How much can a website design that’s responsive to users boost effectiveness?
At least 34 percent, it appears.
That’s the takeaway from a recent project to upgrade United Way’s Bay Area (UWBA) site. When UWBA and a company called Morweb CMS worked together to revamp a simple website to create a more active user experience, traffic increased by a generous third.
According to a story on the remake by VentureBeat, “About 90 percent of new online ventures fail within the first 120 days, according to economists and business experts. In today’s mobile world, a poorly designed website can make you just another statistic.”
When it comes to not-for-profit organizations, getting the website right can make a huge difference on the donation bottom line.
“Having a website that guides visitors through their intended activity is essential for non-profits,” reflects Murad Bushnaq, CEO of Morweb CMS. “The donation process needs to have few clicks, high ease, and bold dollar value suggestions to transact today’s busy, mobile user. This is why United Way of the Bay Area saw such a dramatic jump in donations from the very onset of the new responsive design site launch.
The re-design had several key objectives. Because the group was a nonprofit, of course costs needed to be kept as low as possible. In addition, the goals were to effect an increase in donations made online, to encourage individual giving, and to boost annual contributions that could reduce the revenue variability experienced by all but the biggest nonprofits.
With Morweb CMS, UWBA moved into a new generation experience that pleased both visitors to the site as well as administrative staffers.
“The bottom line is, a non-profit website needs to do two things well,” notes Bushnaq. “First, it needs to properly communicate the soul of its cause with an engaging website design that is easy to navigate, uses images that emotionally connect, and has simplified call-to-actions for donations. Second, it needs to leverage technology that makes it easy for the organization to update, grow, and manage its website on the fly, all while maximizing mobile-ready users. Otherwise it risks uncollected donations.”
According to Bushnaq, the website “became more relatable, responsive, and effective as the small, non-technical staff can complete updates within web developer resources. Morweb’s system makes it easy to do in-page edits, image and media placement, and optimization.”
UWBA has said the responsive design initiative has increased mobile sessions by more than 34 percent. It also claims a 28 percent growth in year-over-year online donations.
To read more about how it all happened, check out the full story here.
