The DesignMag website has an article listing 40+ inspirational non-profit website designs. My favourite has to be the Housing Works website for its big, bold home page images. Refresh the page to see the different photos, showing a random picture is one way to make your site look fresher. Notice how overlaying transparent images gives the site design an illusion of depth and substance.
The d’bug blog lists 10 inspiring and beautiful non-profit web designs. I especially liked the New York City Coalition Against Hunger website. Take a look at its Google Maps mashup which helps you find local soup kitchens. The blog is very relevant, commenting on the progress of legislation and current hunger and poverty issues. Interesting photo gallery too, using Flash to display postcards of the faces of hunger. Inspired yet?
On a contrary note, as Confessions of a Nonprofit Executive Director points out, web beauty is only skin-deep and whilst the 40 inspirational website all look great, they’ve not all been well coded (but read the comments to his article for some friendly disagreement).
No related posts.
There certainly are some lovely-looking websites up there! I find it a bit boggling that some of them are no longer up/in action since the post was only made in November last year.
Also, I don’t know if it’s just me, but I find myself placing more value in sites that manage to look beautiful without using flash and relying on images. What’s the phrase W3C uses… “degrade gracefully”? where if flash is turned off for the user, it still looks good and functions well, then same for images, certain css functions, etc… I often find myself using the Web Developer plugin (on Firefox) to turn off images, flash, css, etc – to see how gracefully a site degrades.
Especially with nonprofit websites, I personally find that very important – you don’t want to just look good to people who have the best equipment, best internet connections, and are able-bodied – you still want a beautiful, functional website for people on dialup (no images), low-tech machines (no flash etc), or who have a disability (eg. vision impairment, keyboard/screenreader navigation).
So while I find that top 10 list *looks* great, for me design is less about the skin-deep beauty and more about demonstrating not only something aesthetically pleasing, but beautifully and gracefully constructed as well
Emily Turner
on June 5th, 2008
Emily, would you like to nominate your favourite good-looking nonprofit website? One that’s well-coded and degrades properly?
admin
on June 6th, 2008
That’s a good question! I can’t think of one off the top of my head, but you have definitely prompted me to pay more attention – or rather, to take note when I’m pleased with something.
I will keep my eye out (and my brain fired up) and get back to you.
Cheers!
Emily Turner
on June 10th, 2008
We just did a new redesign of our site. Thank Your Donor
http://thankyourdonor.ca/
It’s a portal for blood recipients to thank their unknown blood donors
James
on July 16th, 2008
The Limbs For Life design is such a look.
As Emily said, it’s also about demonstrating functionality and form in an elegant manner. It drives me nuts to come across a beautiful design that just doesn’t function.
Usability is key!
Cheers, Mike
Elegance in Design - Mike
on August 18th, 2008