Charity Website Research Dom Lange

Introduction I plan to explore the trends and popular conventions used in contemporary charity websites. I aim to examine the layouts, colour schemes and use of images and graphics on these websites, and then analyze how I may adapt my website designs to follow in with these popular media conventions, all in the hope of achieving a website that follows the conventions of similar websites.

1: Save The Children The first website I am going to analyze is the website of a very well known charity, Save The Children. By looking at the website of an industry leader I will be likely to find areas that can apply to the creation of my own website.

1: Save the children There are both vertical and horizontal navigation bars, allowing the user more depth in their navigation. Block colours are used to be eye-catching, but not distracting for the users. Search function, to help users due to the large scale of the website Links in the text stick out clearly, making it easier for a user to find a page of interest.

2: WYCE After analyzing a larger charity, it is a good idea to focus on a smaller one, much more similar to the charity I am building for. This will give me a good idea of which conventions and regulations smaller websites use as opposed to the websites of industry leaders.

2: WYCE Only a vertical navigation bar is used, because there is less content to refine. Block colours are also used, to grab attention but not to distract. Large, striking banner is used to grab the attention of the user. The bulk of text is black and written against a white background.

3: Soul Of Africa This third website is another fairly small scale charity, similar to the one I have chosen. This will give me something to compare the last example against, so I can see what is unique to each website, and which popular media conventions are used for both websites.

3: Soul Of Africa Horizontal navigation bar is used, again because there is less content to refine. Mainly block colours used, with the introduction of discrete textures. Heavy use of graphics and images No banner on this website, logo in the navigation bar acts as one Variety of colour and texture used to interest the user.

Representation African people are often portrayed as victims in the media, however these websites portray these people as happy. By doing this the websites can achieve a ‘friendly’ look, which is immediately pleasing to the user, as from the start it builds a somewhat personal connection, which helps draw the user in and create interest and makes them likley to stay on the webpage.

Conclusion (1) Websites like these have to come across ‘friendly’, as it’s the best way of creating an immediate connection with their audience, and the best way of enticing them to stay on the website. The use of ‘friendly’ text on these websites also helps to achieve this.

Conclusion (2) The use of colour is key, but the right balance must be met. The website must be colourful enough to be interesting and enticing for the audience, but the colours mustn’t be too bright at the risk of distracting the audience, and making them lose interest with the real content of the website.