It probably hurts other people’s eyes too.
And that’s not even the biggest issue though because if bad design didn’t impact effectiveness of message then who would really care?
But it does. Bad design produces bad results in the online space. This is so obvious that it’s painful (pun intended…?).
Be encouraged! There are tons of free resources out there to help you get some better design without breaking the bank. All you need to do is ask, investigate, and use Google to search for some answers (seriously).
Do something about “obviously” bad design. Be more effective.
I am currentlt working on my church's "bad design", and hopefully turning into something much more pleasing, yet not too crazy to be distracting.
Side note – any good resources for building a church calendar page?
What? No examples of bad design?
I think you need to also add by "design" not just being the graphical elements. design can also mean placement, function, structure and usability. Where a lot of Church's/non-profits want to get the most bang for their buck they throw everything they possibly can on a site. big mistake keep it simple.
I'd rather blame the graphic artists and designers. It's more my style.
peace | dewde
to be honest sometimes it is our fault for not having a backbone and standing up for what we believe would be best… instead we try to just "please the client"
I agree with you on this post of course. I have learned this the bad way. The previous design I used for my blog really bounced back my visitors instead of attracting them.
What happens when you go to a church that has a bad website but you are unable to help with design, talk about redesign, etc….?
send them this post
Ya there are multiple post I would like to send them. To them though, it looks great.
I'm with you on this one, John. The truth is that it is easy to have a rock solid website for very little money these days. There really aren't any excuses for small to medium sized churches.
The real tragedy for me is when I see a big church with a poorly designed or confusing website. First because, usually, they have the budget for excellence. But second because big churches tend to attract a sizable "tech/geek" demographic and I imagine what it must be like for parishioners who want to invite their co-workers or peers to church. Inevitably, they will want to send a link to the churches site while exercising evangelism (for directions, a podcast, a video) and having a less-than-stellar web presence makes that decision difficult and/or embarrassing.
peace | dewde
For examples of good design in our space, check out http://ministrycss.com.
peace | dewde
Amen… Hallelujah… Kick'em in the pants John!!
http://www.healyourchurchwebsite.com has helped me in the past… not as active anymore but hopefully some good archives…
http://healyourchurchwebsite.com/category/bad-des…
The bit that frustrates me the most is bad church website design that has obviously had a lot of time and money spent on it. I've seen too many church websites that have so much flash and fancy graphics that it drives you insane trying to find what you're looking for,
Hey man. Bad web design hurts my eyes too! Maybe it's because I got lasik surgery in 2006 or maybe it's for the reasons you're talking about. I'm excited to report that my church has taken the first BIG step into getting a Cloversite! We had a 2 hour brainstorming meeting the other day and our communications team is currently drafting copy for the new site. We're completely throwing out our old site and we'll be moving over to Clover in the spring. This means our email will get to move to Google Apps too, which I'm totally stoked for!
So yeah… just needed to tell someone that would care!
Do any of you guys know someone who would be willing to donate their time and/or talents to a missionary church on a college campus? I always hear so much about this topic, and it always comes back to "well, our web site sucks but our whole church is missionaries, so it would take a volunteer to run this." How generous is the web design community in this arena?
My church website sucks! I look at it every day and it disgusts me. I am a web designer/developer and the elder of the church made the website and won’t let me even try to help with making it work properly at least. Right now it is just a white page with blue links and some photos along with some other pages, but before that it had yellow links on a white back ground. And before that it had a background image that was HUGE and tiled very badly. I have offered my help. I have went as far as making a wordpress theme in case it is pushed onto me and I would install wordpress. I have to agree, it is a eyesore and it eats at my soul everyday.
your soul…….!