DESIGN USABILITY FOR HUMANITARIAN WEB SITES

Guidelines and international best practices Dean Wood, Vinko Grgic, Colette Grgic, Jaana Anttila, Dorota Raczkowska and Sophie Orchard

April 2014

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HUMANITARIAN SITES OFTEN FAIL BECAUSE THEY:• Don’t help people understand what the site is about or find

what they need - leading people to leave • Use language that people outside their groups do not

understand - confusing users • Are designed by committee - so lack of focus • Don’t involve real users in the design process • Lack resources, time or knowledge about usability • Don’t have analytics / metrics to track and improve design How much more could sites achieve for people they are intended to help?

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WEB USABILITY & USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN• Usability has become an established part of large

organisations to ensure they achieve their goals • The field is a growing and evolving body of knowledge

about what works for users. Practitioners apply the knowledge and skills

• User centred design is a process of designing for users and involving users in the design process to: ‣ Gain insights into what they need, how they approach

tasks plus their equipment, environment, skills and attitudes ‣ Collaborate and complete usability testing

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WHAT MAKES SITES EASY?1. Information architecture / site structure

Organisation of information and functionality to give people clear and fast access to what they need Number and type of categories (e.g. task, priority, lifecycle...)

2. Navigation and flow Positioning of links to guide people through content

3. Content / Labelling Clarity of labels and content

4. Visual design Clarity of links + aesthetics

5. Interactivity Richness of functionality, e.g. ability to create, filter, save...

6. Mobile first Design for mobile / tablet resolutions before desktop

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SITE STRUCTURE WHAT DOESN’T WORK

This is intended to help others learn, not just criticise Organisation of information and functionality to give people clear and fast access to what they need The number and type of categories

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MSF presents a reasonable top level structure but it could be hard for people to know where to go to get involved in a programme or to donate money. Not finding this information will impact MSF’s effectiveness.

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Site structure

The Red Cross provides some random and confusing categories, such as War and Law. This would be better presented in a separate area or with better context.

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Site structure

Users are likely to be confused by the number of categories and how they relate to each other (both top and left nav).

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Site structure

SITE STRUCTURE SITES TO LEARN FROM

Organisation of information and functionality to give people clear and fast access to what they need The number and type of categories

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Overall, reasonable number of categories The first section ‘How we help’ enables users to learn what the group does and what they can get. Sections like dates and workshops could be grouped but are generally OK.

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Site structure

The Red Cross provides good categories to help people understand their work and to find information and resources they need.

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Site structure

Red Cross Australia provides a greater number of categories in its structure but this can help users make the best choice to find what they need.

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Site structure

NAVIGATION WHAT DOESN’T WORK

Positioning of links to guide people through content

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The Red Cross site presents navigation everywhere.

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Navigation

NAVIGATION WHAT WORKS

Positioning of links to guide people through content

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MSF presents a mega menu when users move their cursor over the heading. This saves users time in navigating and helps them find the right section straight away.

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Navigation

The site provides a good navigation bar and call to action for users to donate.

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Navigation

The site provides good calls to action at the bottom of the page.

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Navigation

CONTENT AND LABELLING WHAT DOESN’T WORK

Clarity of labels and content

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OzHarvest does not provide a clear, concise overview of what they do or engage people in their mission. Our impact is a somewhat strange label and does not really equate to achievements or work.

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Content & labels

CONTENT AND LABELLING WHAT WORKS

Clarity of labels and content

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The site uses clear language. It also presents an overview about the group on the home page so people can know what they are about.

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Content & labels

The site provides a good overview on the home page. Users can scroll to learn more about the services.

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Content & labels

VISUAL DESIGN WHAT DOESN’T WORK

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The visual design of sites can quickly get overwhelming, dis-engaging and appear dated.

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Visual design

The MSF site could move the Highlights section a bit higher to give users an indication there is more below if they scroll.

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Visual design

Avoid using light colours for text as it impacts readability (e.g. the mid-green). Always ensure high contrast between text and background.

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Visual design

VISUAL DESIGN WHAT WORKS

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ReliefWeb does a great job of providing an overview on the home page of what is going on and to give people quick, clear access to what they need.

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Visual design

The MSF site presents a neat, clean home page which makes it easy for users to focus. The site also scrolls sections through the carousel on the left so users do not need to navigate.

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Visual design

The site provides clear orientation at the top and a clear visual style. It would be better if users could filter courses by location.

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Visual design

The site presents a clear style with a sense of visual hierarchy that guides the user’s attention to the most relevant information.

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Visual design

INTERACTIVITY WHAT WORKS

Sites are increasingly enabling users to connect according to location or interest and via social media.

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www.350.org The site presents information about local groups. While there is unnecessary duplication of links it presents clear sections for local ‘groups’, ‘events’ and ‘members’.

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Visual design

MSF presents a great timeline feature so users can see events that have happened at different times. While this is good, it is not really clear what the timeline presents (MSF’s work or simply global events).

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Visual design

DESIGN FOR MOBILE WHAT DOESN’T WORK

Layouts that respond to device resolution (responsive)

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On a mobile the Oxfam site does not re-factor and is very hard to read. This will lead many users accessing the site on a mobile to simply leave.

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Mobile responsive

DESIGN FOR MOBILE WHAT WORKS

Layouts that respond to device resolution (responsive) Check out http://blog.xmlswf.com/best-premium-responsive-charity-wordpress-themes-2014/ http://bradfrostweb.com/ http://mobile.smashingmagazine.com/2012/08/22/separate-mobile-responsive-website-presidential-smackdown/

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Mobile responsive

http://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes/46791.html This template meets a lot of the key requirements identified in this review and is responsive, making it a good resource to consider.

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Mobile responsive

The WWF site rolls up navigation but still provides clear calls to action.

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Mobile responsive

The Red Cross site is quite responsive, even if it has strange / random categories at the top of both mobile and desktop.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION WHAT WORKS

Use keywords in the name, address, banner and contents so they are ranked highly in unpaid search results (e.g. on Google).

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The sites listed here are doing a good job of including keywords on the pages to get ranked highly in Google.

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SEO

The sites listed here are doing a good job of including keywords on the pages to get ranked highly in Google.

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SEO

SOCIAL MEDIA WHAT WORKS

Ensure you have a good presence and make regular updates to social media sites like Facebook.

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Ensure you have a Facebook presence and get people involved in your group to get others to like the page. WWF has over 1 million ‘friends’ who can help them reach others.

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Social media

RECOMMENDED NEXT STEPS

‣ Apply the recommendations and principles in this presentation to sites where possible

‣ Groups without much money should look for design templates in WordPress that implements these recommendations.

‣ Test ideas with target users. Test the structure, labels and layout of hand drawn sketches with users initially to save time and cost

‣ Once the site structure and draft content prove easy for target users, develop the site fully.

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