Templateguru’s Weblog

It’s time to tackle another issue pertaining to effective web template design for churches. Over the last few months I’ve addresses many important factors, including: color schemes, screen width variability, proportion, logo sizing, and more. Now it’s time to take on the issue of depth perception. This is yet another vital, although, often misunderstood and under-applied aspect of effective web template design. And this is true whether you’re designing a church website, or any other kind of website.

When you think of depth perception and the world of computers and the World Wide Web it should be clear that trickery is involved. Why do I say that? Well, because the “trick” is making a one-dimensional computer screen appear to display two to three dimensions. There are numerous ways to do this. The first, and perhaps most obvious method, is also the one that tends to be, at time, over-applied. I’m talking about shadows. With the use of any handy graphic editor – such as Adobe Photoshop of the completely free, GIMP, its very easy to take an image, a bit of text, or whatever, and apply a shadow filter. What happens? Well, suddenly your image or text appears to jump off the screen- immediately creating the illusion of depth perception.

Now, remember, like I said, this technique can tend to be both under-applied, and over-applied. It’s under-applied when web designers don’t apply shadows at all- maybe because they’re just not aware of the possibilities. The people that tend to over-apply it, do so because they feel something like the kid in the proverbial candy-store. The more the better! Right? Wrong! These graphic editing programs will not only allow you to add shadows, but they’ll also let you set the opacity- the degree of shadow applied. So use moderation. Remember, just like a great painter, you’re just trying to imply shadow (and thus depth perception)- not knock over your audience with it!

Now, it’s important to note that there’s also a very practical reason for using shadows in web design- whether it be for church templates, or any other kind of website development: it creates contrast which is easier on the eye of the beholder. Think about it, if you have a main template centered against a background, without shadow, the only way to distinguish the two is either with thick borders, or bold color contrasts. Sometimes this works well. Sometimes this plays into the kind of effect you’re trying to create. But what if you want a more subtle look? What if your background is only subtly a different shade of the same color as your main template area? Well, in that instance a little shadow behind the main template can help to create some distance – visually and virtually – from the background aspect of the page. Believe me, your web audience will love you for this. Especially is they’re reading text content. Then the right degree of contrast - remember, without overdoing it - can make all the difference between a pleasant and painful website experience.

Now the application of shadows is not the only way to create a sense of depth perception. Another tactic, and this one really is greatly underused, is gradients. What is a gradient, you ask? Well, it’s a shift of color, within the same color family, over a defined space. Well, actually, it doesn’t have to be within the same color family – technically – but believe me, it sure works a lot better when it is! It’s important to remember that the reason gradients work so well is because the shift in color is gradual, incremental, sometimes so precise that it shifts a little bit for every pixel.

So what effect does a gradient produce? Well, it creates the illusion of true light falling on a space. Believe it or not, we’re constantly encountering gradients in the real world. The true color of an object is always a relative mix between its actual color, and the light that falls upon it to illuminate an object. Actually, even beyond this, the colors that surround an object also affect our perception of color. Off-white looks an awful lot less yellow when placed against actual yellow. You know what they say: perception is reality. Well, in the case of color- you can pretty much take that adage, to the bank.

So, gradients recreate a sense of real-world experience by allowing for the illusion of light falling in different angles across an object. And how does this help to create a sense of depth? Well, because light lands differently – and thus appears differently – when it has to travel different distances. Even though your computer screen is flat, a gradient gives the impression of light traveling different distances to land on the virtual objects visible on your website. In other words, the objects themselves seem to be imbedded at various distances, creating a sense of depth perception. And this creates something interesting for the eye. And any artist will tell you, keeping the eye of the beholder interested is essential for capturing attention. So whether you’re creating a church website template, or your own personal site, or a site for a business, creating the illusion of depth will go a long way to making your design effective and captivating. And when it comes to web design, we all want a captive audience, right?

