David Gillaspey
Tue., Jun. 28, 2005, 12:14 pm
Hi zzyxxe,
Sorry to take so long compiling this list.
(Some of the explanation below is for the benefit of everyone.)
In general, you have a nice looking site. I say this having reviewed 1000s of church websites, most of which are outdated in appearance.
Home page:
On the positive side, you have the address and phone number of your church clearly displayed. Many church websites make visitors hunt for this information. (On many of the church websites I've reviewed, this information is either on the Service Times page, the Contact Us page, or About Us page. There being no set rule for where this information goes, visitors have to guess where it is. It belongs on the home page.)
You've included a link to the webmaster (yourself). That's important. It enables visitors to report problems.
You've included "alt" text descriptions for images in the HTML code. That's good. This is used by the screen readers that blind people use to browse websites.
On the down side, using buttons for navigation, as you have on the left of the page, is no longer in style. Use simple text links instead. They are nice-looking buttons, to be sure, but they make your site look a bit dated.
It's picky, I know, but shouldn't "City, State or Zip:" (get directions, on the right) be "City & State, or Zip:"?
My opinion is that the area of a computer screen is extremely valuable "real estate". With this context in mind, consider reducing the size of your banner in half. Make it only half as deep as it is now.
With regard to that banner, it's probable the cross on the hill is a recognizable landmark in your area. Nevertheless, I have to recommend replacing it with a photo or photos of people. This is because a church is a community of people. Try to use one of several possible techniques to rotate the actual photos. This could result in a different picture every time someone visited the site, or the photo swapping out before their eyes. On my "Seen and noted" page, there's links to examples of this.
I would also encourage the use of a different typeface in the banner. However, maybe that's the same font used in the church logo. The font used in the banner just doesn't have a contemporary feel to it. (Also, at the risk of being sexist, the font is too feminine in appearance. That doesn't help you to attract men to your church. Men in general attend church less than women do.)
I would encourage you to surround all the contents with a box, and, as well, put a thin vertical line between the left and middle columns, and the middle and right columns. (See my own site for an example.)
Further, I would encourage you to make all the content centered horizontally in the browser. This can be done through tables or CSS, and is called (by one author, not me) "liquid design."
The "Welcome" button should be a "Home" button.
OTHER PAGES:
When I click on "About our church" (and also "Adult Ministries") then I see four shortened buttons for the submenus. This is just plain non-standard design. First, the buttons should just be plain text links (text links load faster and are by default readable by screen browsers). However, if you choose to keep the buttons, then for the submenus, use full width buttons (same width as all the other buttons), and just make them a different color.
The button or link to "Searching?" should not be hidden as a submenu under "About our church". Make it a top-level link or button.
It's interesting, and I think commendable, that the Calendar page is divided into special events and recurring (regularly occurring) events. Normally online church calendars combine both. That makes it a little harder to spot the special events.
On the Youth Ministries page, downloading the medical release form leaves the user with a new but blank browser window. That's because your code is
<a target="_blank" href="Documents/Medical%20release%20forms%20for%20youth.pdf">
I think you can leave out the "target='blank' " without a problem.
Your College/Career Ministry page talks about "winter retreat time" (and only about retreats ? what else do they do in this ministry?). The dates for the retreats are in early September, which is actually late summer, not winter. So, there's a disconnect between content and retreat dates.
On the Missions page, the "missionary information" and "webpage" links for the Chapmans, Gollings and Millhouses point to the same URL (a different one per family, I mean). This seems redundant to me. Users will expect the two links for each family to go to different websites.
Finally, I concur with mrbelfry regarding adding photos of people to your site.
Sincerely,
David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites