put the nav in here, or the search 2 Image is pixelated - looks bad, in fact I think it would better to have a video intro of malti 3 right aligned text - this needs to be closer to malti 4 wasted space 5 make the footer and the social aspect more proeminent 6 I would get rid of the tag cloud it looks a bit silly, and tags themselves would suffice Minor Problem on home-saveamother.png 1 wasted space -
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Aaran Casey commented:Yep that works there... seeing as you have changed from Silverstripe to WP, suggest you change the favicon...
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Rahul Singhal commented:
favicon updated... I had to clear my cache to see it.
Serious Problem on donate-saveamother.png 1 Main Nav, you want people to spend time on this site, this needs a bit more importnace 2 Typography - I know Arial is widely used, but it still lacks emotion, I would suggest Georgia for headings, as it will match the logo a bit better, and TrebuchetMS as the body font, it's softer and has better readability IMHO -
Jessika Sobanski commented:I agree. :)
Serious Problem on home-saveamother.png 1 Move this upto the top -
Rahul Singhal commented:
In place of Malti's image?
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Aaran Casey commented:
No, but if you manage to get video into the nivo slider it should be of importance as the Malti video... What I mean was to put video up there
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Rahul Singhal commented:
ok, as part of the rotation.
2 Make this an interactive footer -
Rahul Singhal commented:
What is an interactive footer?
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Aaran Casey commented:
A bit like a FAT footer that has all the information stored there, with more CTA's getting people to click on info, I am sure that there are more mum's that need the donation... and things of interest
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Rahul Singhal commented:
ok, got it.
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Jessika Sobanski commented:
This will help with SEO too.
Critical Problem on donate-saveamother.png 1 CTA - this is not bold enough, this needs to stand out Critical Problem on home-saveamother.png 1 Flash, why? -
Rahul Singhal commented:
We're considering Nivo, although I'm not sure if video can be embedded.
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Aaran Casey commented:
Well if you do that will look stunning... good luck!
Positive Feature on donate-saveamother.png 1 Nice, and simple well executed Summary:
Overall the site, is fairly plain to the eye. IMHO it needs a design uplift, as it will help improve usability and donations it need a bit of a better flow.
The idea behind a site like this is to get people to donate, this isn't likely to happen if it's too hard to figure out where to donate, or if the content is hard on the eyes.
ha ha, this is a silverstripe site, I love it... this is the CMS I use on a daily basis, so now that I know this I know that it can be created to be way better!
I have added my thoughts quickly in a little mock up. I hope it helps!
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Rebecca Perry commented:Aaran - as always, you give the best reviews! Hope you have a Great Christmas!
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Aaran Casey commented:
Thanks Rebecca, you too!
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Rahul Singhal commented:
It was created on Silverstripe and we switched over to Wordpress for easier blogging.
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Aaran Casey commented:
Oh, oh well... I find the Silverstripe Blog module quite good and easier than WP to use, but that's just my preference... Good Luck!
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Aaran Casey commented:
Rahul, not that keen on the image gallery it takes you off site, allowing people to move away from your site, IMHO I would take it out of WP and utilise silverstripe again, and my team here can help with development modules that we have created in Silverstripe, like data object gallery pages, and youtube gallery pages etc...
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Rahul Singhal commented:
I agree with that the offsite image gallery is not ideal. It was a solution of convenience, given the time allotted with volunteers. My current thought is to migrate image galleries to the facebook fan page and link to them from the website.
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Minor Problem Not really sure where the designers were going with the blue / gray background here. I think if anything this would have looked much better with gray only. -
Rahul Singhal commented:
The background was originally white and was recently changed to add some aesthetic appeal. what about off-white?
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Eric Mayfield commented:Off-white would definitely be better in my opinion.
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Jessika Sobanski commented:
I agree. :) Off white or white.
Not at all a fan of tag clouds, if anything I would have a list of major keywords for people to click to load corresponding related articles. Minor Problem on home-saveamother.png 1 Add more language preferences. -
Rahul Singhal commented:
For the whole site?
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Eric Mayfield commented:
I guess this depends on which specific countries you are targeting. At a global level it would be quite impossible to include all languages, but a good start is always English (UK/US), Spanish, French, & Italian.
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Aaran Casey commented:
If you had stuck with Silverstripe the language options that come with it are very good and it defaults to the top 6 languages used worldwide
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Rahul Singhal commented:
@Eric Right now, we can only provide tax exemption in the U.S.