It’s been awhile since I lasted posted. Sorry, business has been brisk. Which is to say that business has led to busyness! Anyway, this morning I had a question from a client that proves quite common. He asked, why is that some church website templates of ours don’t stretch to the far corners of his screen? Instead it’s just centered in the middle of my screen. That’s a good question. And it occurred to me that this might be the kind of question that a lot of people wonder about. Maybe it’s something you want to consider before going ahead with your next church website project. So, let’s dive into it.

First off, we have to remember that the reason you see websites set up different (in terms of dimension and placement) is because the WWW is accessed by people with a vast array of different screen sizes. And on top of screen size is the issue of screen resolution. And this variability means that websites will display differently for different users. If you have a nice, wide screen (like I recently got!) then you probably tend to prefer websites that fill up most of your screen. The problem for the web designer though, is that not everyone is going to have that same screen size to work with. And so, if one makes a website template too wide, it might not even be fully viewable to some viewers. In other words, they’d have to scroll left and right just to see the full dimensions of the website. Now, you might think- big deal- we already scroll up and down. True. But believe me, there’s something considerably different about scrolling left and right. It’s just a little, well… discombobulating.

First off, we have to remember that the reason you see websites set up different (in terms of dimension and placement) is because the WWW is accessed by people with a vast array of different screen sizes. And on top of screen size is the issue of screen resolution. And this variability means that websites will display differently for different users. If you have a nice, wide screen (like I recently got!) then you probably tend to prefer websites that fill up most of your screen. The problem for the web designer though, is that not everyone is going to have that same screen size to work with. And so, if one makes a website template too wide, it might not even be fully viewable to some viewers. In other words, they’d have to scroll left and right just to see the full dimensions of the website. Now, you might think- big deal- we already scroll up and down. True. But believe me, there’s something considerably different about scrolling left and right. It’s just a little, well… discombobulating.

So, let’s assume that left-right scrolling is something we want to avoid forcing some Web users to do, how can we handle the situation in a way that works for as many people as possible? Well, here you have option 1 (with an A and a B) and option 2. Option 1 is to set the main template as a fixed width that we know is going to fit within the vast majority of users’ screens. I was talking to my wife about this and she said that, years ago, when she was studying multimedia at the University of Tennessee they were always told to make websites no wider than about 770 pixels. Back then that made a lot of sense. This was a good middle ground to cover as many people as possible.

Today screens are (on average) larger. So now both my wife and I design websites with main template widths of anywhere from 800 to 900 pixels. If you get much larger than this you run into the problem of eliminating easy viewing for some website visitors. And we don’t want that, right? They’re libel to move onto the next website at a moment’s notice (literally!) Now, with this set-width option you have a couple of sub-options. You can either align the main template with the left side of the page, or center it. I suppose you could also align it to the right, but this would be even more (there’s that word again) discombobulating! I personally much prefer to center the main website template because it just seems the most balanced. And it also allows you to come up with a nice background to display either side of the main template. That’s right- make your background nice, without making it distracting. But please, let’s avoid straight grey or white or black, unless your main template calls for it for the sake of stark contrast.

Remember I mentioned to options that can tackle the issue of screen size variability, right? Well, option #2 is to use what’s called a fluid design. What’s that? Well, in short, it’s a church website template that stretches from side of the screen to the other - no matter what screen its being viewed in. That’s right, the template stretches, no matter what, to fill the entire screen. Now, this is a valid option. Any many website designers opt for it. However, there are drawbacks, and for me they are serious enough that I prefer to go with option 1. The main problem is that your text content and/or photos within the template design are designed to fit within certain parameters. When those parameters get skewed (as they will in a really large or small screen for instance) then suddenly the content doesn’t look proportional against the template design itself. The second issue has to do with balance and moderation. A blue website can look great on an average screen. But if you have a monstrously large screen, all that green can be a little overwhelming. In other words, moderation is (as they say) key.

If you’re putting together a church website, trust me when I say these are issues that you need to take into consideration. And as I weigh the various options and issues, I say that a centered, fixed width template design is the way to go. Now, this may or may not have been an issue you had even thought of. And that’s why buying a preformatted church template is such a great way to go. Not only do you get a world-class design, at a great price, with up to date coding conventions and the rest, but you also get the built in experience of web designers who’ve been at this thing for years!

