While there are many different types of religions, this time we will only be looking at the web sites of Christian churches. I’ve heard a lot of complaints from people moving to a new town trying to find one that the sites tend to be complex and difficult to navigate. After polling various users, they said that often the sites have masses of useless information often in unreadable fonts.
What they did request from a church web site:
- Obvious service times
- What denomination and why
- Directions with clear map & picture of building
- Calendar of events / saint days / etc
- Accessibility for the elderly
- Gallery
First Presbyterian Church of Petaluma
There is no obvious hierarchy on the site– it is not clear where to look first, second, third, etc. This is due to the multiple colours and text being of a similiar size and weight. As a result, the homepage is disorienting to visitors, particularly due to the sheer volume of information presented.
The site does have most important data on the main page, for example, the service times are on the top left. Some serious simplification would do the site a great deal of good and make it look less formidable.
There are many content features on the site that are interesting, such as the podcast, unfortunately they are hidden in the piles of information. This is where a web designer could properly organize the site so information could be quickly found.
The Cathedral of Christ the Light
This site has a slightly better hierarchy, but it does not have the pertinent information up front– rather it concentrates on the history and symbols in the building. The directions are hidden in small type way down at the bottom of the page. Their map gives an error message and there is very little information that is helpful to the visitor.
The design is fairly clean and the text sizes are reasonable, although on the small side, so as church sites go it is above average for its layout. It merely needs to be a trifle more organized and put greater emphasis on crucial information, rather than flooding the visitor with trivia.
This site has some very cheerful colours and photos on the main page, including the building. Seeing what a church looks like is helpful when trying to find it. It is not quite clear what sort of doctrinal beliefs they hold. That is important when the name of the church does not obviously include what sort they are.
It is difficult to find their service times and directions. I never cease to be astounded at many location based sites that do not take a few minutes to write directions from various important roads. It is the number one complaint of visitors.
This site design is amateur, which can sometimes give the impression that a church does not respect its visitors enough to bring in a professional web designer for an initial CMS theme setup. That is not the most important thing to notice on the site, however. The text overall is small and difficult to read. The navigation needs to have more space in between links and to drop the extraneous symbols (-). If these quick changes were made, it would significantly increase the readability of the navigation.
The content overall, including the navigation, looks like someone wrote down every conceivable item that could be put on the site, then put it all online without stopping to organize it first. The enthusiasm is to be commended, but the result is that important facts are buried and there is no clear hierarchy.
That being said, they are one of the best sites for giving directions and providing photos of typical parish life. Once found, the information on the site is quite good. It only needs an extra few hours to sort it into a better wireframe.
This is an example of an excellent church web site design. The service times are right up front and obvious, the hierarchy is decent, and the homepage is not clogged with useless information. It has a professional look and gives visitors confidence in the quality of the church.
Unfortunately, they have the exact opposite problem of the previous church site. While having a good design, they do not have well-written content. “Who We Are” does not make it clear what makes them different from other denominations. Their service times do not indicate what the services are, and superfluous content runs throughout the site. Having a lovely design just does not make up for not having helpful content.
This is a good example of a medium site– the design and content are better than average, but need a lot of improvement. The type is small and almost unreadable, but it has a decent organizational structure and a visitor will not get lost or confused. Services & Events are right in the navigation, and the contact us has a fairly clear map, although it could be improved. There are no links and random facts everywhere– it is clean and easy to navigate.
The site does require multiple clicks to find important information– in general it is best to make it quick to access information such as service times. Their “About” pages are very well put together and they have an excellent list of their doctrinal beliefs complete with scriptural references. With some basic improvements, the site could be one of the best church sites online, although it still has a ways to go currently.
What we Learned:
- Hierarchy is crucial
- Keep information streamlined
- Important facts need to be quick and easy to find
- Find a balance between too much information and too little
- Clear navigation is just as important as a good design
Most designers are quite willing to set up a CMS system these days. Some Christian designers might even do the site for free or a discount– for the sake of visitors I hope churches will realize it is worth taking the time to ask for a professional site– even taking the time to fully pay for it. I have talked with many people who move to a new town and bemoan the difficult process of visiting all the churches. All they want to know is what sort it is, when the services are and how to get there. They are the primary target audience. Current members of a church rarely go to the site, and if they do it is only to see special event calendars. There is absolutely no need to clutter the site with anything else.
Suggested main navigation bar of a church site:
Home | Service Schedule | Beliefs | Location | Events | Podcast / Blog | Contact
Put the rest in a sub navigation area and leave the main links simple and easy to navigate.
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