This is the second part in our series taking a closer look at free and open-source software: the real costs, the barriers, and the trade-offs; the best FOSS alternatives to “brand name” software; and the resources to help you make the most of it. One of the on-going criticisms of free or open-source software (FOSS), as a general class of ...

Cross-browser compatibility has long been a frustration for website designers. What looks fine in one browser may be more or less “broken” in another, with sidebars shifted and elements overlapping... But does it really matter, how your website looks in different browsers, in the big picture of what your organization is trying to accomplish with ...

Sometimes it just isn’t possible for your website's visitors to read what you have to say.  Perhaps a visitor has limited vision, or other physical challenges that make onscreen reading difficult. Perhaps reading itself may be a challenge for him. But accessibility can be about more than physical, mental, educational, and similar ...

How easy do you think it should be to make a charitable donation?  Getting a charity to accept your money might not be quite as easy as you'd think — if the charity's website is designed to meet its own needs, that is, rather than the needs of the people who visit and use the site. Here's an example: When an acquaintance passed away ...

        Jason King is a freelance web designer and ICT Trainer who works exclusively with non-profit organizations. He is also the author of the Nonprofit Web Design Blog, providing tips on planning, commissioning, designing and editing charity websites.    In the following interview, we talked ...

When potential members and donors visit your website, they expect to find it easy to use. Kim Krause Berg from the Cre8pc Blog has a great article about website usability (making your site easy for your visitors), which is well worth reading. Here are Kim's ten tips (this is only a summary, read the post in detail here): 1. There is ...

Here is a short tale of how I was made to jump through many hoops for a very simple transaction - and what it reminded me of regarding some online event registration quirks. I was at a Chinese restaurant on Saturday - pretty upscale one, called Asian Legend. It has several locations in Toronto and runs its own 'Frequent customer' program. Buy a ...

While going through my RSS feeds, I came across an article by Gerry McGovern that reflects a key aspect in Wild Apricot - Ease of Use. It is an excellent post on the significance of simplicity and usability on the web. The article is titled ''Easy to Use: Why the Web Demands Simplicity'' and describes the very essence of Wild Apricot. From ...

For businesses, usability's return on investment is pretty clear. Increased employee productivity, greater improvements in key performance indicators, double the sales and double the conversion rate. But what about non-profit organizations? Can they also get ROI from usability, even when they don't earn it back in the traditional ...

It should come as no surprise. The buzz about Web 2.0 tools and software-as-a-service (SaaS) has been caught and non-profits are adopting them. That's the gist of the recent article in IT BusinessIn fact, there are a lot of ready-to-use software-as-a-service (SaaS) products on the market to meet the needs of a non-profit. Online donation tools for ...