Charity sites that make me go ooooh!

Quite simply, these are the list of charity sites that make me go OOOOH! they are exciting, engaging and well designed. Each site is awesome in its own right, and below I have explained a few points from a designer and site audience’s perspective as to why I think they stand out from other sites out there within the same sector.

http://www.robinhood.org/

There are a few reasons why I like this design. One of the reasons is that site is really well laid out, it consists of a big slide show on the top, and the navigation it split between main and secondary (the secondary is the one on the top left). The colours used on the site work really well together. The grey, lime green and blue are a good contrast. I like the way that they have used images / diagrams to display content. This really makes the page elements pop and gives the site more of a designed feel. The way the site highlights the donate button I feel is very effective. Although the button is not too ‘in your face’ it just has enough colours to grab your attention. All in all a well designed site.

http://www.salveomamute.com.br/

I really like this design; you can clearly tell that the design meets its target audience, which happens to be kids. It is fresh, funky and the colours used on the site give it a feeling of being warm and friendly.  It is not just the aesthetics that are great about the site; it has some pretty nifty functionality too. The slide show on the home page is a great way for displaying vital bits of information and the site presents this in a very innovative way. It has a fixed navigation at the top, this is really handy because when the user it scrolling down the site, they always have a menu present no matter where they are. To summarise this is an effective and innovative site, that really hones down on it target audience.

http://www.charitywater.org/

This is a great design which is catered more towards the iphone / tablet audience. The reason being the site consists of big buttons, big menu etc. Everything on the site is over sized so that it would be easier to select if you using your finger on the ipad for example.  Design wise the site uses a lot of white space, with diagrams and imagery to explain content better. It has an awesome map feature which can be set to full screen and is nicely laid out and very clear to read.

http://www.michaeljfox.org/

Who doesn’t love Michael J Fox? He is awesome!  Personal feelings aside, this website is crisp and clean to look at. The colours work really well together, the contrasting tones of orange on white really complement each other. The overall design is simple yet interesting and clearly defines the purpose of the foundation. The icons used on the site are great for instant recognition and it clearly divides the site into relevant sub sections. All in all a well crafted site, that is easy on the eyes.

http://www.one.org/us/

Being a fan of simple and minimalistic design, this site fits right up my alley as they would say. The graphics of the site are kept to a minimum, and the designer has concentrated more on the typographic element and layout of the content. Because the site consists of being mainly white, all of the user’s attention is drawn to the images which have been used very effectively.

http://www.wildaid.org/

This site is awesome, not only does it have a great design and layout. But the site is prime example of a good responsive site. This means that the site will change or cater accordingly depending on what screen size the site is being viewed in.

Summary

To sum things up, a website for charity should not only look good (aesthetically) but it should also be able to meet the needs of its users and target audience in terms of function and layout. One of the main challenges of charity web design is that there are a large amount of different user groups who visit the site. From sufferers, carers, fund-raisers, industry professionals, government officials, sponsors and more the site must appeal to all and alienate none. the choice of colours and overall look and feel is vital to allowing all of the users to feel welcomed and instinctively be able to understand what content is directed at them.  All the examples above display this in an effective way and it is this required balance that makes them stand out from the rest of the charity sites within their sector.