My Friend's First Site

[GolfMax13]

Hi There,

I hope I'm not out of line with this request but you guys are always straight forward and you know way more than I about web design...so I'm gonna ask.

A friend of mine who I haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet created a church site some time ago. I first ran across it while I was reading a post in another forum. Anyway, very recently his pastor has expressed an interest in hiring some big web design firm to totally re-create the site with heavy flash, multi-media and all the bells and whistles. This has shaken my friend up a bit since he has worked so hard on it and really put his heart and soul into it. He fully realizes that it's ultimately the pastor's call on the direction of the site, but he's shaken nonetheless.

So...could you guys take a look at it and see what you think? Maybe not so much from a technical standpoint (the pastor doesn't care about the technicalities of the site) but from a content and layout perspective...does it serve its purpose - to help win souls to Christ and provide a connection to the church membership?

I'm asking this here because I don't go to that other forum much anymore and I don't think he knows of this one. This was the very first site he ever created.

It is here http://www.mycalvary.com

Thanks In Advance,

Joe

[MandyJay]

Hi Joe,
for his first website I think he has done a brilliant job .... very impressed.

The home page seemed to hang a bit when first loading, then suddenly appeared ..... but had no problems with any other pages .... they all loaded very quickly so could go from page to page with no frustrating waits.

Personally I dont think I would prefer the site full of flash and other stuff ...... it is a site that is trying to get a message across with words ..... those words are all important, and to me should not be distracted from.

where I think it could be improved is the link on first page for "What we Believe" ... click that ... another page with menu .... click on Our Beliefs ...... another page with menu - just so happened that was the first one I clicked on - so got very frustrated in trying to get to the information thinking that all the other links would do same thing, which if they did, I would not have bothered using them - so would not have read some of the messages that the site was trying to get across ....but I see others go straight into a proper page ... but it did put me off to begin with.

I think the sites message gets across well. I am not sure all the bells and whistles will help get the message across any better. Okay I could nit-pick at some things on pages ..... but nothing of great importance. Personally I prefer Church sites, and related ones, to be simple in design so viewers attention is then fully focused on the message the pages are trying to get across - to me some of the most effective sites I've been to ... i.e. ones I have stopped and read and taken in, regardless of subject, have been ones without lots of clutter or fancy stuff ..... where the content dominates the pages in a straight forward layout.

I like the site and feel the message is getting across. I am not saying that bells and whistles would make the site not work ... depends how they are done - I just dont think they are needed.

Anyway, thats my .2 pence worth of thoughts .....
MJ
:furball:

[slats432]

I am by no means an expert in design but I am a very knowledgeable surfer, the site was visually good, easy to navigate, and informative.

I didn't find any obvious flaws at all.

TWO THUMBS UP!

[justjay]

I think the site is fine, there are things there that I am not crazy about - however here is what I feel is the important part...a website is not going to "win souls to Christ" as you put it, that is the job of people. (If it, the website I mean) did then that would be somewhat of a naïve commitment.

[captain]

I think the site looks great... Of course all of us here at the Forum are looking at it for the first time so it looks fresh and new to us.
Perhaps, after looking at the site day after day, it is starting to get stale for the pastor. Maybe if your friend would suggest that he could freshen up the site with a few of the things the pastor wants it would make him happy. I personally don't think it needs any changes, except maybe for the link thingy MJ noticed.
If he needs help with any of the bells & whistles that the pastor wants, I'm sure some our experts here at the forum can help guide him in the right direction. :up:

[GolfMax13]

Thanks guys for the insights! He looked at these posts and told me he was going to join the forum.

I appreciate you guys taking the time to write down your thoughts!

Joe