@Aaron ;) -
Eric Mayfield commented:
Fair enough, focus your efforts where they count. In the future you can always come back when the need is greater and add support for additional langs.
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Jessika Sobanski commented:
@Aaron i sold my soul to have this site built for him for free in SS... and I have never seen any CMS with language capability like SS. sob.
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Aaran Casey commented:
@Jessika - we should rally him back into using SS, and I will happily do the design for free, and get my guys to help code it up... If you're going to do something right, do it right from the beginning... SS is the bomb platform for all types of sites
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Jessika Sobanski commented:
@aaran there are tons of great ideas coming through on this site (yours included), and i checked out your site --- you do such great design work! if you come up with ways to bring them to life for free (how awesome are YOU?) via SS, i think that would be a great solution for SAM. i can rally for that idea! :)
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Aaran Casey commented:
@Jessika - design is a funny thing, I like to get paid, but you get a sense of fulfillment when you do pro bono stuff, especially knowing the one platform that you trust is being used... So if Rahul wants to take up my offer, I will hapily do the design and coding work for free, BUT he has to use SS, none of this WP crap... I am passionate about what I do and the causes I support, and the tools that I use, I tried using WP, but there are sooo many rules... F that!
2 Layout + presentation of content could benefit from some planning and general design protocol -
Rahul Singhal commented:
Is there any reference material for this?
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Eric Mayfield commented:
I'm not sure I know what specific reference material you're speaking about; however, this more relates to my below comment about going with custom design. Being able to build strong layouts and incorporate stunning typography.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
ah, ok.
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Jessika Sobanski commented:
A real DESIGN is so so so so so so so important. A real designer + someone who can really build it out.
Look like one of the big boys.
Maybe a kickstarter campaign to have this done?
Let designers weigh in on design. Don't leave it to non-designers (think animated GIF backgrounds on mySpace).
Serious Problem The design of the navigation system needs to be overhauled a good bit. I think bolder buttons to stand out would help, as well as making sure each button/link has a more visible divide point. A lot of these categories almost feel they are running together. -
Rahul Singhal commented:
The site is implemented using Wordpress with the Theme, Atahualpa 3.4.4 by BytesForAll. I'm still looking for a way to increase the spacing.
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Eric Mayfield commented:
You may consider moving away from a theme and going with a custom design. I think overall with themes people often run into something that doesn't quite meet their needs/requirements.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
I agree. The theme direction was taken due to volunteer time and skills available.
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Jessika Sobanski commented:
There are other nice free themes out there... it's worth looking into... though I do agree the custom solution would be the ideal.
Positive Feature on donate-saveamother.png 1 Love the use of Social Media promotion. 2 RSS and News a great plus. New Idea I love this area and how it features different mothers, but feel it would how a much better wow factor to have high resolution images with scenes that are more diversified. Currently the majority of the images have the same feel. -
Rahul Singhal commented:
Yeah, these are profile pictures. they're actually of the health activists, we've trained over 1000 women in 700+ villages. Is it better to make this distinction more obvious or should we instead show pictures of the mothers?
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Eric Mayfield commented:
I'm 50/50 on that one. My main point here was less strategy focus and more design focused. I just felt it would serve better to improve the look of this area. I love Aaron's idea about embedding video here.
New Idea on donate-saveamother.png 1 Add a Search feature here New Idea on home-saveamother.png 1 Add a number of case studies to follow up and show people examples of Mothers who have benefited from the program. Link this to Social Media channels to help promote the cause. -
Rahul Singhal commented:
Would case studies of villages have the same impact?
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Eric Mayfield commented:
I think it could have similar impact, but personally I'd love to see some one-off info about specific mothers and their children. I know that may be harder to arrange and I think to start with villages would be great especially since comprehensive analytics could have a more impressionable effect, albeit the loss of being personable.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
Showing impact for prevention of an individual mother is a challenge, since we're essentially educating all women to go to a clinic or hospital for delivery along with other best practices. I'll take this back to the team.
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Eric Mayfield commented:
Well this is definitely a case where you have to work with what you have. I think doing studies on individual villages would be fine.
2 Incorporate a feed on the homepage to show the latest case study of a Mother who has been helped, as I mentioned previous. Again allow for a rich Social Media Marketing connection to help promote. -
Rahul Singhal commented:
All news-event (blog) postings are fed out to twitter. We're looking into linking up the Facebook Fan page.