Last time we touched on a couple of tactics that go a long way to ensuring extraordinary website design for your next church website design project. Our last two issues (in case you missed it simply scroll down to the last post) were gradients and This time around we’ll touch on several more. Now, before we go into these it should be stated - as a given - that adding these elements - per se - isn’t going to make or break your church website design. The key, like with so many things in life, is moderation.

Along with moderation comes a sense of tastefulness. In other words, it comes down to making the right decisions about various design elements. While design is, of course, a somewhat subjective enterprise, there are still certain well-agreed upon do’s and don’ts. This certainly applies to color scheme and contrast, the two design elements we’re going to discuss today. So, if you have a good sense of what works tastefully- then great, go with that. And if you don’t, try and find an example that you can work from- a photo from Nature or another website that features a great compliment of colors.

Okay, lets start off with color schemes. Now, perhaps you’re stuck when it comes to choosing your initial color scheme? Well, rest assured. This is a pretty common feeling- even amongst pretty seasoned website designers. A general rule that you can go by is that, when all else fails, look to nature. Now, that shouldn’t be a surprise to us as Christians, right? After all, all we’re trying to do in church website design is reflect some of the creative flare of the true Creator.

When you look at a nature scene you will notice certain primary colors come to the forefront of the picture. And blending in with them are even more complimentary colors- shades that add to and blend with the primary colors without proving distracting. Take a wintry scene as an example. Here you have whites, blues, silvers as your primary scene makeup. But behind those you usually have plenty of black, green, purple, etc.

Word to the wise, in addition to these “cool tones” it also works well to create just a little tension- enough to keep things interesting. And, as you guessed it, we are now into the subject of contrast. Now, here the main thing to remember is that a little goes a long way. In other words, don’t overdo it. Remember, you still want (in your website featuring autumn colors for instance) for cool tones to dominate. But you’ll be amazed how great it’ll look to add a splash of red or brown here or there.

This is of course related to what we spoke about last time- with balancing warm and cool tones. But even beyond the issue of cool and warm, as a general rule, you don’t want to overdue any one color. The least you want to do is bring in some other members of the color family- meaning purple to go with blue, yellow to go with green, etc. Sometimes a much darker or lighter version of the same color creates the tension you want. And sometimes you might just go with a different color entirely.

While we’re on the subject of contrast, it makes sense to touch on the issue of backgrounds. The background I’m speaking of is the area behind and around the main template of your website. Now, a good background is one that adds to the overall design appeal of the website, without appearing overpowering. Conversely, there’s no reason for it to be too blasé either. For instance, as a rule, I almost never use true white as a background color. I use an off-white or a grey- because that’s just so much more interesting. Besides, there’s just so much white used on the Web already that its nice to add a little contrast with an off-white tone- with a hint of yellow or blue- as an example.

The last thing I’ll say about background colors, and this is the most important point to remember, is that it’s all about setting up the eye for the main template. So choose a color that draws enough contrast so as to focus the website user’s eye on the template itself. If the background color is too dominant- either by being too light, or too dark, it can actually strain the users’ eyes. We don’t want this! So find a balance that gives enough contrast without proving distracting or downright painful!

So there you go: two more tips for making extraordinary looking church websites, and websites in general. Website design, like any other kind of design, is all about balance. That’s why you’ll notice us offering general principles rather than hard and fast rules here.  If there were hard and fast rules to apply then everyone, their grandma and their cousin would be a website designer. But it just doesn’t work that way. Design sense is a God-given gift. It can certainly be grown- but it cannot be made up out of learned skilled alones. There has to be innate ability involved.

And that’s why it makes so much sense – if you’re God-given skill is not design – to let the professionals handle it. If you’re looking for custom church website design from scratch (as we call it) we at New Leaf Web Design would be happy to work with you. And if you’re looking for pre-formatted church website templates - with which you can develop your own church website, then our sister site, Christian Templates Online is a great option. Either way you end up with a top-notch product for a very affordable price.

