Building a community web site
Creating a successful web site that enables communities to work together depends more on processes than on software.
Posted on Charity Village March 6, 2005.
The Internet is littered with well-meaning community web sites that attracted attention from a few people for a few months and then were abandoned. By community site, I mean a web site that is meant to encourage community participation and engagement, whether it is in discussion forums, collaborative work groups, shared document archives, or public advocacy on political issues. The nonprofits that created the sites had visions of enabling their communities to share information and to collaborate together. They probably had special funding for the sites, and were encouraged by community members who expressed intentions to use it. Unfortunately, many if not most of them fail.
Here are some of the signs of failures in community sites: discussion forums that haven't had a new entry in more than a year; 'news' that has not been updated in months; announcements that new functions will be added 'soon' but are never launched; a list of members that show an early spike and then no additions. These signs are common enough that nonprofits need to avoid the main causes of failure in the design of their sites. It's not enough to launch a site with various functions (discussions, member lists, document archives, etc.) – the site must be designed and populated properly and nurtured continually.
Even if a given community site doesn't succeed for one reason or another, it can be designed in a way that builds or enhances tools that can benefit community-based networks over the long term. In other words, they can learn from each other and build knowledge about what works and what doesn't work rather than making the same mistakes over and over again.
Web sites, as well as addressing the objectives of their particular initiative, should attempt to have sustainable value, in the sense that the nonprofit sector is strengthened by online interventions even after a particular program stops. Sustainable value might be created in several ways:
- The tools and resources developed through the site could be made available to other nonprofits and community networks through accessible and easily searchable archives.
- Social networks could be developed, with members continuing to collaborate after the initiative is completed.
- Communities could be helped to become more familiar with inexpensive and accessible online tools as modeled on the site, and could develop them for their own purposes.
Following are some suggestions for building community web sites that are more likely to have sustainable value for the nonprofit sector.
Whenever possible, design web-based resources that:
- Build upon existing networks and infrastructure rather than weakening emerging networks.
- Are accessible to users with low bandwidth, older browsers and diverse operating systems.
- Follow usability guidelines and generally accepted web interfaces. This builds capacity in the sector by reducing learning curves for other web-based resources.
- Enable control by users, not programmers. For example, organizations should be able to post content and change the structure in response to feedback from users. In addition, organizations should be able to switch technology providers rather than being locked into restrictive contracts or platforms.
- Enable information sharing across the diverse online communities building civil society. Documents and tools that would be helpful to other communities should be made available to a broader audience than those who happen to visit your web site. For example, you could create a partnership with an institution that has permanent archives – hopefully, one that was accessible to scholarly search engines. There are several advantages to this approach: The product would have a permanent citation; the authors/developers would have an additional incentive in that they would be recognized as published authors; and it would be accessible to the international scholarly and practitioner communities. For more information, see my articles on Google Scholar and the barriers that NGOs face in getting access to research literature.
When you are in the first stages of creating your web site, identify existing web sites or organizations that provide you with a model of success so that you can get ideas from them. Try to find web sites that can demonstrate effectiveness (e.g., by the amount of community members they have mobilized, or the number of visitors they get). Look at award-winning sites for ideas about design and functions, but don't get too wedded to them; many sites are granted awards for their looks rather than their effectiveness, and others cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop. Since most web sites are not evaluated for effectiveness, try to see evidence of success rather than just looking at design and functionality. For example, craigslist.com is an award-winning, highly successful community site that has spread to dozens of cities. It might not be what you have in mind, but it's a good model of a simple interface that gives people what they want. (Some of the above points are taken from a previous Charity Village article on designing web sites.)
The web site design should use elements that have been shown to be successful in other contexts.
Following are some key learnings from other online networks, drawn from published literature as well as our own research:
- Most users hate remembering usernames and passwords, and logins present a significant barrier to usage. Logins should be as simple as possible, and used only if necessary. The need for privacy in each of the site sections should be examined to ensure that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
- Successful interaction requires push as well as pull technologies. Discussion boards must have the option to provide e-mail notification of new postings; otherwise, users will seldom sign on and the site will languish.
- E-mail lists must be easy to manage and control by users.
- Many people outside the technology arena are still not comfortable with a 3-column web site format and fancy interfaces; they find such web sites cluttered and confusing. Web site design should either be as simple as possible, or promote tools that would be useful in their other work. Discussion groups and web logs are examples of inexpensive, empowering tools that civil society organizations should get more comfortable with.
We usually recommend that small nonprofits use a hosted service for their web sites rather than installing and programming software themselves. Good hosted content management systems can be easily customized by the client, and most can be switched to different providers/vendors after the web site launch if support is unsatisfactory. Possible choices are Drupal (hosted by Bryght), Blogware, Invision PowerBoard, and WebCrossing Intranets depending on the needs of the web site. I posted a brief article on inexpensive CMSs in 2003, and much of the information is still current.
There are seven steps in creating a collaborative web site:
1. Definition of your audience and the outcomes that the web site aims to achieve (also called the definition of user requirements).
2. A list of components and criteria that are necessary in order to meet the objectives listed in the first step (e.g., do we need to have a password protected area?)
3. Information architecture and design. (If possible, use commonly understood, 'standard' elements rather than trying to look original. You need to make the site as easy to use as possible.) Before you can create an information architecture, you need to be pretty sure of what content you want on the site.
On the basis of the first three steps, you should have a document or a set of PowerPoint slides that lists the web site's structure, functionality and other specifications in enough detail to build it. The requirements may go through several drafts with stakeholders before a programmer touches the web site, or even before you decide on the software that it will be built on.
4. Comparison and selection of software and technology provider. I have put this as the fourth step because it is difficult to select a content management system before knowing what you are trying to do. For example, you may need to have your administrative functions available in French. However, you may be committed to a technology provider (like your own I.T. staff) who may be knowledgeable about a particular software program. In that case, you may not get exactly what you want, but that's okay. Just ensure that your users get a simple, easy-to-use site that meets their needs. Otherwise, switch the software.
5. Writing the content. For some reason, organizations seem to underestimate the time that is necessary to actually write the information in the web site. We have been hired to develop sites where the content was several months late because the client that was responsible for content just couldn't get around to writing it. The site must be launched with adequate material in it, and most of the content should be completed before the final design of the web site and architecture.
6. Customization and testing of the web site. Most organizations also underestimate the time it takes for software programming and testing. Even simple customizations of off-the-shelf web sites take more time than you think. Some pilot testing of the site by real users is essential, and you will almost certainly find things that must be changed. You have to have enough time and probably some programming resources to fix things before you launch.
7. Launch. For an interactive site involving community involvement, the launch of a web site is as important as any other public launch. People must be invited, the forums – if you have any – must be seeded, and software bugs must be fixed as soon as they are spotted.
With this approach, you may not get the community web site of your dreams, but it's more likely to be successful.
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Gillian Kerr, Ph.D., C.Psych.
President, RealWorld Systems
gkerr at realworldsystems.net