The Nelson Mandela Foundation is an organization that supports dialogue and promotes ways to develop tools for conflict resolution. The organization which was established in 1999 came into being as the main tool and office for reaching the ideals and goals of Mr. Nelson Mandela when he retired as South Africa’s President. It not only supports public outreach programs and healthy dialogue surrounding issues such as HIV/AIDS, but also endeavours to provide an archive of information about Mr. Mandela. The Nelson Mandela Foundation promotes ongoing dialogue around critical issues in South Africa and abroad.

When entering the landing page, you are struck by the professional and neat outlay of the Nelson Mandela Foundation site. Tabs on top make it possible to clearly identify the main categories such as Dialogue (current), Memory (about Mr. Mandela and the historical issues) and the Foundation where the mission statement, news, financial information and current issues can be found.

From a website analysis perspective navigation flows well through a cascading style sheet menu system on top and at the right side of the page. The menu items are large enough for easy reading and identification. One small drawback of the navigation is that the current category is not easily identifiable. The site is well suited for Internet Explorer and Mozilla. Netscape browsers also work for the site.

Graphics have been used with style and as such compliment the content. A variety of photographs are available through the mini-gallery on several pages of the website. The quality of the images is excellent and loading doesn’t take up a lot of time. The site loads fast and even if a person makes use of Edge technology, it still performs well.

A section is dedicated to videos describing the work of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Mr. Mandela, and issues addressed. More videos relevant to specific topics can be accessed when clicking on the relevant links. Flash animation has been used only at relevant places such as the slideshow of the photo gallery that provides a glimpse into the important work and people that form the focus point of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Shades of beige and brown have been used to provide a feeling of historical importance. The site follows an easy-to-follow pattern with enough open spaces to ensure readability. It has a clean feeling to it that portrays a high level of professionalism.

The information consists of historical data, videos, clips and photos depicting the long struggle against apartheid as well as the ongoing dialogue that takes place and which is facilitated through the website surrounding current issues of importance to South Africans and humanity organizations. The information is current and regularly updated.

The high level of research that has gone into content provision is evident throughout the website design. Readers also have the opportunity to learn more about relevant publications and are kept up to date through the calendar of upcoming events as well as the News page. The content of the publications can be downloaded in PDF format. Readers have access to a wealth of information through the search facility that makes it possible to retrieve speeches by Mr. Nelson Mandela from 1950 to present and even includes lectures, interviews, broadcasts, and videos.

The calendar of important dates will surely help to plan the year ahead to ensure that you book for relevant celebrations. It also includes an archive of important events such as the Making Peace Exhibition held on July 19. Readers can subscribe to their news feed service to receive the latest additions to their very interesting content.

The main topics are well marked and all information on the site serves a clear purpose. The site provides a wide range of links to organizations relevant to the historical issues, Mr. Nelson Mandela and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. The contact page is well structured and includes the postal, telephone, email, and physical address. A map is included as well as instructions to the offices.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation website has a page rank of 6 and an Alexa traffic rank of 514,087. There are 650 incoming links from Google and 76 from Alexa. There are 16 incoming links from AlltheWeb and 18 from AltaVista. It has 9 outgoing links which ensures a fair balance of high ranking inbound links at the date of evaluation which is April 29, 2008.

The main keyword “nelson mandela” has a current rank of 4 while “mandela” has a 6 rank. The site has been online since October 29, 2001 making it a mature site trusted by search engines and users alike.

The site includes a sitemap making it easy to locate specific pages. It is also well structured and thus improves Search Engine Optimisation, allowing for easy spidering by the search bots.

Headings are used and keywords are prominent throughout the site, although the use of bold effects could be to the advantage for keywords such as Nelson Mandela. Since the site content changes regularly and content is updated at least once a month, this counts high for the search engines. The fact that it has several strong inbound links also counts in its favour.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation site it is not a website that you will only want to visit once, but rather a useful information resource about key issues in South Africa’s past, present and future to be used frequently. In terms of search engine optimisation it is also doing well.