Age Concern New Zealand
[July 2002] Age Concern New Zealand is dedicated to promoting the quality of life and well-being of older people, advocating positive healthy ageing for people of all ages.
First impressions of this site were good: with graphics off the page loaded quickly and almost all images had excellent alt text, meaning I was easily able to see what the site was about and how to get around.
This site works well because it is engaging and inviting, the navigation is superbly clear (including links within the text itself). It's comprehensive, but you never feel as though you've strayed down some path with no way to figure out where you are. The text is easy to read, in terms of both clear writing and apparent good structure. Unfortunately though the graphics look a bit shabby.
Each of Age Concern's wide range of services has a well-written paragraph or two giving you the essence of what you need to know with further links for more detail.
The clear structure of the site means it is just as easy to find a local Age Concern as it is to find a link to The NZ Retirement Guide or a factsheet on Using Your Medication Safely or information about what values the organisation works from.
A flaw in this otherwise excellent site will not be obvious to many visitors but can make the site extremely difficult for some. While it's easy for a sighted visitor to skim a page of text by glancing at headings, others *listen* to web pages or get them in Braille. These visitors are only able to "skim read" by jumping from heading to heading or from link to link. Properly coded headings and careful link text are vital to these visitors.
Unfortunately headings on this site seem to have been marked up in the coding as simply bigger and bolder paragraph text. And while most of the link text is excellent, it does fall down in some areas.
With a few refinements, such as correctly coded headings and better quality graphics, this already excellent informative and user-friendly website would be extremely hard to beat.
http://www.ageconcern.org.nz/