I was remarking to my wife and partner the other day that two things regularly make an impression on me when it comes to website design. One: it’s just so darn cool that one can craft these great looking virtual expressions without the mess that is associated with other forms of art. Two: Its amazing how the essentials of effective website design can often be boiled down to a few key elements.

First, let me touch on the virtual nature of the art of website design. Think about it: if you ply your trade with oil painting you have all sorts of paints, brushes and canvases to keep track of, clean up after, etc. Not to mention the cost of constantly replacing those items. But with the virtual world of website design you don’t have to worry about that. For one- there is no mess! No matter how long I fool around with various colors, textures, and shapes, I can simply close out a program and there are no remnants to deal with. Then, when I’m ready, I can simply open up that file and all my “process” is there- just as I left it! How great is that?!

The second thing that occurs to regularly occurs to me about website design, is how often the effectiveness of a certain website design comes down to a few basic design principles. Yes, it takes some skill to recognize these elements working together as a balanced whole, but still, that aside, if you can keep these few elements in mind you’ll go a long way towards creating an impacting, impressive website.

1.) Gradients are GREAT!
 It took me a year or so into my website design career to realize this point. The thing is gradients are everywhere- its just that most of the time we’re blind to this fact. But artists are called, first and foremost, to learn HOW TO SEE. And when we analyze what we see in the natural world, we realize that light interacts with objects in uneven ways: hence- gradients! That’s really what it comes down to- using gradients in website design to mimic the interaction of light with various surfaces and textures.

2.) Use the Right Mixture of Warm and Cool Colors
This is an aspect of web design that’s simple in theory- and yet its easy to under-do and over-do. What do I mean? Well, usually its most effective to pick one main color scheme- rather than a hodgepodge. So, for instance, you might choose a dark blue, grey and black color scheme. These are all what as known as cool colors. Notice I didn’t suggest you use all shades of blue. That probably wouldn’t be enough contrast. But I did suggest using colors that all fall on the cool side of the color spectrum.

Now that being said, using nothing but cool colors, even when they’re different colors, can still be a little overpowering. It really helps to create a little contrast. And how do we do this? Well, with a splash or two of warm tones. Orange would be a good choice here because, not only is it a warm tone, but it also tends to go really well with blue, grey and black- our chosen cool colors. So there you have it: pick a cool or warm theme- and add a little contrast with a splash (not too much!) of the alternate theme. This creates just enough tension on your computer screen. This is one of those times where the adage “moderation is key” comes into play.

Of course, there are a few more basic elements of effective web design that we could touch on. But this is already a rather lengthy post. So we’ll save that discussion for another day. In the meantime, try experimenting with these elements. You’d be surprised how far this will take you in crafting an striking web design scheme.

Its an interesting endeavor to surf the Web, checking out various church websites. There are certain things you notice right away. For one, differences exist between denominational affiliations. I’m not talking about doctrinal issues here! I’m talking about certain aspects that Baptist, Pentacostal, Catholic, Orthodox church websites have in common with other churches within their respective denominations.

Now, design is certainly one aspect that these church websites have in common with their sister churches, but I’m talking about more than color schemes here. I’m also talking about the kind of information that these churches deem important to include in their respective websites. And that begs the question: regardless of denominational affiliation, what are some things that you should (and just importantly- should not) include in your church website?

First of all, some pet-peeves- you can put this in your- “things not to do with your church website” category, okay? Now, regardless of denominational affiliation, we can agree that this is all about Jesus, right? That being said, having a monstrous pic of the pastor on your hompage maybe isn’t the way to go. I’m still amazed by how often I see this. Now, I can understand why you may want to have a page designated to introduce the pastor- and other staff members, but this shouldn’t be the purpose of the homepage.

