Developing a Site for a Social Cause: How to Get Started

Developing a website for non-commercial use, such as for a social movement or a community, is always a bit more challenging. The site needs to do so much more than provide good user experience. It must convince others to join the cause and participate. On top of that, it must also convey the right information – using the right methods – to allow other people to understand what the social cause is all about.

There are several extra challenges to overcome. In this article, we are going to talk about some basic tips that will help you develop better websites for the communities and social causes around you. Let’s get started, shall we?

Get Involved

You can’t capture the true essence of a social cause without understanding it inside out. The best way to do so is by getting involved. You don’t always have to join the cause; just participate in some of its activities to get a closer, first-hand look at what the organization or community is all about.

Capturing values and understanding what the cause is all about can help you outline the right theme for the site. You will find choosing the right mood, combining colors and designing the site in general to be much easier to do.

A lot of web designers I know even got addicted to social work after developing a couple of websites for communities. Some even go as far as pursuing an online social work masters to be better at what they do. Thanks to top universities such as Rutgers Online, getting an online MSW degree is easier than you think.

Have Clear Goals

A site needs to have a clear set of goals to achieve. For ecommerce sites or blogs, the main goals are either sales or views. Social movement sites are slightly different. Their end game is to persuade people to participate, not only online but also offline. This is the primary goal you need to aim for.

By understanding this primary objective, you can easily derive other goals to achieve. Let’s say the social cause needs to raise funds. There are a few elements that must be added to the site for it to achieve its purpose. For starters, you can add a Kickstarter-style progress bar so that others can see how much donations have been made.

The same specific approach needs to be developed for individual goal. Be sure to work with the people involved in the social cause to define a clear set of goals to make designing the site easier.

Keep It Simple

At the end of the day, the social cause is still the star of the show. Sure, it’s tempting to add design elements to wow the audience, but you should always put the content up front for the site to work. Animations and other design elements are there to make the whole experience of learning about the social cause much more enjoyable.

These are just some getting-started tips, but they should help you tackle the most basic challenges of developing a website for a social cause. For more tips and tricks, be sure to stay tuned right here on Template4All.com.