Ministry 2.0, Web Design
October 9th, 2009 by Matt Haff
Getting to Launch and Maintaining Long-Term Success
The website is the front door to your church – not only what it looks like, but the words you use to describe it.
- The right project planning and partner selection
- Focused content
- Owning the website
Project Planning & Partner selection
- don’t oversell the project, over deliver
- don’t over promise on cost, time and quality
- fix time, budget, or scope but not all 3
60% of all IT projects FAIL. Some tips to prevent being in that 60%…
STOP SCOPE CREEP
Have a project management, post all messages, questions, responses, etc. Always keep track of who says what, keep track of what has been asked and what has been promised.
If dealing with an outside company or person always have a contract with timelines, expectations, and costs laid out.
Content
This should be one of the things that happens in the beginning before the design is finalized. The design of a website can really effect the outcome of the design.
Cross-link to other pages throughout the site. People browse like cows, they jump from one place to another and not necessarily in order.
Have individual rtf pages saved for each page online. use naming convention of section# . page#
Folders for keeping rtf pages organized. – Finished, Uploaded, Needs Edits, Edit Requests
Ownership – Ongoing
Think web first… Then what you can do with mailers, bulletin inserts, etc.
Don’t own it alone.
- LOL (Little Old Ladies)
- Ministry Leaders (They Are Responsible)
- Membership (Easy way to report issues)
Ownership – Updates
Create landing pages for social media, not everybody needs to go through the home page
Remember, we want FRESH content create a plan…
- Home page changes weekly
- Have one new page per week of content
- Change out two photos per week.
Ownership – Easy Wins
- Put up your Newsletter Online (PDF)
- Ask people who loved and event or class to write about it — video is good also
- Display aggregated social media messages (twitter, facebook, etc.)
Ownership – Analysis
Use Google Analytics, it’s FREE!
- Average number of pages visited per visitor (Goal: 3-6 pages)
- Visits to registration pages vs. # of registrations
- Time on the site (Goal: 3 minute average)
- Bounce (Leave) Percentage on important pages
- Paths through the site (where did they come from?)
- Referals
Ministry 2.0, Web Design
October 9th, 2009 by Matt Haff
Fundamental Design Principles
Good design is that which we don’t notice.
We should be humble and listen to what God wants us to design, not leave it up to our own imagination. Example, the design of the tabernacle was exactly as God intended with no room left for imagination.
“Our craft is becoming a commodity and people in charge don’t care about the quality of the markup, CSS or how nice our JavaScript is. What matters is how fast you can get it to market, how many people it reaches and how cheaply it can be built.”
Christian Hellmann
“I’m convinced the people railing against CSS frameworks are just trying to drum up false job security”
Jeff Croft
Do things the right way, not the easy way. Tools make things modular, therefore easier and cheaper.
- Good designers solve problems, Great designers prevent them.
- “Good enough” stops short of great
Typography
- Well Executed Typography is Timeless – Helvetica
- Don’t use font faces that speak too much – comic sans, papyrus
Design
- Circles & Triangles are natural designs that are very successful and flow well
- Everything on the web is in rectangles.
- 960 Grid System, keep things where they should be.
“Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has.”
Rev. Billy Graham
“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
Albert Einstein
Exodus 31:3 - People were made with specific talents to design the design of the temple… If this is the case, then we are the ones who are building an online temple to impact the online generation.
- Don’t wait for problems, try to solve them ahead of time
- Know your audience, adapt your workflow.
- Communicate function via aesthetic form.
- Learn to convey more, by saying less.
- Don’t lose sight of the primary focus.
Ministry 2.0, Web Design
October 9th, 2009 by Matt Haff
A User-Centered Approach to Web Design
User-Centered Design – A design process in which the needs, wants and limitations of the Web user and organization are given extensive attention at each stage of development.
Why all the work?
Learning what people want, then building your website based around what they want.
Bad usability on your church website sends a message to the people that are coming to your church for the first time. If your website doesn’t function, they have the feeling that you don’t care.
Someone new to the area will Google “City, Church” and will go down the line until they find a website with a relevant look and feel.
It helps unify decision-makers with diverse opinions.
Steps to User-Centered Design
Phase 1: Discovery – conversation with staff, members & visitors
Phase 2: Analysis – choose the best technology based on need
Phase 3: Strategy – create framework based on research
Phase 4: Design – create visual design of website
Phase 5: Build – program and implement design
Discovery
Your website must connect with the people outside of the church walls, not just the ones already inside. Even if you build an amazing website, your church must stand up to the image that you’re portraying online.
Steps of Strategy
- Creating personas and scenarios of users
- Content needs analysis (card sort)
Everybody writes what they want, cards are sorted according to category, ministry, etc.
- Create site map
- Create page wireframes
Build
Do it in phases… Phase 1 is to launch the website, Phase 2 is to accomplish about 6 months out, Phase 3 is about a year out and at that point you’ll most likely be ready to come up with something new because things are out of date and the technology has changed.
Always continue to do research, things are always changing.
Ministry 2.0
October 9th, 2009 by Matt Haff
Advancing Your Church in the Brave New Wall-less, Wireless, Worn-out World
- Re-instate that we believe in Jesus
- Re-assert that we are not the Jesus police, we’re not judges of other people – people are messy, and they already feel ashamed enough.
- Re-gain our creative energy – Men & Women who love and follow God are some of the most creative people in the entire world. When people look at church, the first thing they think is “boring”
- Re-tool our institutions for dynamic movement