Remember, your church website homepage is meant to be a quick, collage-like, introduction to your community. Think in terms of a tree. This page is the trunk. From here people can click on the links that represent the various branches of the church. And then, further out still- to the individual twigs and leaves of ministries, etc. Now I’m not saying that the pastor is not an integral source of strength for the church. But he/she is not the sum total of the church. So try not to imply that with a homepage dominated by the pastor.

Okay, moving on. Continuing with the trunk analogy: on your homepage it should be fairly easy for the church website visitor to find your main link section. Don’t burry you links in a lot of text, and don’t scatter them all over the page. Its okay to have secondary, less important links located within text or on various parts of your homepage, but your main links section- the branches of your tree- should be easily identified and easily located. Generally this main section of links goes at the top of the page, or on the right or left side of your page, underneath your main church logo/banner. By now people have certain preconceieved ideas of how to use a church website. You don’t want to frustrate this expectation. Remember, the goal is to have a great-looking website, that’s very common-sensical in terms of navigation.

Something I find fairly regularly, which is certainly perplexing, is a lack of easily identified contact information. Now this seems pretty counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? Why go to the effort of putting a church website, only to have your visitors leave, frustrated that they coulnd’t locate a phone number or physical address. Now many churches double up here: offering main contact details on the bottom of the homepage, as well as on a secondary page dedicated to contact info. This is fine. Most important though is that the website visitor can find your contact link quickly and easily. Now the contact info page itself is often best designed to be short and to the point. Point form details works great.

Oh, and by the way, while phone numbers and a physical address are essential, don’t leave out email contact information in the process! Some church website visitors are going to be more comfortable making an initial contact or inquiry via email. So make sure you include this info! And remember, don’t bury it on some forlorn, third or fouth level page. Email contact info, along with your other contact information, should be located no further than the second tier of your site. In plain English: the visitor should only have to click on one link from your homepage to retrieve this contact information.

Okay, there are some ideas to get you started. In general, remember to make your homepage an introduction to the life of your church. Links that are important to include in your main links section (which should be predominantly displayed throughout your site) include: homepage (so visitors can always find their way back to the homepage no matter where they are on the site), and contacts. From there, you can decide what are the main branches unique to your particular church. We will touch on some further suggestions in our next installment. Stay tuned…

And remember, if you recongize that this is all important stuff, but you’d rather have a professional set it all up for you, church website templates are a great way to go. Here you get the skill, experience and expertise of a church design professional who knows what does and doesn’t work when it comes to church website design.

Yesterday we talked about church website templates using content management systems such as the Joomla framework. By the way, while Joomla has become the most popular of these free content management system infrastructures, it is by no means the only one available. Drupal is another choice. And then there’s Joomla’s predecessor, Mambo. WordPress in another option- though this works best when you’re wanting a “blog-like” look. In my opinion, Joomla is the best available option when building church websites with a content management system.

However, that being said, there are still limitations with any content management system set-up, including Joomla. You see, by definition, a content management system has to work within certain pre-conceieved parameters. Design, structure, and set-up are virtually limitless when using a static template church website template. With Joomla, or any other content management system, however, you’re going to have to build pages that fit within the options already enabled in the CMS framework. Believe me, once you’re familiar with the use of an HTML editor, which is what you use to build and upload your webpages, it feels pretty confining to use a content management system- because of its inherint limitations.

Still, a website working interactively with a web-based content management system can be useful- especially when the person or people managing the website have almost no HTML or CSS skills; and/or if you have large numbers of people contributing to a church website. Even if only a few people are actually building the website itself, some churches want to enable the possiblity for the wider members of the congregation to take part in various discussions and such. In such a scenario a content management system, such as with Joomla, is a great option, because, not only can you allow the larger community access to the website, but you can actually decide, from section to section of the website, who gets to have access. With a Joomla template for instance, you generally have users, managers, and administrators- and each of these groups have varying access to the site.