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Eric Mayfield commented:
What I mean here is, imagine having an entire page/section of the site dedicated to case studies. This could be managed like a blog, where each new post represents a case study. Upon posting a new study, a summary of that would be displayed on the homepage. So basically each new study becomes featured on the homepage.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
got it... so the latest case study is always summarized on the home page.
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Eric Mayfield commented:
Exactly. This is helps in so many areas from making the site far more engaging and fun, to allowing people to spread the featured study via Social Media, down to SEO.
Summary:
I absolutely love the cause. I was very moved by watching the video and am glad to offer any help I can to this wonderful organization. I emailed Rahul and will be sending some monetary support during the holidays as well.
I agree with many of the points that have already been mentioned and therefore in my review I'm going to focus on some other areas that I feel will provide value to the review as well.
As for the site I feel in general it is very lack-luster and could definitely stand to have a makeover/redesign. I'd love to see a bit more contrast in the design as well a restructuring of the content. Also I think that it would be a great idea for Save a Mother to focus on a bit more social media marketing and especially search engine optimization. I checked some of the HTML and saw no meta descriptions, the titles are too much a fixed format, and there is a lot of embedded JQuery.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
How does the embedded JQuery have a negative impact? (this may be a result of wordpress plug-ins)
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Eric Mayfield commented:
When search engines such as Google index a site, things like embedded JQuery are viewed as code bloat. Also Google will index only a certain number of lines in an HTML file, so if you fill the top with Javascript + CSS, your losing potential text to index. The best practice is to always externalize your CSS + Javascript.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
I set the option in wordpress to externalize the CSS + Javascript... does it look different?
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Eric Mayfield commented:
Yes, that is better now. I checked the homepage. That big block of JQuery is gone now. I do still see some Javascript for the Nivo slider, can you externalize that as well?
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Rahul Singhal commented:
That appears to be the externalized version... I deactivated the nivo slider for now.
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Minor Problem on donate-saveamother.png 1 whats this? Why do I need quick tag search? -
Rahul Singhal commented:
It's interesting how everyone with design and web development experience doesn't like the tag cloud (myself included), but everyone else does. I think the analytics data shows that no-one has ever clicked on it either.
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Martin Bloksa commented:It may be useable in case of page dedicated to zillion topics and stuff, but in your case not that much
2 why is search function here? how about moving it upward? 3 low visibility headline -
Rahul Singhal commented:
This comes default with the wordpress theme... I believe the size could be made larger.
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Martin Bloksa commented:
You have to good pick color(contrast), font & size and thats it, just play try playing with it
4 where s footer? -
Rahul Singhal commented:
The actual page has one http://www.save-a-mother.org/get-involved/donate/
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Martin Bloksa commented:
Good, so make it useable with some important links, contact and socialize it.
5 tagline should help in this case 6 bad color again... -
Rahul Singhal commented:
any suggestion?
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Martin Bloksa commented:
try for example these... #114349; #78471A; #78211A
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Rahul Singhal commented:
thanks!
7 bad background color... why using font align center? low visible icons... -
Rahul Singhal commented:
any suggestion background color? no particular reason... seemed like there was too little text for a left align.
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Martin Bloksa commented:
I think the color used in right sider works goood, otherwise try using color scheme tools like http://colorschemedesigner.com/ or http://kuler.adobe.com/
8 make this more visible Minor Problem on about-saveamother.png 1 use here some photo/image to make it visually less boring -
Rahul Singhal commented:
any idea come to mind?
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Martin Bloksa commented:
any problem related photo would work well ;)
Serious Problem on donate-saveamother.png 1 this looks bad... wide header, narrow site body, and site s background... 2 invisible donate button... (see my mockup) 3 main navigation with too tiny font, it needs a change Serious Problem on home-saveamother.png 1 hey footer! eww you re ugly man! -
Aaran Casey commented:
LOL
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Rahul Singhal commented:
:)
Positive Feature on donate-saveamother.png 1 good idea, just needs to be edited Other on home-saveamother.png 1 video is nice, but to click on play the site has to impress me... so maybe using some slider would be better idea -
Rahul Singhal commented:
slider of the video info with automatic play?
you should watch the video anyway ;)
Summary:
Hey, There are many details to change when talking about webdesign and usability. See my notes & mockup for some ideas.
In general the problem of site are badly used colors, low contrast at some cases and problems with visibility heirarchy.
Hope my review will somehow help, good luck with that project :)
Is it critical to switch our domain to saveamother.org from save-a-mother.org?... Nope
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Martin Bloksa commented:
oh and it is totally missing visible how to find us function
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Rahul Singhal commented:
what's the how to find us function?
