Web Usability for Not-for-Profit Organisations

Abstract

One of the common aspects of software design is to focus on building systems that are easier for people to learn and use, so as to improve their performance at work. The term “usability” has become so popular that it has been applied to many aspects of life (e.g., the usability of customer services or organisational usability (Kling & Elliott, 1994). This paradigmatic design approach appears to be increasingly important as complex technology allows us to connect more and more devices with people, so the essential aspects of usability—ease of learning, ease of use, useful, and pleasant to use—have been widely used as a basis for design. Indeed, the four usability dimensions proposed by Gould and Lewis (1985) have been applied to many design practices, and Web portal design is similarly an application area where usability is important. Hence, portal developers for commercial organisations should be aware of usability issues in order to obtain and retain visitors to their Web site. It is very obvious that a well-designed Web site helps to generate revenue for commercial organisations via online sales or advertising. Although much progress has been made in developing usable Web portals for corporate Web sites, less attention has been paid to the design of non-corporate Web sites such as governmental or not-for-profit Web portals. Contemplating the contextual difference between these organisations, we reviewed the extensive media coverage of the Tsunami Disaster in 2005. In fact, the Web portals of many charity organisations had an important role in the extensive charitable donations made online. Clearly, more not-for-profit organisations have been attracted to this relatively effective and cheap method of interacting with their supporters. So a simple but meaningful question is raised as to whether Web users of portals for profit organisations interact in the same way as they do with portals of not-for-profit organisations. If not, what differences are there between usability for notfor-profit and for commercial organisations? This article briefly reviews this issue and examines a possible account of usability for the not-for-profit organisation that Web portal practitioners should take into account.