Your website as a working tool
A charity website serves several purposes. Some are to be feature rich and engaging to the front-end audience. Showcase sections, which have had time invested and functionality developed into them because there content is constant and their visibility consistent.
But, other areas require more friendly flexibility. The area’s that are updated regularly by busy people. Managed by multiple staff members and all with varying digital confidences. In these areas the goal is clarity, not complexity. It’s important to have up-to-date, engaging content and backend barriers that deter teams from growing these sections can have detrimental effects to the charities mission. It’s often not negligence that see’s these sections fall forgotten and out-dated, but instead it’s the fear of doing damage and not good that keeps teams hesitant to make updates.
Because of this it’s important to understand what website areas needs encouraging familiarity and what features can be masked in complex functionality.
The areas charity teams regularly work on
Whilst each website often has it’s own quirks and niche sections there are several areas and post types, that from experience, we see on most charity websites. These area’s often require frequent updates from a wide range of staff members so these are the sections that should include:
- Clear, simple approach to editing
- A recognisable choice of formatting options
- Reusable content blocks
- Templated sections (where applicable)
- A visual based editor
- The ability to preview the resulting work before publishing
- Easy to access, documentation and training
Whilst your website may have differing names, we’ve included a list of likely sections that you’ll want this level of confidence on:
- News, Blogs and Updates
- Impact stories and Case studies
- Events, Campaigns and Appeal pages
- Donation and Fundraising content
- Staff and Organisation contact information
What areas charity teams won’t regularly edit
Whilst flexibility and familiarity are important for some areas, some don’t need as much. This isn’t to say it can’t be included, but when site enhancements and improvements can be made by taking a more specialist approach at the sacrifice of admin usability, it’s likely to happen in some of the following core areas:
- Page layouts
- Global design styling and application
- Responsive behaviours
- Interactive behaviours
- Element animations
- Complex intergrations
Why does the backend approach matter?
A well-designed admin area is a form of accessibility – just for your team instead of your users. It might seem trivial to approach this with the same considerations of your frontend audience but there are several benefits that extend further than just avoiding internal team complications.
- Reduced training time
- Fewer support emails
- Quicker content turnaround
- More confident staff
- Better, fresher content
- Less reliance on external support
- Lower long-term costs
What should you be looking for?
The above post offers a generalised approach to some standard issues we see regularly across charity websites. This is not a one-size fits all guide but you can ask yourself some common questions to help spotlight which need to be a focus for your organisation.
- What will be added to regularly and by who?
- How easy would it be for someone new to pick this up?
- Is there a dedicated team that will be responsible for this section?
- What sections can be planned for in advance and will be featured widely to the public?
- What content needs to be quick and safe to update?
- What content is time-sensitive or likely to expire?
Asking these questions early helps ensure your website supports your team’s day-to-day work, rather than becoming another thing to manage or worry about.
Your website should support the people behind it as much as it serves the people visiting it. When regularly updated areas are clear, familiar, and safe to use, teams are more confident to keep content fresh and relevant. Designing with real workflows in mind helps ensure your website remains an active, trusted tool.
