Accentuate the Actions

“Now in this case, if I’ve been trained to do that and it doesn’t work, now you’re asking me to search,” he adds.

Spinosa says the organization should place more emphasis on action-oriented links such as volunteering and on making its “Donate Now” button, which is toward the bottom of the sidebar, more prominent.

Also in terms of links, Spinosa says that a site’s logo should link back to the home page. Here, the logo isn’t linked. And while there’s a “Home” link at the bottom of the sidebar, it wasn’t visible on Spinosa’s screen without paging down.

The black-and-white images the organization uses on its site attract attention and convey a sense of warmth. But rather than keeping the photos to the right of the logo consistent from page to page, Spinosa advises changing the photos to reflect where the visitor is on the site.

WebWatch runs every other month. If you’d like us to profile or analyze your organization’s Web site, e-mail asanticola@napco.com.