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Martin Bloksa commented:
nevermind, I ve wrongly understood concept description, sorry Anyways I am really glad you are using reviews by 100% and trying to take advantage of all of it. :)
Attached Files:
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Minor Problem the main navigation needs more spacing in between each link. Is Gallery and Financials really necessary to be part of main navigation? -
Rahul Singhal commented:
probably not, but financials are generally important, some donors like to know what percentage of funds are going towards the cause relative to other expenses.
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Rebecca Perry commented:
gotcha, that makes sense.
Minor Problem on donate-saveamother.png 1 Possibly change to "Make a Donation" and more pronounced. Explanation needs to be more specific 2 Address should be placed in the footer -
Rahul Singhal commented:
In addition or instead?
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Rebecca Perry commented:
once again, I was looking at the 1st concept and not the actual site. so now when I go to the donation page and see the address there, it makes sense to me. So I like where it is.
3 I don't really care for the text being center aligned. Also could be bumped up a pix or 2. 4 cloud tag not really necessary, space could be used for something else. -
Rahul Singhal commented:
Thinking about replacing with a ChipIn widget, like http://saveamother.org/kelly-gresalfi
Serious Problem this could use a tagline Positive Feature on donate-saveamother.png 1 I do like the image of the woman, it caught my eye. Summary:
I agree with all the points Aaran made. I also think a video clip on home page would capture attention. This is a great cause, but I think there are some serious design issues that if properly addressed could really make this site a winner. Good Luck and Happy Holidays!
I just looked at my review and realized I didn't do the notes annotations correctly and can't figure out how to adjust their sizes. So I'm sorry about that Andrew. :-|
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Rahul Singhal commented:
There is a video on the homepage... does it need to be moved? set to auto-play?
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Rebecca Perry commented:
I'm, sorry, I was looking at the concept and not the actual site. I didn't realize there was already a video.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
oh ok. The second concept image above is the homepage...
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Minor Problem MInor design tweaks needed-- Look at the use of bolded line (edge) vs no line, and where these pieces land in the overall grid. How can we further simplify the website and content? Is there anything obvious that we’re missing? You can get rid of "Home" and combine this content with "About." You can also tuck the "Our Team" info under about. To still highlight the great people you have working you can use a right-side HTML box (in WP) to pull in a brief bio and thumbnail of select team members, with a click through to the "Our Team" section. Including team member photos will also make your organization seem more real and relateable. How do we balance detailed performance numbers for visitors with a technical background vs. general visitors? Figure out what the non-savvy visitors are coming to see (or what you want them to see) and create big visual callouts to these areas. Serious Problem Underlying grid is off -- The alignment is off (see where nav meets header and where the big image meets the page), consider changing the blue "on" state in the nav (too much blue for me). The nav bar as a whole is not positioned ideally. Nav Font Size, Font & Spacing -- Note the lack of spacing between nav items. I don't mind the blue for the "over" state of these nav items (I don't love it either). Maybe the "On" state can just be a bolded version of the nav button's name? Trebuchet worked well as the nav font. The nav text should be bigger. I would suggest spacing these out more and losing (or changing) the dropdown icon. BG Color in Content Area -- The blue doesn't work here. If you were a potential donor, does the website seem credible? What could we do to increase our credibility? No. A cleaner design would make me feel like you were. Summary:
Suggest -- revert back to white BG under copy, go back to Trebuchet in the nav, and consider restoring some of the other elements. I never loved the attached design, but it has some style points worth reconsidering.
PLUS - Add a prominent DONATE button in the upper right (this was part of one of the original mockups) - Decrease the size of that big image area (I say this bc in execution that big blue bg stripe is striking me as WAY to wide) - Take out Flash, use jQuery - run site through websitegrader.com and maybe add some SEO plugins to the WP admin - Come up with style guidelines as to what size font to use, what alignment should be used, line spacing, etc. See: http://www.save-a-mother.org/ verses: http://www.save-a-mother.org/about/impact-analysis/ - Add the FB widget so that visitors can directly like your FB page from any page on your site - Perhaps move all the social buttons up to a more prominent/fixed location
Your cause is a great one and it is SO AWESOME and SO RARE that monies raised goes to the cause rather than giving a cut to a CEO or staff. This is completely understated on the site. The DONATE in the upper right could be a little callout that also expresses this fact.
A great designer and a great design would be a worthwhile endeavor. Have you considered a kickstarter.com campaign for this purpose?
