It’s been hard times for many in New Zealand this last while, what with earthquakes, snow, landslips, storms and other turbulence. In such times of turmoil there’s much to think about and do.

In Christchurch organisations had very immediate concerns after the 7.1 magnitude earthquake on 04 September 2010. Some could not get into their own buildings to access computers and records, and some were dealing with large-scale calls on their services, helping people or animals in need.

Is it too hard to donate?

Within a few hours people around the country, moved emotionally by the events, wanted to find out what was going on, to offer help and money.

That was a good moment to capture interest and donations. It was also likely a time when organisations were expending more time and energy than usual on basic operations. Attending to the website was a secondary concern.

Salvation Army easy-to-find donation button.

How hard is it for people to make a donation to your organisation? Take a look at your website from the point of view of someone wanting to donate funds.

1. Is it easy to find the page or place on the page to make a donation? Remember, the visitor may have found your site through a search and may not arrive at the home page.
2. Is it easy to actually make the donation? Can people donate with Paypal, direct credit, a phonecall, an SMS or some other instant method? Or do you require them to find their cheque book, an envelope and a stamp and to mail in a donation?
3. Will they receive a receipt?
4. Will you capture their information and add them to a mailing list they may not choose to be on?

These are all things to think about before they become urgent. In the midst of a crisis isn’t a good time to be trying to organise Paypal or information about bank accounts.

Cheques are a barrier

Cheques are old technology now. It’s easy to find people who have no idea where their cheque book is or when they last used it. If you make donation by cheque the only possibility then you’ll probably miss out on a lot of funding. You also lose the spontaneous moment of impulse giving.

The easier you can make it for people to give, the more likely it is they will.

Take a look at your website now, before a crisis happens, and consider how you can accept donations. Do you have a Paypal account? Can you accept direct credit?

What information do you need to add to or change on your website so you’ll be ready when the time comes?

Written by Miraz Jordan for, and reproduced from CommunityNet Aotearoa Panui, October 2010. This article has been modified for publication here.

The information in this section was written in September 2010 by Miraz Jordan. Much of it was drawn from the Webguide and Communitynet Aotearoa Panui Tips, though it was also checked and updated if necessary.

New material has been added too.

Webguide

The New Zealand Webguide, Connect your community is a guide for community groups, iwi groups, and not-for-profit organisations. It was written by Miraz Jordan and the Webguide Partnership in 2006. ISBN-13: 978-0-473-11626-2. Download the New Zealand Webguide (426Kb PDF).

Panui

Communitynet Aotearoa Panui is a free monthly e-newsletter full of news and ideas for people involved with community groups.

Miraz Jordan

Miraz Jordan is a writer and trainer, blogger and WordPress consultant. She has worked with community organisations since around 1985, and advised them on using technology and the Internet since around 1990.

There are many online games, but more than 1.5 million people around the world play one that’s become popular recently: Foursquare. The point is to connect with your friends.

Disclaimer: I don’t play Foursquare myself.

Smartphone, Twitter and Facebook

You need a GPS-enabled cellphone with an Internet connection, and a Twitter, or Facebook account.

You also need to sign up with Foursquare. It’s free.

Check in

When you go places, such as to shops, restaurants, museums or parks, you ‘check in’ with Foursquare.

If you wish, your checkins are broadcast to your Twitter and Facebook friends.

You can see if any of your friends are nearby, and perhaps leave Tips about special features such as discounts and sales, or the best item to order from the menu.

You may also find Tips from other Foursquare players suggesting things to do nearby.

You can also add places that aren’t already listed on Foursquare.

The Mayor of …

Every time you check in to a particular place you earn points or badges.

If you check in at a particular location more often than anyone else in a month you become the ‘Mayor’ of that location. This gives you status, but some businesses or organisations may also give you special rewards such as discounted or free goods and services.

This is essentially a loyalty reward. An example may be that every 5th checkin earns 20% off a purchase.

Other businesses may make special offers to Foursquare players, whatever their status.

Benefits to organisations

As a business, or perhaps a museum or other non-profit venue, it can be useful to participate in Foursquare. They can see statistics about how many people are visiting, what time of day they visit, what gender visitors are, and many more details.