Still, even if you’re wanting to set up a forum for community interaction, you could always link your static site to a separate area, that allows for dynamic functionality. In other words, it doesn’t have to an either/or situation. Both/and works great. So, if you’re still in the process of deciding whether to go static, or dynamic- with a CMS platform such as Joomla, you’ll want to keep all of these points in mind. One last point to remember is that, even though working with a static site involves some learning of HTML and CSS, even using Joomla is going to involve some learning. Especially for the administrator- or as Joomla calls the top level manager- the super-administrator. So, don’t merely opt for the simplest short-term solution. Weigh your options and make the decision based on what the best long term solutions are for your particular church website project.

If you’re at all up to date with the trends in website development, including church website development, you’re no doubt aware of what some call “the content management system revolution”. This is akin to what is often referred to as Web 2.0 (though this is a slightly ambiguous term that can refer to several aspects of recent WWW trends, with no particularly fixed definition). But content management systems, and specifically free platforms such as Joomla, really have changed the virtual landscape.

And for those of you who haven’t been following recent developments, lets put together a quick definition/introduction. Content management system websites are database driven applications that allow for “management” of the site from a web-based environment. In other words, with a CMS template, website, etc… you don’t need to use an HTML editor to make changes to your website. All you need is access to the Internet. On the website itself there is a user/management/administrator “back-end” section that one logs into to make changes.

That’s right, not only do you not need a typical HTML editor, but you can actually make all your changes and updates on the site itself- through what you might call a back-door- for employees only- or something like that. Not only does this allow you to avoid the purchase of an HTML editor (although there are free ones out there- such as Nvu), it also allows people in various locations (all around the world if necessary) to log-on to the website itself to make updates and additions.

While it’s handy to be able to log-in to the church website itself to make such changes, this, in itself, is not the real charm behind content management systems. The charm really lies in the fact that you can make these changes, updates, etc, without any substantial HTML or CSS knowledge. Of course, even in a CMS situation, a little knowledge helps you setup your content to look just the way you’d hoped. But is such knowledge necessary? No. Most of the time you can open up, or create a new document, in an editing section that looks similar to a Microsoft Word or Wordpad environment.

You’re seeing the advantage now, right? Lets put this in the context of a church to illistrate the advantages of using CMS templates. Imagine you have a church with a staff of twenty. Now, you could have each of them forward informational updates to a central web administrator. But not only can this be a little tedious for all involed- but it can also be very time consuming for the church administrator! Besides, many ministry leaders would like control over their little area anyway. The thing is though, often the web savvy just doesn’t go around enough for this to be a possiblity.

But with a church website working with a web-based content management system there’s no need for the central administror, nor for web education for your various staff members. Now they can operate their own sections of the church website themselves. This saves time and energy all around. And while a custom content management system set-up can costs tens to hundreds of thounsands of dollars (seriously!), the onset of the free content management platform known as Joomla! (others exists as well) makes this option extremely cost-effective as well.

So there you have it. That’s a little bit of an introduction into the world of content management systems and templates functioning off the free Joomla platform. There are many advantages so such a set-up- and that’s why so many churches are going this direction when putting together their church website. However, there are plenty of exceptions to the rule, plenty of situations where a static template fasciliatated through an HTML editor is still the best choice. Curious as to know where, when, and why this is true? Tune in tomorrow for more!

Okay, last time we started a list of top 10 design mistakes made in Christian website design. Today we’ll pick up where we left off. For those of you just joining the discussion, this is our list of common gaffs attested to in various church website templates online. Believe me, we could grow this list to 20 or more items. But for simplicity’s sake we’ll start with these 10 and return to the topic at a later time. So, without further adieu, let’s continue with point 6-10.

6.) Music Playing On Homepage
Now at first this might seem like a misplaced item. After all, perhaps you’re thinking: what does sound have to do with design? Aren’t these separate categories. Not really. Remember, we’re discussing the “look and feel” of your church website template. This isn’t just about colors and shapes and the like. This involves any factor that adds to or detracts (or downright tanks!) your homepage impression.

