Building a Website

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Websites can be an excellent way to reach a wide audience quickly. They have the potential to provide much needed quality information about conditions to individuals who are researching them independently. In a lot of cases, they can be a first or early source of information on genetic disorders. A well-designed website that gets a lot of traffic can be an enormous asset. There are no hard and fast standards as far as content. However, Genetic Alliance's Access to Credible Genetics Resources program has toolkits addressing this, and many universities also have suggestions and scales to rate resources.

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[edit] Tips Before You Start

There are dozens of books and websites that discuss the best way to design a site for specific purposes, and some of the most important guidelines are these:

  • Use images carefully, and pay attention to their size—they should load easily even using dial-up connections.
  • By all means, use color as a design element, but for sections of the page where there are chunks of text, the most legible combination is black text on a white background.
  • Consider accessibility issues—can a user with low vision using a voice browser understand the way information is presented on the page? How about a color-blind user?
  • Avoid animations and movies. Animations distract users. Flash is a popular software for creating animated websites or serving miniature movies, but it has virtually no accessibility features for sensory-impaired individuals. Using these techniques on your organization's site will limit your audience and may detract from your website's purpose: to share information and link members.
  • Keep it simple. The simpler your site is, the easier it is for your users—and for the people who update it.

[edit] Making a Website

[edit] Web Site Hosting

If your organization is interested in building your own web site, you'll need to choose an appropriate 'host.' In deciding what host to use, it's important to consider what components you want your site to have such as text and graphics only or extras such as a store or message boards? Other things to think about include: Does the host offer the following - mysql - for a database? PHP - for making dynamic websites? or Email accounts? How much bandwidth will you be allowed each month? How much storage will you have on the website host? How good is technical support? Is it by phone or email? How much will it cost per month?

Here are some companies that other organizations use:

  • GoDaddy - "GoDaddy are OK but as a web host they are not one of the best or the most reliable.

One common problem is they make it very difficult for the customer to transfer domain names - The web address of your website to another web site host. Another big problem is spam.. and we all hate spam. Some customers have complained that there website name (domain name) is easy to use by hackers and spammers because they charge extra for privacy and security tools. Now don't get me wrong I am not saying don't go there, because they have a lot of happy customers, Just be careful."

  • Webtrix - "Very reliable and helpful. Easy to get in contact with when you have questions."
  • Datarealm Internet Services - "We have used Datarealm Internet Services for years and been very happy with them. I think their non-profit rate is about $49.75 for six months."
  • ASP Webhosting
  • Rackspace - "I've found them responsive and their web interface is very easy to use. In addition, they have a lot of room for expansion and offer many backup options to keep your website up and running."

[edit] Web Site Designers

Many organizations are finding designers to build intricate sites for them, in order to provide sophisticated services like message boards and databases of resources for disorders. Hiring a web designer to do freelance work is a reasonable option for advocacy organizations, especially if there is not enough work or monetary resources to support a full time employee. In order to circumvent this problem, it might be possible for multiple orgs to hire a professional and give them work on a contractual basis so they would have a full workload. It would be also a great introduction for them into the non-profit sector. Another option is to ask volunteers to build and maintain the website. This could work for specific sites and orgs, but volunteers usually work on a very flexible schedules, and may not be able to respond to immediate website needs. Consistency is the important thing. It is extremely beneficial if the website is constructed with solid code and updates are made regularly.

Many web designers have websites, like this:

[edit] Using a Content Management System

Content Management Systems can be both a great help and a great hinderance in designing a web site. With some content management systems, groups find them to be inflexible and feel "trapped" in not being able to meet their needs, while other content managemen systems work well. Here are some tips from groups that use them:

  • PXE International decided to buy the service the Genetic Alliance offers. It is a one time fee of $5,000 for a very flexible content management system. You can look at PXE International website. A number of other Genetic Alliance groups use their service as well. This is a CMS that Genetic Alliance licensed, so that groups could have access to a high quality CMS. You can read about it here.
  • Joomla is a super system for developing a CMS website. Best of all it is free to use. It has a huge community of users, with a massive range and style of websites. The joy of setting up a website using it is that the site can be as simple or complex as you need, and the site can grow with you, by adding plug-ins and other tools to meet your needs. Lots of templates to get you going so if you find one you like, you can be up and running in under an hour. For a small website it can be a bit big, but on the whole it is great.
  • A small site can be developed using WordPress, although normally used for blogging, Wordpress is a very powerful CMS tool. You can have a play with wordpress at no cost by going to here. You can sign up and create a site on the wordpress servers, and if it works for your needs, you can go to here to download a copy to install on your own server. It is also free.
  • A few basic requirements you will need to check with your web hosting service no matter what CMS system you choose to use:
    • Ask if you have PHP - version 5 is best but you can get away with a lowerversion numnber (not recomended though).
    • Also you need a MYSQL Database on your hosting package.
    • Your Hosting also needs to be on a LINUX server (Not a windows server.)
    • If your hostimng meets the above requirements you are fine, otherwise for any free CMS you may need to switch or upgrade your web hosting package.

[edit] Evaluating Your Site

It is a good idea to evaluate your website every once in a while to see if it is functioning at its highest potential. There are some services out there that can help you with your evaluation.

WebXACT (formerly BOBBY) is a web-based service that checks sites for accessibility. It evaluates your site and lists recommendations to improve accessibility. You can ask it to use the World Wide Web Consortium Guidelines (available at W3.org) or 508 Guidelines.

W3 and Section 508 rules are for format. Consider guidelines for content, as well. We recommend HON—Health on the Net Foundation—Code of Conduct. This code has guidelines for authority, accountability, and attribution that form a solid basis not only for designing your site's approach to information but for evaluating other sites as well.

[edit] Factors to Consider

  • The complexity of the site design
  • Resources available to the organization for site design
  • The cost of professional site help
  • The potential of the site for growth and change (especially complicated additions like message boards and shopping carts)
  • Location! Prices for web design services tend to vary; they are generally higher near large cities.
  • Some designers pay per page, and often prices vary based on the amount of coding that needs to be done.
  • It is always worth writing to the CEO of the hosting company you like the look of. Often you may either get a good deal or an offer of free hosting.
  • On the subject of domain names... A lot of nasty people may see your domain getting traffic and set up a copy cat advertising domain trading on the miss typing of the charity domain. They set up a single page advert site. It is worth investing in the main names for your site to avoid this situation and to protect your intellectual property.


It's worth shopping around based on your organization's needs!

[edit] Internal Links

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