Part of the benefit to them is that as you check in you’re promoting their venue, especially if you broadcast your location to your friendship networks.

More information

Foursquare describe themselves like this:

Foursquare is a mobile application that is a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide, and a game that encourages users to explore their neighborhoods and rewards them for doing so. We do this by combining our friend-finder functionality and social city guide elements with game mechanics — our users earn points, win mayorships and unlock badges and specials for trying new places and revisiting old favorites.

If you enjoy exploration, and friends, this may be an online game that appeals to you.

Written by Miraz Jordan for, and reproduced from CommunityNet Aotearoa Panui, July 2010. This article has been modified for publication here.

The following article wasn’t written specifically about website backups, but you could use it for that purpose. You may download files from your website to your own computer and then use the following technique.

You may have data on your computer that is valuable to you: photos, home movies, the novel you’ve been writing, your accounts for the past few years.

I’m sure you back it up, since it’s important to you. But where do you keep that backup? Next to the computer? In another room? At a neighbour’s house nearby?

One problem with this local storage approach is that if some localised disaster strikes, such as a flood, fire or earthquake, not only do you have to deal with damage to your property, but you may also lose all that computer data you value.

Amazon S3 online backup is low-cost

A good solution is to store backups online, in a trusted place. Of course, this is only viable if you use broadband.

There are many services that offer online storage; the one I use is Amazon S3 — brought to you by the famous Amazon store. My most recent invoice for one month was for a whole NZ$1.03. That’s around $15 to $20 per year, given that I’m adding to the online storage regularly. That’s very affordable, even for those in straitened circumstances.

This month I added 3Gb out of my 25Gb of photos, so I expect an additional US$0.75 on my bill.

Software to work with Amazon S3

I upload my files using my FTP software, Interarchy, but for those who don’t even know what FTP means there’s an easy way to use the service. People I trust speak highly of software called JungleDisk, for Mac, Windows and Linux.

There are screenshots and slideshows that show you what the software looks like and how to use it.

Using JungleDisk you can create a backup regime, or you can just use S3 as though it’s another drive attached to your computer — drag and drop files in the same way you would with a thumb drive or similar.

Your files are secure at Amazon S3. When you sign up you are given two ‘keys’ similar to this fictitious example: 9Uf/f9cuTy6rf8DWSKyLdp6YGTrC2HDvQWTV9LSr. You need to keep them secret, as they allow you and no-one else to access your data.

Any backup is better than no backup

All kinds of things can cause your treasured files to go astray, and sooner or later they will go astray. Online backup offers an extra level of security, by storing your files geographically distant from you.

If you don’t want to consider such a service at least buy a thumb drive, or some CDs or DVDs, or an external hard drive and make sure you copy your most important files — the ones the insurance couldn’t buy again for you, such as photos. Then keep that device in a safe place and update it regularly.

Keep in mind though: the more effort it takes to make a backup the less likely you are to do it. Online backups can be quick and simple. Amazon S3 with JungleDisk is low cost and very easy. For other options try a Google search.

Written by Miraz Jordan for, and reproduced from CommunityNet Aotearoa Panui, April 2009. This article has been modified for publication here.

Being well organised saves a lot of time, money and irritation. Check you have these things organised before you talk to the web team:

• purpose of the website
• a defined target audience
• good quality electronic copies of graphics you want to include (eg logo)
• copyright permissions and photo releases
• good quality electronic copies of texts and information you want to include
• one person to be the liaison with the web team and who can make small decisions quickly
• a process for making complex or larger decisions
• funds for the first year
• a funding plan for subsequent years
• a realistic desired launch date
• a promotion plan
• a plan for thorough user tests and previews
• a desired domain name (with alternate choices)
• a list of people who will make updates after launch
• a plan and funds for any relevant training
• a plan for reviewing and monitoring the site

You may change and adapt some or all of these things as you and your chosen web team develop the site and your ideas. They will bring experience and expertise that you may lack.

However, being prepared will save time, money and stress.

A good web team will also make suggestions for other things you can do with your website that support your overall plans and goals, so be open to new ideas.

There are many ways to make websites and your web team should be able to help you decide on the best type for your needs.

Two important aspects

If you build a house there are two “sides” to it.

