Introduction
There are many designed websites for nations/states, profit and non-profit making organizations as well as for individual that are currently in use. The designing and establishment of these websites have been a key trend since the commencement of the world’s gradual transition to the new era of information technology.
Although there are numerous reasons which trigger the designing of websites, it is viewed that the only major one is to increase productivity, whether it’s for a state, profit and non-profit making organizations or individuals.
However, it has been noted that many websites had been closed and a good percentage of those remaining ones still have poor performances. Simply, the implication of this is that most of the websites are of poor and low standard quality to attract the right number of traffics and meet its needs (Andreasen and Kotler, 2007). Therefore, this work focuses on the evaluation of Bill and Melinda Gates foundation’s (B & MGF) website which has the URL.
The main purpose of the work is to assess the key design features to attract the targeted audiences and improve the performance of the website for an organization established in an area viewed as being hard to attract adequate clients, and most important that is founded in healthcare service provision.
Background
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation organization founded in 1994 was established to provide humanitarian services of health and housing care. For more than a decade, the organization has invested large sums of funds to meet health requirement needs for people both in the developing and developed countries. Generally, the organization has helped thousands of people suffering from illnesses and/or those who are poverty stricken to keep them live healthy and under improved living standards.
Reasons that makes B & MGF’s website effective
Structure and organization
The successful performance of the B & MGF’s website is associated to a number of factors which generally bolsters other types of businesses. The website design is one of the factors promoting its effectiveness and efficiency.
It appears to be less crowded with many items in the front page and the subsequent pages. This enables easy loading of the website, hence encouraging quick opening of the places or material by the targeted audiences (Brinckerhoff, 2010).
Thus, this simple design of the website saves time for the clients, and persuades the customers not only to visit the different web pages/ areas of the site, but this also promotes their future re-visitation on the site. The organization’s title name is clear inscribed at the top left, thus connecting it to its major driving philosophical statement at the top most right corner.
The placement of the organization’s title and the slogan of what the organization values most are unique. The organization has further supported the kind of services it is offering through the providing of a list on the section of topic, whereby, the services are divided into their related categories (Garfield, 2009).
Market expansion by product creation and advertising
In order for the website to serve its clients effectively, the organization has also developed a several programs, some of which are regionally designated while others are aimed at drawing clients from the global realm.
The organization has developed health and development programs as the two major products to attract clients nationwide. On the other hand, there are those programs which are specifically aimed at fostering health for the people residing in the United States.
Considering the fact that this is globally oriented organization and the nature of services or products it offers, the organization has penetrated into all continents of the world, meaning that it has overcame most of the barriers/ resistances offered to other commercially operating organization in the international trades (Greenfiel, 2002).
The organization easy penetration towards its achievement in the curbing those global problems has not been an arbitrary one, but this has been facilitated through proper integration of the strategy of partnership with other relevant organization which during the organization operations support it directly or indirectly.
The website has therefore been promoted through its linkage strategy with other organization’s site offering healthcare services including institutions like Harvard school of public health. Moreover, the organization’s website has been made effective by the fact that it is linked to several advertising and media organizations such as the KDNA radio and other press publishing organizations (Ries and Trout, 2009).
Conclusion
The B & MGF website is one of the uniquely designed websites. Though it is not wise to strictly say that it’s the best of all the websites, it bears most of the needed features to capture a high market share from the global realm.
References
Andreasen, A. and Kotler, P. (2007) Strategic Marketing for Non-Profit Organizations. New Jersey: Prentice Hall
Brinckerhoff, P. (2010). Mission-Based Marketing: Positioning Your Not-for-Profit in an Increasingly Competitive World. Wiley
Garfield, B. (2009). The Chaos Scenario. Stielstra Publishing
Greenfiel, J. (2002). Fund Raising: Evaluating and Managing the Fund Development Process. Wiley
Ries, A. and Trout, J. (2009). Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. McGraw-Hill