Comments on: When web page creation tools and novice church website design collide

By: Edward Nickerson

Edward Nickerson — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:54:19 +0000

A simple navigation and no animation to distract visitors.

Church websites are a social network and the ones I have been involved with are managed by enthusiastic novices. So they need a simple administration of the content.

Get a web developer to customise the admin, if there is one in the congration.

A directory of services performed by the church is handy – and this needs to be updatable too as the people who provide and the services can change frequently.

By: ben

ben — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:21:12 +0000

oops… sorry. Looks like I made an error with my ordered list in my comment.

By: ben

ben — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:20:17 +0000

Get a better menu structure that helps to direct visitors to content more easily
Keep the content relevant. The “how to recognize a stroke” article left me scratching my head wondering “why”.
structure the content in a way that organizes the information logically. It feel haphazard so it’s hard to know intuitively where to go for specific information. (which brings up the menu issues again)

Clearly whoever is managing the site is putting a lot of love into it. That shows through despite the numerous problems. I suggest taking some of that energy and diverting it into some research and self-education on some basic web design principles.

By: SolarPanel

SolarPanel — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 04:33:24 +0000

Dean,

Where do you start?!?! I would add to your list the following:

1. Spell and grammar check the site. There are about half-a-dozen errors above the fold.

2. The animated gifs of “dancing” red stars creates a less than satisfying visual effect.

3. Get more content above the fold and lose the dead space in between content. (blogging software would address this)

4. Check the site using more than just one browser.

Hopefully someone in the congregation has a heart for web servanthood and can help them.