church website....

[intelligentfool]

This site was done by someone else, for a friend's church. I just wanted to get a quick review to show the church leaders who paid for the current design just how bad it is, but based on 3rd party opinions. I'll follow up in a few weeks with the new design (which will include webcalendar, postNuke, and definately no flash intro's )

Thanks in advance


http://clibertyinternational.org/

[ray326]

Simply eliminating the Flash would be a ten-fold improvement, especially that "mystery meat navigation" on the home page where you have to click the ENTER label at just the right place for it to work and clicking the images looks like they OUGHT to be navigation but they don't go anywhere. Right now that's one annoying web site. Not exactly what I would think a church has in mind for visitors.

[spufi]

Among other things previously, and not previously mention, I would not make the home page link go back to your splash page. There is zero reason for it.

[intelligentfool]

i'm researching CMS's before i start coding the new design. My question is, does anyone have any recommendations for a CMS that i can sort of "insert" into a div? that is to say, i want to make my own header, footer and menu, and then have the content area fall under the CMS so that the pastor, whomever, never has to load up frontpage, and never has to see much (if any) html. I just looked briefly at Joomla, but couldnt find out in the 10 minutes i read about it before bed wether or not it fits my needs.

[ray326]

http://opensourcecms.com

[intelligentfool]

yea, i actually found that site somewhere else. i looked around and settled on just using word press with a nice calendar plugin, and a gallery2 extention which basically does all that this simple church website needs to do. i'm doing all the coding locally, once its up, i'll post a link.

[KDLA]

On the splash page, you can click on the graphic in the middle, but it doesn't go anywhere (at least for me).

Usually, a home page has events and news of interest - it isn't a splash page. It's weird that to press "enter" takes you to "about us." If the site is geared towards usability for members as well as prospective members, having the default "enter" page being the About Us page might be annoying, since the members already know about the church.

Instead, I suggest having the a homepage that has tidbits about events, services, and "a word for you," each a little teaser linking to a longer description on an appropriate page within the website. A homepage should be like a newspaper's front page, in that it encourages people to investigate what's inside.

The frames suck and are unnecessary for this design. Usually, frames come in handy for pages with an extra long content area; the frame allows the navigation to remain in the window as the user scrolls through the content. Since these pages are short, the frame isn't needed and seems to complicate things for no reason.

The "Events" page needs more stuff on it. Only having one event looks pretty pathetic. If the church is trying to gain more members, then more events need to be on there or just ditch the page.

What might help is to sit down and plan out the site - design the site around content, rather than having a site just to have a site. Most of the pages don't have enough content to make them necessary.

I don't mean to be rough on you - It's just a pet peeve of mine to see sites with no real content.

Good Luck -
KDLA

[intelligentfool]

haha, your not being rough on me. read the original post... its not my design. rather i posted the review to show 3rd party opinions for the chuch members that paid for the current design how bad it is. I think i've actually settled on using word press for the entire site. a full on CMS seemed to be a bit overkill, but word press keeps it pretty simple. This way, i can go in, modify a theme that will work (blix) and make it look how i want, and also have the site be dynamic, and easily editable for the pastor or other members. That way, hopefully events should be current and plentiful.

does anyone else have any experience setting up a simple site using only word press and plugins?

[Green-Beast]

The design leaves a lot to be desired. It could be done in a much more user-friendly and accessible way.

[somecallmejosh]

I can't get in to the site. I would recommend losing the music, too. It's a distraction. I would reserve flash based web design only to those who have a firm grasp on action scripting. It's really doing a disservice to anyone to have a completely flash based site. Why?

Search engines ignore flash objects, because they cannot interpret them. Therefore, the site doesn't get indexed, ultimately becoming a needle in a haystack.


People still use dial up. Flash based websites are a pain in the "you know what" to dial up folks.


Flash based sites require special tools to view. Consider your market. Senior citizens (probably the largest demographic in the church community) are already a bit weary when it comes to the web. They may be afraid because their "computer savvy" grandaughter has given them security lectures on information with roots based in spam email. They may be weary for other reasons... And then again, they may bypass this site altogether because it places demands on them from the get go. Download Macromedia flash player, or move on gramps!

[intelligentfool]

http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86994

what's everyone think about that idea?

[KDLA]

Compare the price and aggravation to the amount of information you think the staff is going input into the pages. If they're only going to update the info. every month or so, then it's definitely not worth it; it'd be cheaper to have a designer just update the content. If they're planning on updating the site weekly, your idea of using cms would be great.

[intelligentfool]

yea, i think ideally, they'd want to update weekly, so i figure i'll give them the capability to do so. also, i should mention that this is also a learning experience for later work. this is the first time i've really tried to do anything at all with rss.

[KDLA]

Good Luck.

Just make sure that they keep updating the content. It's been my experience that those who don't use CMS input modules frequently end up forgetting how to do it (because they're usually not the technologically savvy), and, in the end, give up on updating the site - making all that work useless. :(

Make sure to visit back here once you've got the CMS implemented. I'd be interested in seeing what you come up with.

KDLA

[intelligentfool]

i'm starting to get frustrated with the whole CMS/RSS-into-static setup. I think i'm going to just make a site like usual ;-)

[dera]

okay i dont have flash enabled you need some sort of resort for non flash, and you should have a better form of accessibility, churchs usually attract visitors who actually need all the accessibility they can get.

[intelligentfool]

sorry, but this is like the 8th time i've said this....

i did not design the current site

i posted the review to reenforce just how bad a design the current one is. I've spent the last week or so trying to build an elaborate (from the dev POV) site using a CMS and RSS, but not having solid scripting skills, defaulted back to simply building a clean coded, standards oriented site. I'll be validating all my code, and adding in all the things i can find to make the site easier to navigate for people with disabilities. speaking of which, what sort of things does you guys recommending including?

[intelligentfool]

hah, first page result for "Web Accessibility" turned up the Web Accessibility Initiative (http://www.w3.org/WAI/gettingstarted/Overview.html) , by the W3

[intelligentfool]

new version is up. the old site can be viewed at www.clibertyinternational.org/old_public_html

[KDLA]

Much Better!

Kdla