Delivering aid to developing countries is greatly complicated when international development organizations (those that fund and/or provide direct development assistance) do not build their websites in a way that is conducive to a low bandwidth environment. The irony is that the lower the bandwidth, typically, the greater the need. Therefore, it behooves development organizations to construct their websites in a way that can be utilized by low bandwidth organizations. However, the problem is, many organizations do not construct their sites in this way. I will not argue whether or not this is a force of intentionality or neglectful ignorance. Instead, I will offer a blueprint of recommendations for how to construct websites that maximize accessibility in low bandwidth environments, and critique the sites of some major development organizations to examine the ways in which they are strong and the ways in which they could be more effective. The hope is that development organizations that could stand to improve their websites will heed the call, redesign their sites when necessary, and truly honor their commitment to bridging the gaps that exist between more developed and less developed countries. development

Why It Is Important to Build Accessible Low Bandwidth Sites

The reality is that, more and more, development organizations are using the Internet as the primary way of disseminating information about their funding. It is certainly cheaper than mailing packets of paper or CD-ROMs out to organizations in target countries, calling them on the phone, advertising on television or radio, or sending a representative door to door. The cost of such efforts would certainly be massive, and it would prove very difficult to ensure that every last potential recipient be reached with this information. The money saved can be, instead, dedicated to projects and programs themselves. Utilizing web technology in this way also serves as a way to sell your development organization to other development organizations —websites can be a surefire way to look credible and professional. The reality is that all of this is most likely to only become more true as the Internet penetrates deeper into the far reaches of the globe. This is a problem for areas with weak Internet penetration and low bandwidth, because it has the potential to actually increase the digital divide, as areas with higher bandwidth have greater access than areas with lower bandwidth. This is especially true in rural are

Courtest of ITU

as around the world. We could very easily increase not only the digital divide, but the poverty gap, as well. (See more...)

Key Principles for Conceiving Web Pages for Low Bandwidth

• Apply a User Driven Approach – Consult members of the target audience to determine what information is most important and useful to them, and use this when designing the site's architecture and layout.
• Know Your Audience’s Needs – Most people are not willing to spend a day learning what’s contained in your site. Get them to the information they want as quickly as possible. [Principles of Web Design: A Guide]
• Learn the Demographics of Your Audience – their age, occupations, skill levels, interests. You are not your audience. Therefore, it will take some data-gathering to be able to design for your intended audience. [Principles of Web Design: A Guide]
• Include Your Audience in User Testing – Have members of the target audience, particularly in low bandwidth situations, test the pages and offer feedback.

Key Recommendations for Designing Web Pages for Low Bandwidth

• Have Good Site Structure – Provide easy navigation. Don't make users load unnecessary pages which are annoying for all users but really frustrating for users with low bandwidth connections. [ Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth]
• Use A 15 Second Rule for Each Page – Users should be able to learn how to navigate and orient themselves within 15 seconds. Identify the primary purpose of each page within the first few inches of screen space. Provide a summary or quick overview of the page before the user clicks on the link, perhaps a quick blurb about the major points contained in a long page. [Principles of Web Design: A Guide]
• Put Useful Items First – Put main navigation items at the top of each page so they load and display first. Make your pages useful even before they finish loading. [ Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth]. Most users will not take the time to read long passages on a computer screen. Experts report: Reading online is slower. People are distracted by links. They would rather follow a link than scroll. [Principles of Web Design: A Guide]
• No Page Bigger Than 25kB – Design your pages to load within 10 seconds over 20kbps connections, which means 25kB is the maximum page size. If you do one thing, do this. [ Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth]
• Reduce Images – Good design is possible without lots of images. Use CSS for layout and rollovers, instead of images. Make sure your site is usable if images are turned off in the browser. Optimizing the images you do have can make them a fraction of the size. [ Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth]
• Use Style Sheets – Using style sheets (CSS) is more efficient. Don't use tables for layout. Avoid using JavaScript. Avoid embedding style rules within the page. [ Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth]
• Minimize HTTP Requests – Every image, CSS file, JavaScript file and HTML page requires a separate HTTP request. Too many requests will add delays to page loading. [ Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth]
• Turn on Compression – Enabling compression on your web server could shrink your pages to half the size. [ Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth]
• Be Cache-able – Allow browsers to keep a local copy of, or "cache", your pages. [ Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth]
• Avoid PDFs – If you use them, optimize them for low bandwidth. PDFs can be optimized by using vector-based graphics and minimizing the number of fonts. [ Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth]
• Show Link Sizes – Don't force the user to download large things, always link to them, and if they are over 75kB say how large they are going to be. [ Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth]
• Include Important Dates – Use dates to make it extremely clear and easy to determine how current the information on the site is, and when projects and funding are available and when they close.

EXAMINATION OF A SAMPLE OF CURRENT DONOR SITES

Recommended Resources for Web Design

• “Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth” – This site provides a comprehensive view of how to build a site with these topics in mind: High-Level Design, Search, HTML, CSS, Images, Compression, Caching, PDF Optimization, Downloads, Multimedia, Scripting, and Browser Compatibility.
• “Principles of Web Design: A Guide” – This site provides how to conceptualize a website, taking into account the needs of the user.
• “Optimizing Adobe PDF files for the Web” – This document describes “techniques for efficiently delivering large PDF files”, which is vital, given the prevalence of using PDFs, for example, to deliver granting application materials.
• Usability 101 – This is an online course for web designers on how to incorporate usability techniques into their design of interfaces.
• Usability.gov – This site is one of the premier guides to developing usable and useful websites.
• "Website Usability Checklist" - This article provides checklists and highlights important components of a usable website.
• "Web Usability" - This article on web usability provides important concepts to consider when designing a site.
  
• World Wide Web Consortium – This organization “is an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards.”
• Web Accessibility Initiative – This organization “develops guidelines which are widely regarded as the international standard for Web accessibility”.
• Loband – This site can be used by people in low bandwidth situations to simply web pages websites, in order to make them download faster over slow Internet connections.