XO Jessika of http://getflashy.com/probono and facebook.com/getflashy
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Rahul Singhal commented:
Thanks Jes! Awesome comments as always!
Attached Files:
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Serious Problem on home-saveamother.png 1 Low Contrast Call to action Critical Problem on donate-saveamother.png 1 Low Quality low impact Images -
Rahul Singhal commented:
Could you give me an example of high impact?
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Ejaz Siddiqui commented:See this http://www.savethechildren.org http://reviveafrica.com/
I can understand you know your project better but Save a mother does not mean saving an individual but It also mean saving children, saving family, giving sense of care and protection.
Your images should tell those emotions of love, affection, happiness, care and protection.
It is not the picture, it is the emotion which would create high impact
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Rahul Singhal commented:
got it. that's a great point!
Critical Problem on home-saveamother.png 1 Website does not give any snapshot of activities or events, just introduction Summary:
You are working for a great cause but your website does not create an impact which you want.
The easy solution for you would be "Change to a Premium Theme which is designed for non profit organization"
The best solution would be "Create a customized theme yourself" Your concept is same as of Revive Africa , do see this website as role model http://reviveafrica.com .
Further Reading & Inspiration http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/14/non-profit-website-design-examples-and-best-practices/ http://www.savethechildren.org http://womensrefugeecommission.org/ http://www.ozzu.com/designs/website_templates/keyword/non-profit/ http://www.organizedthemes.com/themes/agency-demo/
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Rahul Singhal commented:
Thanks for all the links!
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Minor Problem on donate-saveamother.png 1 hard to see, sloppy implementation 2 unprofessional looking -
Rahul Singhal commented:
any examples of an alternative?
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Alex Colina commented:http://www.underconsideration.com/
well structured grid design, great contrast (type sizes, type color, blocks of color ) help the eye navigate.
Also that site's color palette is coincidentally close tho what I might suggest for your site.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
ah ok. how about alternative for more professional looking donation? what do you think about ChipIn http://saveamother.org/kelly-gresalfi
Positive Feature on donate-saveamother.png 1 Love this banners!! they saved your site! Summary:
How can we further simplify the website and content? Is there anything obvious that we’re missing?
How do we balance detailed performance numbers for visitors with a technical background vs. general visitors?
put general charts and simple graphics that tell a story at a glance. the technical data can be pdf downloads next to those graphics.
If you were a potential donor, does the website seem credible?
Design -wise I will address later. Do you seem credible? Yes, however, as a donor I will look at the financials and be suspicious at how little there is. Specially the statement: "overhead administrative expenditures at zero". This, any manager will tell you is impossible and makes you sound like you really do not know basic management and finance and probably will not manage well donations given to you . A donated website for example is both a donation and an administrative expenditure, same with volunteer time, long distance calls, plane tickets, etc..
Sure, that comes from your donations, but it is administrative and should be reflected as such. It would be much better to present a proper balance sheet that shows how income (money donations, in-kind, volunteers, events) is disbursed. It is perfectly natural for a nascent charity to have more capital expenses than charitable activity, like any business. This would show that you know the true scope of what you are undertaking and that you will know how to manage what I donate.
What could we do to increase our credibility?
enough said.
Is it critical to switch our domain to saveamother.org from save-a-mother.org?
Seriously????Yes!!!!!!! Just spend the $8! (overhead expenditure!) and just get is before somebody else does!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK now on to design:
DESIGN: what is an otherwise boring and not well executed standard template is rescued by the amazing hero banners. Brilliant way to personalize this. It tells so much, to see that the activists are locals, empowered women!
having said that, the utter sloppiness of the content areas is a huge drag on credibility. There is no consistency about the use of the right panel, the placements or use of social features (each page has a different approach it seems) Amateurish implementation of PayPal buttons. The jarring cyan background color, and the overall lack of typographical color or layout consistency.
USABILITY: fine.
STRATEGY: I have no Idea what Concept Feedback means by this. Maybe it applies to marketing campaigns. But in your case I suppose I'll give you points for the Hero banners as a strategy. and deduct points for how sloppy that rest of the design is.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
regarding financials... we'll be publishing our first annual report, 2010... prior to that we were fiscally sponsored by another organization and can list their annual reports.
our administrative overhead is actually zero... no admin salaries, our volunteers pay for their own plane tickets, etc.
we do incur fundraising expenses: venue, food, lighting, etc. in these areas it's semantics and accounting.
