Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Church web site design change

Avondale Pattillo United Methodist Church recently updated the design of its web pages. Some of their decision-making process may help other churches.

Why a design change?
  • Inconsistent design across all 140 pages on their web site.
  • Inconsistent use of sidebar content.
  • Inconsistent color scheme across all pages.
  • A desire to use less clip art and more photos on pages.
  • The HTML code contained elements that were on the list to be outdated (deprecated) by the World Wide Web Consortium.
  • A desire to keep the whole home page content visible on a 1024x768 pixel resolution screen.
APUMC made many changes in order to give a consistent, "professional" appearance, help navigation, and speed findign information:
  • Adopted one design for all web pages, with two exceptions:
    • Pages that were part of a prior years' training sessions. (That whole training section may be revised or even eliminated later).
    • "Resources for United Methodist Leaders" pages.  These had a different look deliberately and are aimed at a different audience from most of the site.
  • Placed "utility" links at the top right, above their header.
    • Used the specific "APUMC" instead of the common but generic "Home" as the link to their home page.
    • Used the clearly understandable "A-Z Index" instead of the more geeky "SiteMap".
  • Placed the search box to the right right above the header.
  • Placed links to their main sections (Calendar, Ministries, Resources, Services, and Visit Us) in a horizontal bar just under the header and used unique hover colors for these links.
  • Placed sub-section menus (in Ministries, for example) to the left of the central content and used unique hover colors for these links.
  • Used a standard footer that included:
    • Church name, address, and church office phone number.
    • "This page was last updated: "
    • "Contact Us" link
    • "Notice & Privacy Policy" link
    • "Share this page" (using AddThis.com) link area
  • Used standard formatting for varied HTML elements, via an updated Cascading Style Sheet.
  • Used two "QuickLinks" boxes on the home page ... one with links for visitors and one for members.
  • Added photos on most "special section" pages for Lent through Easter and for Advent through Epiphany.