Website Review - ferndalechurches.org.uk

[DrayGuevara]

Hey everyone, I wondered if you would be kind enough to review the site www.ferndalechurches.org.uk (http://www.ferndalechurches.org.uk)

It is pretty much my own work and (as you will see) I do not have much web design experience. It is mainly designed in FrontPage, Notepad and Paint :p The website is a work in progress, although I have been looking to give it a 'revamp' in recent weeks, including the Christmas section. I am going to get a friend to redo some of the graphics (the banner on the front page is poor).

Thanks! :)

[David Gillaspey]

Hi John,

Thanks for joining and posting a request for comments on your site.

But first, please visit this thread

http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/forums/showthread.php?t=665

and answer the questions posted there, especially question #2.

Thanks!

[DrayGuevara]

Okay! Well, the obvious one from your (excellent) list that I haven't done is a 'what to expect page' since I am concerned the site is alienating to people who have never been in a church before. I had been thinking about this and definitely will now. I think I have forgotten to do the alt=[] descriptions for images too.

As for a personal self evaluation, I think the navigation of the site is simple but could be improved. The weekly events page is terrible and not sure how to manage organise the content on the resources page. The news section works well and many people worldwide check it regularly as well as giving people an idea about what the church is all about.

As for web ability, I have a little HTML knowledge and some with PHP but am always keen to learn and try new things.

Thanks!

[David Gillaspey]

Hi John,

Below are my comments about your church's website. Other members of the forum may add their comments, too, in time. This is a holiday week for us here in the States, however.

http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/art/FORUM/ferndale1.jpg

Above is the home page, without my notations.


http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/art/FORUM/ferndale2.jpg

1. (Above.) It seems to me that there are three areas on the home page that are competing to be the center of focus. You really just want one center of focus.

In particular, I find the Daily Devotional Reading at bottom left to be very distracting. I would suggest moving it to an inside page and linking to it from the home page. By doing so, you'll also eliminate that ugly rectangle of white space at bottom right, because the entire home page will fit in a nice rectangle.

2. As a result of reviewing 1000s of church and parish websites, I'm come to the conclusion that, for most website designs, the banner is the foundation of the design. The banner on your home page is rather weak, however. Suggestions for the banner:

a) Make it at least 50% deeper, if not twice as deep.

b) I encourage churches to use photos of people (rather than buildings) in the banner. You've done that. However, even though that's true, the photo in the banner really should be replaced with a different one. It's just not too exciting. Or, you could use the same photo and apply an arty Photoshop filter to it, to add excitement.

c) Add your new logo to the banner, at top left. The logo (it's showcased on an inside page of the site) looks really nice. Once you've added the logo to the banner, then your choice of photo will be influenced by the presence of the logo. You'll need to think about the composition of the photo and the colors in the photo.

d) While there's nothing really wrong with doing so, few if any churches put verbiage such as "welcome to the ferndale family of churches" in the banner. That really should be the headline for your introductory text.

e) (added later). Now that I've browsed all the inside pages, I see that the banner is different on each page: different layouts, different depths, etc. They should all be the same depth and of the same basic design. It's OK, however — in fact, even desirable — to use (as you have done) a different photo in the banner for each inside section of the site, a photo that matches the subject matter of that section.

The Resources banner would be a good one to emulate throughout the website (though with different photos and labels, of course). The depth of this banner is good because it makes the banner the clear focal point of the page. The photo is compelling, too.


http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/art/FORUM/ferndale3.jpg

3. (Above) The all-important navigation text links under the banner are not very noticeable. Consider making the type larger, using a boldface font, or both.

(Added later) Further, only some of the little icons next to these links are immediately recognizable for what they are intended to symbolize. I'm inclined to suggest just dropping them, since text links communicate the point the best. (An exception would be if you're trying to make the links understandable to visitors who don't understand English, but then you'd have to provide a complete translation of the site, too.)

4) (Above, bottom right). I know what you are trying to do with the "latestnews" label (shown) and "sundayservices" label (not shown). That's an effective technique in print design. However, this ain't print design. The effect is lost on screen, and looks like a mistake. It might work if you make the font size larger.

Beyond that, it's just out of place in the context of the rest of the design. By that, I mean the rest of the layout doesn't match the eloquence of this design element.

http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/art/FORUM/ferndale4.jpg

5. (Above) The introductory text is also lost, because it is too small. I would suggest making the font size bigger, and adding more text.


Looking at the source code of your home page, I note the following:

http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/art/FORUM/ferndale5.jpg

6. (Above) It's missing the doctype declaration. See http://htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/doctype.html. Of course, you'll want to correct this on all pages.

7. Your title (marked) is way too long. Only a portion of that shows in a browser menu bar.

8. (No photo) The source code is missing the "alt" attribute which provides descriptions of the images. This is helpful to blind people, whose screen readers read aloud the "alt" description of photos. It also helps with search engine optimization.


http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/art/FORUM/ferndale6.jpg

9. (Above) In the source code, I see that you are using a mix of CSS and old, deprecated HTML tags to set fonts, colors, etc. You should only be using CSS to do this, throughout the site.


My comments about inside pages:

10. (No photo) I like the News page because it actually contains news. However, I encourage you to break up each of the longer paragraphs on the page into two shorter paragraphs, or, alternately, use CSS to increase the leading. The longer paragraphs are hard to read.

I am glad to see the photos that illustrate the news articles.

11. (No photo) The directions on the How to Find Us page are an interesting commentary on how roads are laid out differently and signed differently in different countries.


http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/art/FORUM/ferndale7.jpg

12. (Above, just an example) On the Resources page, I think the text would be more readable if it were in a larger font size, with much more leading. The current formatting make it hard to see the links in the example shown.

In general, I think the font size on most of the site should be increased, with more leading. (This is accomplished using CSS.) Text is harder to read on a computer screen than on the printed page; a small font size adds to the problem.

(If you're using a PC with Windows to lay out your pages, then the text should appear slightly large to you, when you've chosen a good point size.)

13. Browsing the inside pages, I see a few photos with a border around them, but many without borders. I would encourage you to consistently add a 1 point (or pixel) black border around all photos. This can be done using CSS. However, I tend to add the border to the image itself in an image editing program. (Select all => Edit => Stroke)

Well, those are my comments for now. I may add some later (I haven't looked closely at all the inside pages) but I've run out of time for now.

Hope my comments are helpful to you.

[DrayGuevara]

That is very helpful so far. Thanks and happy Thanksgiving from the UK!

[WebFishers]

FERNDALE FAMILY OF CHURCHES is the same color as the links and I clicked and clicked.

I think the menu should be more "separated" from the page. It kind of blends in with the rest of the page as is.

It would be fabulous if you could click on each church to find more out about that particular church.

I like how you have the service times right there. I think that would probably be the most sought after information.

Good job!

[DrayGuevara]

Thanks people. I have made a few changes although it is definitely a work in progress. Any more comments or criticisms are always welcome. I realise there a few suggestions I havent implemented yet. Thanks, this site is awesome! :)