Building infrastructure

One aspect of a house is all the electrical wiring, plumbing, beams, piles, studs and other items that hold the house together and the roof up and allow you to walk on the floor, have a shower, plug in the fridge and so on.

The tradespeople who build the house need to know all the details of how to implement these things, but as the houseowner you don’t. You just need to be sure everything works, both in fine weather and foul, in good times and in bad times.

Council inspectors make sure the work meets all the building codes.

Building appearance

The other aspect of the house is what directly affects the occupants: how it looks, how big the rooms are, the colour of the walls and so on. The houseowner will probably have some strong opinions on these matters.

Website code and content

Similarly, a website has two “sides”. The web team need to know the rules and methods (the codes) for creating the structure of the website; how to set it up for the owner and the visitors. You should not need to understand the details of this part during construction, but you’ll want to be assured everything works properly.

Unfortunately there are no website ‘building inspectors’, but another part of this chapter explains what you should check to be sure the work has been done well.

The other side of a website is the content. You will be directly responsible for this, deciding what text and pictures the visitors will be able to access. You will also advise on colours and features you want on the website.

Look to the future

If you plan on keeping the website up to date yourselves after it has been launched, or adding and changing content, then it’s crucial you discuss this with the web developer before work begins.

Also, if you choose a blog or forum, you may need some training in how to add and edit content, manage users, upload files such as images or movies, and so on.

If you’ll be adding text to the website, even if it’s a blog, you need to understand about how text works on the web.

Publishing a website is a bit like owning a car. Some people want to learn all about engines and gears and fix the car themselves. Others prefer to leave maintenance and repair to trained car mechanics.

If you want to update your website yourselves then one or more people will need to develop at least some expertise in this. Even the most user-friendly website still requires some knowledge to be able to update and maintain it.

On the other hand, it may be cheaper and easier in the long run to pay a web designer to make updates, freeing you from the need to be “hands-on” with the website and assuring you that the quality of the site will remain high.

A static site

One way of making a website is with static coding, using HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), perhaps Javascript, Flash, and other technologies you may not want to learn about. If you want to fix a typo you will need to understand some or all of these things, along with how to use FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

Your web developer may be able to set up a system where you can edit static content through a form or using relatively inexpensive software.

A static site is good for a small ‘brochure’ site where content doesn’t change very often.

A Content Management System

Another way to make a website is to use a Content Management System (CMS). A blog can be a simple example of this type of system.

If you need to fix a typo with this system you visit a web page and enter a username and password. Once you’ve been granted access you can simply click on the item which needs changing and type your changes, just like using a wordprocessor, then click a Save button.

Under this type of system you can add new material just as easily. There will probably be a Toolbar which lets you choose to make an item into a heading, or a list, or click a button to create a link or include a picture.

In either case there are still skills you need to learn so you can do a proper job, but in the case of the Content Management System, you can focus more on the content and don’t need to worry so much about the “plumbing”.

A Content Management System is particularly useful for a website where you frequently add fresh, new content.

Many modern Content Management Systems include an RSS newsfeed which allows interested parties to receive your new content automatically. This is a very useful feature.

Beware bad systems

There are many Content Management Systems available, ranging in cost from free to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Some use very outdated techniques for making websites and some require you to use specific software to be able to interact with them.

There is no correlation between price and quality. Some expensive systems are very poor quality; while some free systems excel in all areas of current practise.

Discuss your needs with your web team so you can choose the best type of website for your organisation.

Weigh up the need to train staff or volunteers to update the website against the ease of having the web designer do it. Be sure to specify that however your website works behind the scenes it must use valid, accessible coding. See Tests anyone can do [needs link] for information on how to check that requirement.

This section helps you assess whether or not to go ahead with creating a website.

If you’ve decided to get a website you need to:

• Look at your aspirations.
• Look at the benefits.
• Look at the drawbacks.
• Consider whether your organisation can invest sufficient resources of interest, energy, time, money and equipment.

Topics in this section

Do we need a website?

If you create a website without a good rationale you may find you’ve created a problem instead of a solution.

Dreams are free

Let your imagination run wild.

Potential and priorities

Look at the dreams and decide the focus.

Assess this project

Assess your resources.

Steps to success

A checklist to decide if your organisation is ready to go online.

Do we need a website?

Why make a website? Because everyone else has one? Because a volunteer offered a free web page? Because you feel you “should”?

Many organisations have made a website for one of those reasons and then found it’s backfired: they didn’t have enough time to keep it up, the volunteer left and no-one knew how to change the pages, the website didn’t have good information or was hard to use and it put off the people it was supposed to attract.

A website can potentially be an asset for your group, but you need to be really clear about how to make it work for you.

Work through this and the next sections and record your thoughts and ideas in a notebook or in a separate document on your computer. The notes will help you plan and run your website.

You may also find that a website is not right for you and you can achieve some or all of your goals through email, chat or good old-fashioned phonecalls and leaflets, or by some other means.

Perhaps Facebook, or Twitter or some other service can achieve your goals better than a website.

If you jump in to creating a website without some good planning you may find you’ve created a problem instead of a solution.

Potential and priorities

Now that you’ve imagined a website, what can you achieve realistically?

How could a website benefit us?

Once you’ve run out of ideas and have nothing else to write see if you can sort everything out.

List all the benefits from your dream website (and other ideas) that you would hope for or expect for your organisation and everyone connected with it. How would this dream website change lives? Here are a few possibilities.

• We can share our history and stories with the young people, and our whānau overseas.
• We can offer more services because it’ll save us time answering the phone just to tell people our opening hours.
• Our clients (whanau / students / tamariki / the people who benefit from our services) will be able to read about our news and share their news.
• Our literacy students / blind clients / busy volunteers could listen to our newsletter.
• Our volunteers could get training materials from the website and save us photocopying costs.
• We could video our kapa haka sessions to inspire others.
• We can include links to other websites around the world which have information on our interests so our whānau can keep up to date with the latest research.

Every group will have different ideas about what the website might achieve and who exactly will gain the benefits.

What is most important?

Pretty soon reality will intrude and you may find you’ve imagined a million dollar website on a one hundred dollar budget. Now you need to decide what’s most important.

Out of all the ideas you had what are the top five? Keep the benefits in mind as you make these decisions.

Note down the top five, but don’t lose the other ideas. Just be clear about which ones are top priority and why.

The one thing

Now comes the hard part. What say you could do only one thing? Which one thing from your list is the absolutely most important?

It may be you will be able to afford to implement all of your ideas, but choosing one top priority will help bring focus to the project and keep clear what the project is mainly aiming to achieve.

Assess this project

Maybe another time

After the brainstorming session you may have discovered that actually no-one in the group is really very excited by the project. If there is no time or energy for it then it may not be the right time to start this project.

A clear goal and audience

Every project needs a solid foundation and a clear direction. Before you can start on any concrete action your group must be clear on three vital points:

Who is the target audience?

Who are we aiming to reach? Who are the most important targeted audience for this project?

What is the goal?

What do we want to achieve? What is the aim? What’s the point of doing this?

How can we sustain the effort?

If we set up a project now, how can we ensure we have time, energy, funding, expertise and the drive to continue with it?

Your main aim may be to recruit more volunteers, so your target audience would be people in the right age group with the right kind of skills and living or working in the right kind of area. You probably don’t want to recruit anti-social adolescents in Auckland to go visiting hospice patients in Timaru

Perhaps you want to help anti-social adolescents in Auckland to avoid or stop using P and other drugs. There’s no point targeting retired people in Timaru.

Of course, if you have a stunning idea which could combine those two notions, then go for it!

Choose the right project

You may also have found that some members are very much opposed to having a website. Your group should discuss this before going ahead. There may be very good reasons why a website is not the right choice for your group at this time.

You may also find that you don’t need a website but that you could use other technology, such as email or cellphones, Twitter or Flickr more effectively.

You need support

Only enter into a website project if you have broad, ongoing support for it and if it’s the best way to achieve your goals.

It will take some time to actually get a website in place and then you’ll probably want to keep it going into the future. A project can easily collapse if only one or two people support it and they leave the organisation or are voted off the committee.

A realistic budget

Implementing your ideas could cost any amount of money from nothing to millions. Decide on a realistic budget for your project. How much is your organisation prepared to spend?