All funds raised go towards the salaries and travel expenses (motor bike and bus) of our 6 field trainers...
we have the saveamother.org domain, it's currently redirected to save-a-mother.org... just wondering if it's worth the effort to make the DNS changes, etc.
any specific suggestions for the right panel, social features, etc?
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Alex Colina commented:
Financials: that response would be a great thing to put on that page.
Domain: should be the other way around.
it is easier to remember (and say) "save a mother dot org", no spaces.
Than to say "save a mother dot org , but use dashes instead of spaces...no not slashes..dashes..next to the zero on the keyboard! ...no not at the end...no no no.. it's "save dash ay, as in apple, dash mother dot org"...got it? ufff" yeah I'm exaggerating ;-) but you get the point.
social features: they need to grouped better. Just keep that in mind as you go into the redesign. But i should point out that it was the discrepancy between your posted mockups here and what I saw after looking at a couple of pages on the live site that caused me to say that. But on closer inspection, the facebook "likes" is on all sidebars on the live site.
Layout suggestions: there are some rather impressive suggestions already here. What I am suggesting is not even so much design as a well thought-out stylesheet that works with the overall design one you have that.
Thanks for the points.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
yeah, the financials page needs a first haul. I'll put that up there now and we'll update with some graphics as well.
the domain thing happened because saveamother.org wasn't available until 1 year after we put up the first site using save-a-mother.org
I put the facebook widget on all pages yesterday... been modifying the easy stuff as soon as you guys post it ;)
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Minor Problem on donate-saveamother.png 1 If having a video is too much work, I would have a slideshow with 3 - 4 testimonials and a bit of information on the NGO on each of them. This is the first impression and the first info for the user. Also, as said before, use high quality pictures. -
Rahul Singhal commented:
there's a video. the second image above is the home page with video.
2 I would take away this column and use this space to expand the main module of the home. You can do a couple of things with these elements: - Put the search engine on the top, maybe on the blank space on the header. - You can put a news ticker with the latest news to separate the image module and the main module. It should link to the news section. - The archives you don't need it here, you can have it on the news section. Te tag cloud can go in the news section too. -
Rahul Singhal commented:
thanks for this new perspective!
Serious Problem on donate-saveamother.png 1 The blue background here is not working. It takes away contrast and I get the feeling that I made a selection on the page or something. Is just awkward. 2 The menu is too narrow, give it more importance, and a bit of air too. 3 What is the service that the activist provide for this people? From what do the mothers need to be saved from? Illness? Domestic violence? Religious discrimination? Are there refugees? Not everyone knows that Sultanput district is in India? What is the specific problem of this region? Is the NGO a local or a global one? There is some key information that needs to be communicated if you want people to give money. Users will donate when they have a more "personal contact" with the subject. Having testimonials is a very good thing, but you need to place the testimonials in a place where people can relate to in order for them to be "touched" by the story. 4 The donation is clearly the call to action of the site. It is a good thing to have the button on a prominent place but in my experience, you get higher donations if you have a button of "Learn more" or "More info" and you have an info page to explain in detail the aims of the NGO. There you have a donate button that is prominent. You will get higher sales from that page than from the home. Also, You only have a sentence of what the NGO can do, the rest is contact information and donate buttons. I would put more down the Support our mission paragraph and I would take away completely the paragraph on how to pay with PayPal, you don't need it there. -
Rahul Singhal commented:
This is the donate page... the home page is the second image above. you can click to this page after reading that one.
Summary:
There has ben a lot said so I hope I can add some interesting points. Hope it helps.
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Minor Problem on donate-saveamother.png 1 This text is OK, must be below the box. Its an additional info you are giving, imp thing is that donor gives the donation. So make some free space for them :-) why so crowded!! Critical Problem on donate-saveamother.png 1 Make these very prominent and centered. Add a dark blue background to highlight these IMP buttons. Summary:
Hi Rahul
Good to see people helping and reaching out to educate on such a matter. Great, I being Indian, understand, what it takes to do!
I have few suggestions on the Credibility aspect. Rest of the things, I feel, is fairly simple and communicates the information thats needed when one visits the site.
To really win the confidence of the donor, you must include following things:
A complete Address: Not just PO box. I will feel more relaxed if I see the address where I can go and really find you or your office, in case. This will have an impact on the credibility. Supplemented by a roadmap :-)
Contact Numbers: A Tax ID is good to have. But what If I want to immediately contact for any query. In such a case, if I write an email, and wait for response, things die down within that period. Quick Contact number will have an impact.
