Website Helps

The below is taken from an eletter I recently received from www.faithhighway.com. I found the article brief yet helpful. I am not a techie yet I know the tech world is a relevant and needed way to reach others with the Gospel. Faith Highway had a person visit a church website with the intent of evaluating the site. Have fun learning.

Our first visitor is a thirty to thirty-nine year old white (non-Hispanic) female who has resided in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area for the last six to ten years. She infrequently attends church and was only vaguely familiar with the church whose site she visited. Our visitor was asked to rank her experience in 4 main categories.
The definitions of those categories and her scores are listed below:
Navigation “…the framework of a website, the organization of content, the prioritization of information, and the method in which a viewer moves through the website… good navigation gets you where you want to go quickly, and offers easy access to the depth of a website’s content”:While the visitor was able to find most information easily, she mentioned that “One icon says, Our Mission, but that really doesn’t list the church’s beliefs. The main beliefs are found under the Our People icon.” GRADE: B
Functionality “The site works well, has live links, loads quickly, and is functional and relevant for the intended audience. Good functionality makes the user experience paramount, and makes the technology invisible.”: The visitor found no broken links and the pages loaded quickly. GRADE: B+
Content “The information provided on the site. Good content should be engaging, relevant, and appropriate for the audience. It has a voice, a point of view, and regardless of whether it is informative, useful, or funny, it should always leave you wanting more”:Although the information was complete and thorough, it was not current and updated. GRADE: D-Graphics: “The appearance of the site. Good visual design is high quality, appropriate, and relevant to the audience and to the message it is supporting”:The graphics and style did not impact the visitor either negatively or positively, but the site seemed to be designed with the visitor in mind. GRADE: D-
Overall: When asked about her very first impression of the site, she indicated that she did not like the home page for two main reasons. The first was “a ‘ticker’ at the bottom of the web page” that “reminded [her] of watching CNN news.” The second element she disliked was the “fast changing text in the upper right corner. Before she could finish reading the first thought or verse, a new one would appear.”While our visitor was displeased with the graphics and found the navigation confusing and somewhat misleading, she did mention that “one is able to find directions, service times and contact lists easily.” If she could improve one thing, it would be to have the name of the church more prominently featured on the home page. Based on the user’s experience with the website, she would consider visiting the church.