You need to allocate funds each year for a website or other technology project, so keep that in mind. You may apply for a grant and receive funds for the first year, but what will happen in the following years? Any long-term project will have both initial and ongoing costs.

Your budget needs to allow for costs in getting a domain name, hosting, preparing text and pictures (and any other files such as sounds, movies, reports and so on), training your own members, having the site created, maintenance and review, and perhaps costs for launching (publicity, a launch party etc).

Decide on a maximum budget in the first year and for the next few years. This will guide how you start and follow through.

Who can work on this project?

If there is energy and enthusiasm then you should note down who is interested, what expertise they have and how much time they can give to a website project.

Interested people may not know how to make a website, but there are many tasks they can do such as locating information, writing text, taking photos, proofreading, testing to see if the website looks good and works well, contacting others for permission to use pictures and text, organising publicity, catering a launch party and so on.

All the stages after “launch” are ongoing so your organisation will need people to put time into them and to train others to assist or take over.

Govern, implement, manage

You will probably contract out some or all of the work of creating the website, but the organisation itself still needs to take responsibility for governance of the project: making the decisions about direction and policy.

The organisation needs a team who will put time and energy into monitoring, advising and planning around the website.

There should be only person though who liaises with the web team and who is authorised to make decisions on the finer points. If you have more than one person doing that job then you end up with confusion and unexpected extra costs.

You will need to be able to replace individuals if they leave the organisation. Make sure that more than one person is knowledgeable about the details of what is going on. Keep good records of contact names, passwords and any other details. You may find a free Basecamp account useful for managing this project.

You may contract out the web development and pay an individual or company or you may use an unpaid but skilled volunteer from within the organisation.

In either case be sure to set up specific agreements and contracts about what work is to be done, by when, and what the outcomes should be.

Steps to success

1. Is your organisation ready to go online?
2. Do you have a clear and feasible plan for using the Internet that advances the goals of your organisation?
3. Do you have strong support from the whole organisation for the online project?
4. Will the project gain you more than it costs in time, energy, money and other resources?
5. Do you have a clear goal for the website?
6. Do you have a clear picture of your main target audience?
7. Can you fund both initial and ongoing costs?
8. Do you have enough people able and willing to do the work?

Once your organisation decides to go ahead with a website there will be a lot of work to do:

• Choose a team who can actually create the website.
• Decide which members of your organisation will be directly involved in the process and day to day decision making.
• Create and assemble content such as text, pictures, sounds, movies, documents for visitors to download.
• Liaise with the web development team.
• Test the site before it goes live.
• Organise publicity.
• Organise the launch.
• Miscellaneous other tasks.

Once you understand the nature of the medium and what the process involves you can establish a brief for the website developer.

The brief must outline what you want in and of your website, what criteria you will use for assessing when the site is ready for launch and what expectations and requirements you have.

Discuss your expected outcomes with the website developer. You may find you need specific features, such as search, feedback forms, registration forms, a shopping cart or payment system.

The web developer will also have suggestions for features that will enhance your website. Listen carefully and ask questions. Only choose those features that you believe will enhance your site and that your group can support and sustain.

Include these items in your brief:

• the intended audience
• the purpose of the site
• expected outcomes, such as visitors signing up for an email newsletter
• the date when you want to launch the site. Note: you may want to time the launch to coincide with another event such as an annual awareness day.
• a list of the content you want to include
• the budget available
• any specific requirements (eg meeting Level A accessibility guidelines, valid HTML and CSS), wanting to be able to track statistics (eg who visits the site, how many visitors etc)
• contact details for the one person who will liaise with the web developer
• whether you want to be able to edit small items on the site yourselves, eg correcting typos, or want the web team to handle that once the site has been launched
• whether you want to be able to add new sections, or make other more major changes yourselves once the site has been launched
• who will own copyright in the design and content.

The brief will be a working document. Some items in the brief may be absolutely fixed, for example, your budget. Others may be negotiable, such as the date you aim to launch the site.

Decide which are your non-negotiable items, and be as flexible as possible on the others.