Buttons for Donation: Positiion them in centerwith some dark background color to make it prominent. Rest of the messages can be mentioned below.
Hope you find these suggestions helpful.
All the best for your great work and keep it up.
cheers
Prashant
Summary:
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Rebecca Perry commented:
where's the review?
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Kim Phillips commented:Y'woops. Looks like it didn't save. Basically, colors and imagery nice, needs to be obvious what the mission is...saving mothers from what? Area below main image is week; need to understand what the donation will do, how it will be spent to help the mothers (reason to give). Navigation up top is not prominent enough. On a galloping horse, I don't know what the site is about.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
Thanks for the review! A galloping horse you say... hmm.
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Kim Phillips commented:
LOL... yes, I think you have to assume viewers are whizzing past pretty much everything... if they're not, great, but just in case. I love the logo, BTW. Just needs a tag line.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
visitors whizz by varying amounts... check out the google analytics info, but I agree things could be made more obvious.
regarding the logo, thanks! what do you think the logo displays?
any thoughts on the tag line? - Keeping Mom in the Picture - One Preventable Death is One too Many
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Aaran Casey commented:
To be hones Rahul, your google stats are pretty average. The thing that concerns me more is that there seems to be traffic but none of that traffic, is giving you any "bling"... Look at the stats on the ecommerce side it's flatlined, not a good thing...
I think you really should of stuck with silverstripe here, but nevermind, just really keep in mind the idea of the site is to raise money, you really need to work out how to convert "clicks" into "$$$$"...
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Rahul Singhal commented:
yes, they are average.
Actually, I don't know if the ecommerce side is tracking in analytics at all...
So far, 80% or more of our donations come from personal relationships... one person feels a strong connection to the mission and then makes an appeal to their friends and family. However, that percentage may change with our anticipated exposure in 23 cities.
As for SS, it was a tough choice, but the right decision at the time. Everyone really liked the original design, but SS didn't have the features we needed and we didn't have the volunteers on hand to create them from scratch.
The volunteers we did have were familiar with Wordpress and so here we are today.
I'd prefer to keep the online discussion about design. I'm happy to continue discussing SS via email rahul@saveamother.org
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Summary:
Make your green <h2> title dark green like menu background color. And what body font you using? it seems it has sharpness and not system font? and ur banner and back blue background should align-ed.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
Thanks for the feedback!
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Minor Problem Home page - Endorsements
On the side bar or above the footer, add a picture of volunteer with a quote of their experience, add a picture of a well know donor and a quote why he or she donate to this cause, add a picture of a mother and quote how she was helped by the program. Real testimonies, endorsements and experiences are your most valuable assets to communicate the value of your organization. Find a place for them on the front page. The video is great but most people scan webpage. The pic and text are aim for scanning.Critical Problem Home Page - 1
The Home page text communicates mix messages to visitors. 1. Website Title: "Save A Mother" 2. First sentence: "Our initial objective has been to reduce maternal and infant mortality. " 3. "Our mission is to develop health care solutions for the poor." 4. "Save A Mother programs educate women about pregnancy, nutrition, immunization, delivery and care of the child." 5. "Save A Mother has a complementary benefit in saving the child." These 5 text raises more questions in my head. My suggest is to figure out what is your major primary value that you want to communicate to your donors on your home page. And make it laser clear in the opening sentence. What exactly am I giving my money for? To save lives? To educate? To provide medical support? What is it?Home page - 2
I like the the picture and testimony. The message has to be more specific and understandable to non-insiders. What is a "Health Activist"? May be it is very obvious to those who work in your organization. However, I have no idea what she did as a "Health Activist" that is valuable for me to donate. Need specifics on what she did like "I teach 5000 woman last year on childcare hygiene." Something that I can sink my teeth on and understand the living saving value through your organization.Home page - call to action
1. The strongest call to action on the home page is the video. Most people scanning a website will not watch the video first. Put a summary of the video above the video so that those who scans website can get a gist of what the video is about. 2. What should a visitor do after watching the video? There are links here and there that a visitor can take action but for the most part, the page let the visitor's mind wanders around. To minimize visitors mind wandering and to help them focus on understanding your organization's value a. Set up a side widget with links to documents or research supporting your course or results b. Set up a side widget with links to explain the organization lingo like "Health Activist", etc. c. Set up a simple Name/email contact form for those who are interested but did not have time to browse the website. Promise to email them a document explaining in detail what does your organization do, or previous accomplishments and endorsements. Just Name and email and nothing else. Make it as easy as possible for visitors to sign up.Summary:
The home page is the most important page for saveamother.org. The primary value of the organization needs to be upfront and communicate clearly to an outsider. Also, do not let visitor wander on your website. Design the page to draw visitor to dig deeper into saveamother.org.
