In preparation for a presentation on how to increase ‘engagement’ on a website, I assessed a number of health-related non-profit websites for how they made use of a variety of features.
Here are the features we considered:
- Social Media, easy sharing
- Mobile-friendliness
- Visually rich content, such as photos, video, infographics, charts, illustrations
- User-contributed content (comments)
- Content that invites response
- Expand/Collapse sections, like with FAQs
And the sites:
Global Fund for Women – responsive design, lots of photos, video sharing campaigns, hero sliders, Pinterest and other soc med, rolling asks on thank-you pages
San Francisco AIDS Foundation – Facebook commenting, hero sliders, photos, addthis sharing, content cross-linking
AIDS.gov – social media linkage; embedded twitter feed; graphics for health education (with clever Pinterest connection)
Health Initiative for Men – Super gold star for interactivity! Fun ‘quiz’ to help people identify their risk level
Greater Than AIDS – heavy use of imagery, clearly representing their target ethnicity; huge homepage slider; floating social sharing widget
Food Water Watch – Factory Farm Map – Really rich, interactive data-driven map that presents as very simple, easy to use.
World Wildlife Fund – great responsive design, gorgeous photography, all content shareable, How You Can Help feature on every page
Charity:Water – terrific use of infographics and video (Why water? Page)
Malaria No More – modal window to promote current campaigns, elegant simplicity, tells the user exactly what they should do