Essential Guidelines for Content-Rich Websites

Published: June 6th, 2025

For many websites packed with important content, usability isn’t just about whether a form works—it’s about whether people can actually find and understand the information they need. For nonprofits, this often means helping visitors get critical data, support during stressful times, or connect with essential services. If your site is hard to read or navigate, people might not just get frustrated—they might lose access to the help they need.

It’s hard to use typical user testing to review how well people move through dozens or even thousands of pages. That’s where a heuristic evaluation can help. It gives experienced reviewers a clear way to assess your site using practical usability principles called heuristics. While Jakob Nielsen's classic usability heuristics work well for feature-rich software and websites, content-heavy websites need somewhat different guidelines—one that focuses on plain language, clear paths, and making lots of information easier to take in.

Drawing from our work on text-heavy websites—especially in the legal aid world—we’ve created a set of heuristics tailored for content-rich sites. That complete framework contains seven comprehensive categories with over 60 individual heuristics. In this article, we’ll walk you through a summary of each of the seven categories and share tips on how to use them to improve your own site.

1. Guide users through clear pathways

Every site needs intuitive navigation. What’s more, in the nonprofit sector, visitors can arrive with urgent needs and high stress levels. Clear pathways become essential when users may be in crisis or have limited time to navigate complex systems.

Examples: 

• Site purpose is easily findable from any page

• Clear calls to action guide users forward

• Users can easily return to the start of a process

2. Present clear and accessible content

Too much content, especially in the human services space, suffers from inaccessible language and terminology. This category emphasizes plain language, appropriate reading levels, and dignity-preserving communication.

Examples:

• Use plain language principles throughout all content

• Avoid field-specific jargon; if the visitor must understand a term-of-art to move forward, provide clear definitions

• Form fields use inclusive options and language

• Content is gender-neutral, and avoids stigmatizing or outdated language

3. Create clear visual hierarchy

Visual hierarchy through graphic design is a critical guide to help visitors scan through information-rich webpages.

Examples:

• Important actions should be emphasized and visually distinct from secondary options

• Minimize visual noise and clutter on the page

• Group related information together visually

• Use consistent formatting for similar types of content

4. Support multi-device access

Many visitors rely on smartphones as their primary internet device. Low income users can have limited data plans or unreliable connections.

Examples:

• Design mobile-first to ensure accessibility for all users

• Forms are usable on mobile devices

• Click zone/tap targets are sufficiently sized for mobile interaction

• Pages load reliably on slow connections

5. Design for accessibility and inclusion

Many sites have visitors from a diverse populations with varying abilities, languages, and technical skills.

Examples:

• Meet WCAG accessibility standards across all content

• Provide content in multiple languages reflecting community needs

• Write link text that describes the destination page rather than generic "click here" phrases

6. Design intuitive interactive elements

Make forms, buttons, and other interactive elements easy to understand and use.

Examples:

• Label fields clearly, showing whether they are required and any required format

• Break complex forms into logical steps, in a natural order

• Write error messages to be compassionate, clear, and helpful

7. Organize content for clear understanding

Present information in a logical, digestible way that prioritizes visitor needs and comprehension. This starts with understanding how visitors think about a topic, what questions they have, and what information will be most useful.

Examples:

• Explain concepts to the visitor clearly and with enough detail that they can accurately answer questions

• Design headers to allow users to quickly scan the page

• Organize lists in logical, user-centered order

Using the Heuristics 

These heuristics can be used in multiple ways, from lightweight application in everyday work to comprehensive evaluations:

For a comprehensive evaluation

The most effective way to use these heuristics is through scenario-based evaluation:

1. Create representative scenarios: Develop realistic scenarios that reflect your users' situations (e.g., "Maria is facing eviction next week and needs immediate legal help. She’s on a mobile phone, in a loud room on a break from her job as a bartender.") Try to define a set of scenarios that considers a cross section of different topic areas, mobile vs. desktop, and other things that affect the user’s experience. For one complex site, we used 20 scenarios to evaluate a reasonably representative selection of flows.

2. Evaluate each pathway: Step through each scenario considering the seven heuristic categories.

3. Document issues: Record where the experience fails to meet the heuristic standards.

4. Prioritize improvements: Focus on addressing critical barriers first.

This task-based approach ensures you're evaluating your website from your users' perspective rather than simply checking boxes.

For quicker checks

Even without conducting a full evaluation, organizations can apply these specialized heuristics in several ways:

• Select just 2-3 critical pathways that users commonly need to complete (e.g., a researcher is looking to find a specific piece of data; a legislative aid wants to know your stance on a bill)

• Apply these heuristics during design phases of new features or websites

• Train staff to recognize these principles in their everyday content creation

• Use the heuristics as a checklist when reviewing new content

Even small, targeted improvements guided by the right heuristics can dramatically increase access to vital information.

Get the complete framework

Our Legal Aid Website Heuristics Framework includes all seven categories and over 60 specific evaluation criteria, developed specifically for content-rich nonprofit websites. Use it to conduct your own evaluation and significantly improve your website.