Provide a mental path on the website for the visitors to walk through saveamother.org so that visitors can identify with the cause of saveamother.org. Then they will be in the position to decide whether to donate or not.
Imagine walking into a front door of British Museum with a map or a guide. That is how I feel when I first look at the website.
Summary:
For the initial "landing page" it would be good to follow the 30-Second rule of content. State the problem, state the solution and then what the next steps are. The "Meet Malti" is good to cover those first two, but it lacks top down continuity.
Alpur Bharkare Villiage needs help "insert problem statement"
Malti is a Health Activist that provides life-saving services to over 2100 people by "insert single compelling sentence here"
- [Big Buttons] DONATE -- LEARN MORE -- VIDEO
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Brad Wilkening commented:And it appears that I broke your rtf text editor :)
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Rahul Singhal commented:
Thanks for the review!
Serious Problem on donate-saveamother.png 1 Why is centered? -
Rahul Singhal commented:
no particular reason...
2 Too much 'blog' look for the site purpose I think Critical Problem on donate-saveamother.png 1 This shadow looks bad -
Aaran Casey commented:
I disagree, I think the shadow is fine... regardless, the shadow is irrelevant, will decreasing the shadow get more people to "click" donate?
Positive Feature on donate-saveamother.png 1 You should keep this feel Summary:
Not attractive, and bad color usage for this campaing
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Rahul Singhal commented:
Thanks for the feedback! What color usage makes sense?
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Critical Problem Sponsor now can be more prominent. Increase right margin for each item in the top navigation Positive Feature Save a Mother logo and big picture are good New Idea The story that goes to the right of the main picture can be larger as font-size by 1-2px. Summary:
Briefly, a good design and structure with some small things that can be improved, like "calling to action" be more visible to the user.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
Thanks for the review!
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Minor Problem Line the header image up with the blue behind it, right now I think it looks a bit like a coding error. Get ride of the blue. If you want to keep it simple then keep the background one consistent color because the blue isnt adding at the moment. emphasize the sidebar or get rid of it. It looks a little out of place, almost like an advertisement, I'd incorporate it more into the overall website. -
Rahul Singhal commented:
Yes, it is a coding error of sorts as result of moving from Silverstripe to Wordpress. Here is what the site looked like originally, http://old.save-a-mother.org
would changing the blue background to the same color as the rest of the background? How to emphasize the sidebar?
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Aaran Casey commented:
Wow, that "old" one is way better than the "new" one
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Rahul Singhal commented:
lol.
Summary:
I love the header. I think the image is engaging and the colors are beautiful. However, I don't like the blue on the side and at the bottom. The header colors are so rich they make the blue look very dull in comparison. Also, I think you can do much more with the bottom half of the website, I'd work with the text a little to make it less intimidating to read.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
Thanks for the review! Any specific recommendations regarding the text?
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Summary:
First off, the website is simple enough, now jazz it up There are several things that doesn't seem to work well, but it's a start. The website needs more design oomph (adding texture would help).
I would also rethink the color scheme as it looks awkward with how it is currently set up. Why don't you check out kuler.adobe.com for some color suggestions. Include some really rad typography choices - don't do Papyrus. Sponsor Now button is really lost. I would think on how to add more emphasis to it - add color to the button, make it bigger, etc.
Please get rid of the hyphens in the save-a-mother domain. Takes too long to type out. I have to look at my keyboard just to find out where the hyphen is and I don't look at my keyboard at all 'cept with numbers and symbols. Just a thought.
Oh, one last thing, the quick tag module may look cool, but it's not functional and adds more time for me to click on a tag and I have to swirl with my cursor around the tag cloud to get what I want.
If I were a donor, I would find the website lacking in credibility as it doesn't seem to have any design pizazz and it looks in need of a refresher. -puts bandage on you where that comment hurts-
I know you're doing this pro bono and I applaud your helping hand.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
thanks for the review! what do you mean by texture?
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Lil Monster commented:Texture as in add a pattern. For example, add noise to a background image and turn it into a pattern or an Indian pattern to an image. Take a look at the Apple website's background, it has a noise pattern to give it texture.
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Rahul Singhal commented:
ah, got it. thanks!
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looking for a place to put a ChipIn widget, see http://saveamother.org/kelly-gresalfi