Christian Foundation Site Review

[tmreg]

Hey guys,
I have just finished a new site and would love to hear some constructive criticism of it. Site: http://gottliebtx.org

Status of the site - the site is all but finished (I think). I am the designer and webmaster for the site and will continue to be the one who updates the site. This site is meant to be relatively simple, informational site that gets the point across about who we are, what we do, and what we are looking for in a ministry to help. This site will also be a place to distribute news and press releases for our supported ministries.
Read list of design tips - I have read them and have used them in the past. This site, however, is not the typical church site. This is a foundation whose target audience is the leadership of various ministries, not the unchurched masses. There are several things i consciously left out (ie name and address, specific contact information). There is a contact form but no other means of identifying a name or a phone number or email address on the site.
Proficiency with html, css... - I have made several sites (more than 15). I am proficient with html, css, and to a lesser degree php. This site is based on Wordpress 2.3.1 with a pretty modified theme (both to take advantage of the features of 2.3.1 and to modify the appearance of the site). The site validates and is working as intended (even if there are no posts in certain categories I have listed). I do not do this for a living, just a hobby and a ministry.
tools - I have the standard developer tools I need, dreamweaver and firefox for developing and photoshop and fireworks for the art. Any deficiencies in this area are the fault of the operator, not the software.I appreciate any feedback I can get.

On a non-web related note, we are very excited about this opportunity to serve through this foundation. As a businessman, being able to apply my trade directly to the Great Commission is an exciting challenge. The concept if this foundation is still very much a theory at this point. We hope to act as the Venture Capitalists of Christian Ministry. There is no reason why it can't work, I just have never heard of it being tried.

[StubbyD]

Hey guys,
I have just finished a new site and would love to hear some constructive criticism of it. Site: http://gottliebtx.org


Well I'm going to give my non-professional opinion and leave it to David et al to do the more in-depth stuff.

What do I like? I like the visual appeal - simple, clean, effective and clear to read.

What don't I like? I don't like the hunting around for the links. The links, to me at least, appear to be randomly placed around the page and you cross over between big graphical links and text based links - nothing wrong with that I guess but it appears inconsistent.

Just my opinion you understand.

[tmreg]

Thanks for the feedback. I know what you mean about the links. The intent was to have the front page with no sidebar mostly highlighting our three main static pages. All of the other pages would have the sidebar and no need for the graphic links.

I guess I do have links above the header, in the main body of the front page, and then at the bottom with the kinks to the news stories. I need to think of a better way to do that.

[flutem3]

Hey guys,
I have just finished a new site and would love to hear some constructive criticism of it. Site: http://gottliebtx.org (http://gottliebtx.org/)

Hi, Matt,

I like the clean look as well. And I agree that the links need to be together instead of all over the page. There is one change I would make if I were doing the home page. There are many people who do not know what the "Great Commission" is. I would reverse the first and second paragraphs. That is undoubtedly against all design "rules," but you are already addressing an audience which has a church leaning. Your goals are not to convince people to become a Christians. You are offering services to them.

And that is the main reason I would start with the Great Commission. That is the most important reason you have the website...to help people in trying to accomplish it. Just one woman's opinion. I will look at more later.

Carol

[David Gillaspey]

Hi Matt,

I'll add my comments in a week or so. My wife and I are packing to move across town. This will keep us rather busy for a while.

[tmreg]

I appreciate all of the helpful comments. I adjusted the links (removing the ones from the very top). We are still going with the graphical links on the front page and the text links on all of the others. Hopefully this will be a little less confusing. We really liked the clean look of the front page. I don't know how to do that with text links throughout. I also tweaked the wording a little. Thanks for the input.