Essential requirements

Every website is different, but these items apply to almost all sites:

1. Statistics to track visitors and how they use the site. Google Analytics is free and comprehensive and easy to add to any site.
2. An easy or automated backup process.
3. Measures to reduce and control spam and other malicious uses.
4. A contact form, or other way for people to contact you through the website.

Also ask about training in how to use the site once it’s built, and what support and ongoing help are available.

Creating a website can be a rather tangled process: you may find you need to choose a team to create the website before you can finalise your budget for example.

During development there are likely to be many reviews and a lot of training. The only really clearcut sequence in the above is: prepare, launch and review.

In general, though, you need to be very clear about your goals and your audience, as well as your budget before you approach someone to create the website.

In discussion with the developer you may discover new possibilities or that something you hoped to achieve will be well beyond your budget.

Use the expertise

The developer (whether a volunteer, a professional freelancer or a big company) should have expertise in making websites and should be able to advise on the best ways to achieve your goals. Make the most of the developer’s expertise by approaching them with your goals, rather than with solutions.

Don’t say: We want visitors to click on a bouncing bunny.

Do say: We want some fun things for visitors to do, which fit in with our bouncing bunny campaign.

Ask if the developer has other suggestions for your organisation which fit in with your website.

For example, your web developer may suggest or steer you away from blogs or forums, RSS feeds, Facebook integration, or various other possibilities. They may suggest a mailing list, a YouTube channel, using Flickr or Foursquare or Twitter, or any of dozens of other possibilities you may not have considered.

Be informed

Although the developer will know about how to make websites you have some responsibility for being informed and knowing what to expect from a website.

If you were building a house you’d have the law to fall back on: a house must meet various regulations about being weatherproof, safe, sanitary and so on.

There are few, if any, laws about websites but there are things you should expect. For more detail see the section: Understand the web [needs link].

Clarify development stages

Depending on the size and complexity of your website and the requirements of the developer there may be a number of stages in development. Clarify with the developer what those stages will be.

A very simple one-page site made with a standard template could be prepared in an hour or two. A large and complex site, made to a custom design could take months to create.

You may have to pay a proportion of the total fee before work starts and at certain ‘milestones’ along the way.

Sign a contract

At some point you need to establish a contract with the development team which sets out what’s required, a timeframe and a budget.

Once you do that you need to be prepared to also work to the deadlines. If you don’t give the web team what they need by the agreed date your project might be sent to the back of the queue.

Your organisation will need to provide content such as text, photos, sound files, videos and the like, along with items such as logos, standard colour scheme and so on.

You can no more expect the web team to create the content for your site than you’d expect a book publisher to also write the book for you.

Make sure the contract specifies who owns the website and all its content.

Even volunteers need contracts

Note: even if you have an unpaid volunteer creating a one-page website do establish a contract outlining who will do what, by when, and what expectations both parties have.

Many organisations have been caught out with a volunteer running out of time to do the work, or feeling overworked and ‘put upon’ when they’re asked to make changes.

A contract helps establish clear guidelines around expectations, rewards, such as payment or praise or recognition, and deadlines. That can save a lot of anguish later on.

Enjoy the process

The web development team should prepare some drafts which you will comment on and gradually the website will evolve.

It’s a collaborative process. Some drafts may go in quite the wrong direction. This is your chance to finetune the shape and purpose of your website.

Be clear about what you want, but be prepared to make concessions too. You can expect the web team to prepare and alter several drafts — the contract will probably specify how many. But unless you have an unlimited budget, you may find you have to accept some things as being less than perfect.

Think carefully before making decisions, but then stick to the decisions you make.

Watching your website taking shape and becoming real can be very exciting. Enjoy your opportunity to be part of creating a valuable resource.

Carry out User Tests

Make sure the web team carry out User Tests while the site is being developed and before launch.

User tests show whether you’re on the right track or not and help shape the site. It’s easier and cheaper to fix problems at the beginning than after the site has been launched.

You might want to test things like the colour scheme, the layout, especially of the Home Page, the navigation, and whether visitors can quickly find the information you think is important.

See the Wikipedia article Usability testing for more information.

Celebrate the launch

Finally, at some point, the site will be declared finished and at that time you should launch it, with publicity and a party.

You can make a splash, invite friends and colleagues, funders and sponsors, people who use your services. Invite the press. Take photos and movies, record the speeches.

Remember to let CommunityNet Aotearoa know about your new site.

Most important: take time to celebrate your fine achievement and all the hard work that has gone into this creation.

While there are no actual laws about how to make websites there are widely accepted standards, guidelines and principles. These standards contribute towards making sure that your website is accessible to and usable by all your visitors.

The contract with your web design team should specify that the site should meet certain minimum requirements. You will need to do some actual testing during and after development to make sure the website works as it should.

An accessible site

People with disabilities should be able to use your website and access the information you provide. There are many levels for measuring accessibility, ranging from level A (minimum) to level AAA (maximum) and many techniques for ensuring this.

The web design team should factor in at least Level A accessibility from the very first moment of planning and creating the site.

The New Zealand Government provides Web Guidelines that establish standards for public sector websites in New Zealand. The standards are based on values of equity, integrity, trust and economy.

It’s appropriate for community groups to aim to meet these guidelines and to test the work of their web developer. See Easy assessment tests [needs link] for detailed information.

Before you hire a web designer (or use an unpaid volunteer) discuss your requirement for an accessible site and test examples of their work.

A usable site

It’s vital that your website visitors be able to use the site. They need to be able to find information, understand where they are and what they’re doing. Each page and feature on your site needs to have a purpose and to answer a question your visitor has.

As you develop your website ask some real users to actually visit and give you feedback. Watch what they do when they arrive at your site and as they move around it, and ask what they think. Even this basic user testing will make your website more usable and useful.

Jakob Nielsen is a specialist in this area of usability. He has many free articles on his useit.com website.

A sustainable site

There’s not a lot of point in blowing your whole budget on some huge website that will be out of date five minutes after you’ve launched it. You need to be able to sustain the website you create by adding new content, updating existing content and keeping the site useful.

It’s better to start with a small site and work out the routines for maintaining it and then expand it later on. As you work with it in the first year you’ll find out just what it takes to sustain the effort, enthusiasm and interest.

Many websites are started in a burst of enthusiasm, updated for a few months and then forgotten by their owners. Visitors still find these dusty sites and build up a negative view of the organisations that created them.

You need to keep website content accurate, fresh and useful.

Use plain language

Your organisation will need to provide the web design team with the wording for the various pages of your site.

Badly written text will quickly scare visitors away.

Writing material for the web is very different from writing for print as people read computer screens differently from how they read a book or magazine.

On the web you need to write pages which aren’t overly long, which are plainly written, get to the point quickly and which use plenty of headings and white space.

If you set up a blog, make sure that the people who write for it understand how to write for the web.

Rachel McAlpine is a specialist in writing for the web. Visit her Contented website for free articles and information about her low-cost online Diploma courses.

For your initial content, consider employing a professional writer, such as Miraz Jordan (the author of this guide), who understands the web.

Use valid HTML

There are many ways to make websites, but all of them rest on something called HyperText Markup Language (HTML). This is the coding which allows you to create headings, lists and paragraphs, include pictures, movies and sounds and which lets visitors click on words or pictures to move to another page.

HTML was first developed in the early 1990s and has grown and changed since then. It has rules and you can easily test whether a web page obeys the rules or breaks them.

If a web page breaks the rules of HTML it may not work properly for some visitors. Be sure the web designers comply with the rules of at least HTML4, XHTML, or HTML5.

Even if you know nothing about how to make a web page you can still easily check whether or not a page obeys the rules. See Easy assessment tests [needs link] for details.

Before you hire a web designer (or use an unpaid volunteer) discuss your requirement for a valid site and test examples of the designer’s work.

Use valid stylesheets

In the last 15 years methods for making websites have changed enormously.

In times past designers would fill each web page with coding to set colours and fonts and to control layout. Those techniques create slow and sometimes erratic websites that are hard to update.

The current professional technique is to use a separate stylesheet: one document which contains all the font, colour and layout information and which is linked to the actual web page.

Your website should use these Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and again, a simple test will check whether there are problems with the stylesheet. See Easy assessment tests [needs link] for details.

Before you hire a web designer (or use an unpaid volunteer) discuss your requirement for Cascading Style Sheets and test examples of the designer’s work.