Speed Bumps and Stop Signs: Improving the Navigation of FARN's Web Site

By Nikki Skuce
November 2000

Case study from Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN)

About FARN

Organization: Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN) http://www.farn.org.ar

Established: 1985

Objectives: FARN is a non-profit, non-governmental, non-partisan organization, its main objective being the promotion of policy, law, economics and institutional organization for sustainable development. It is addressed, mainly, to public and private decision-makers.

Mission: The foundation's mission and the method used to reach it, respond to the conviction that the challenge lies in how to organize to reach the complexity of true human needs with the management and prevention of negative effects on the environment.

Staff: Employees – 13
Associates – 6
Volunteers/interns – 6

Partners: SDCN – in particular IISD and REC
(Note: FARN has many partners for different projects, however the above are the most relevant in terms of working on Web site development and content).

Users: Staff from public organizations, NGOs, businesses and universities. Lawyers and judges, legislators, economists, sociologists, journalists, professors and university students.

Background

The original FARN Web site was created both by an outside contractor and an intern in 1997–98. Once all of the organizational information and the graphics were uploaded onto the site, it was huge and extremely slow to load. Navigating through the site proved difficult and the ad hoc structure did not support editing the site with the development of new programs and decreasing importance of others. The site was neither easy to navigate, nor easy to maintain.

Improving navigation

In learning from the first site, FARN decided to develop a new Web site that was:

• easy to navigate, and
• easy to maintain and upload.

Navigation bars and structure

The following is a description of the structure of the current FARN Web site.
Homepage: The homepage is slightly different from the other pages. Firstly, it was important to give an overview of the content found in each section, and to offer access to key pages within the site from the homepage. The left-hand side of the page includes a noticeboard with access to what's new, and the right-hand side lists the categories that appear on all pages along with what appears within each section. The bottom of the homepage also includes the address of FARN and a link to the SD Web Ring.
Other pages: The rest of the Web site has a consistent, fixed form. The following is a list of navigation bars that appear on all pages:

• At the top of the page, in a thin band, are the icons to send comments, see a map of the site, view links and view the same page in English (currently under construction);
• A larger band underneath includes the logo on the left and the name of the section you are in on the right;
• The last band across the top are the buttons/links that will navigate you to the six other topic-sections of the site;
• The left-hand side of each page has the links to other pages within the section you are in;
• The right side is where the text appears on a white background. At the bottom of each page are again links to the other sections and a return-to-top button; and
• The bottom frame on the page has a link to e-mail the Webmaster, and includes when the site was last updated.

Results

As a result of the new format, the forms that can be submitted from the FARN site (to subscribe to a listserv, sign up for a forum or comment on the Web site), have increased substantially. While no statistics are available, nearly all comment forms sent to the Webmaster reply that the "site is clear and easily navigated." Navigation and speed are key components in developing a site that is accessible and meets the needs of the user. Remember, the general attention span of the average Web viewer is around 10 seconds.

Contact:

FARN
Monroe 2142, 1º B
(C1428BLH) Buenos Aires
ARGENTINA
Tel/Fax:(54-11) 4788-4266 / 4787-3820
4787-5919 / 4783-7032
E-mail: info@farn.org.ar