So what’s so bad with a little music? Well, several things actually. First of all, you have no idea what your website visitor’s music preference is. I notice a lot of church websites tend to play old time hymns. Needless to say, that’s not going to attract anyone under 60 or so. Secondly, believe me having music suddenly blare from your speakers can seem way to invasive. If you really have to add music, make it an option that the visitors can opt in on. But don’t make it a default setting. People will actually feel violated when they have to hit the mute button. More likely they’ll just hit their back button as fast as humanly possible. And then they’re gone- for good. A general rule to go by is people want control over their web-surfing experience. That means that if music is an option, they want to choose it. So, please… for your own good, don’t ruin your church website template visitor experience by setting up default music on your homepage.

7.) Pop-Ups Gone Positively Fizzy
Okay, there’s nothing more annoying than navigating onto a Church website that immediately tries to load three or four pop-up windows. Not only does this often freeze your download - because people purposefully want to block pop-ups - but, again, this tends to take away from the church website visitor’s sense of control. While many news sites still employ the pop-up window system to display ads and such, there really is no need for a church to do so. And if you absolutely have to do it, please keep it to one at a time. Your church website template will be all the better for it- believe me.

8.) Image Overload: Horrific Download Duration
There came a time in website development where software such as Flash, and programming languages such as JavaScript came along. Now, in moderation, these tools are fantastic. It’s nice to see a tasteful slide show on the homepage, or some interesting functionality in your links. However, some websites, and unfortunately church website templates are some of the worst offenders, went way overboard in utilizing these tools. Remember, tools are meant to enhance your site, not to be front and center themselves. But even beyond over-use of flash presentations and such, many church websites are virtually challenged because they have either too many photos trying to simultaneously download, or because the images themselves are monstrously large. Remember, you can save images at a quality level that still looks great, but doesn’t take five seconds to download. Now, perhaps you’re thinking: five seconds? That doesn’t sound so bad! But believe me, on the World Wide Web, five seconds for a download is an eternity.

9.) Massive Logos
Okay, you want to make an impression. But again, let’s remember- moderation is key! You create an overall impression by how the various aspects of your webpage fit together. And your logo is just one aspect. I still come across plenty of sites who want to make their logo WAY TO LARGE! Yes, you want people to see it. After all, it helps them know what site they’re on. But don’t make the logo take up half of the church website homepage! Not only does that make your content scroll too far down the page (because there’s not much room left!), but there’s something that feels both cumbersome and intrusive about a massive logo. And please- extra suggestion- please don’t make your banner animated. It hurts the eyes! Too much ongoing movement makes people nervous and dizzy. Seriously. Remember, you don’t want to just make an impact, you want your site to be pleasant enough (as a sensory experience) for your church website visitors to want to stick around a little- get to know you, you know?

10.) Incomplete Sites (”This Site is Under Construction”)
Okay, I understand, some times it takes a while to finish a website. Especially if you’re drawing together information resources from various church ministries, staff, congregation members, etc. Don’t worry- take your time. But please, don’t throw up your website prematurely! If the site’s not done, don’t load it to the Web with a disclaimer that says “This Site is Under Construction”, or even “Coming Soon”. If you’re not ready, simply load one splash page (lingo for the first page people come to) that looks finished in its own right. And on this page you can mention that “this is the future home of So-and-So Community Church”. There really is no point in loading a site that has a bunch of links leading to empty pages. This is both unprofessional and unproductive. Trust me- use the splash page until your site is ready to load in its finished, polished form.

Okay, there you have it. That rounds out our top 10 church website templates design mistakes. And like I said, I could go on. But maybe that would be a little over the top. The goal here is to get a general vision for what works. Now, that being said, there is a sure-fire way to get it right the first time. That’s right- you guessed it- use a preformatted church website template. From the right source you’re guaranteed a professional’s touch- all for a price that will make you say- “Wow! That’s cheap!”. With church website templates from a company such as Christian Templates Online you get striking, sometimes bold, sometimes mild, but always complimentary color schemes. You get church website templates that feature common-sensical layouts- each and every time. And you get websites with state of the art coding and cutting edge, professional photos. And multiple page layouts make it easy for you to turn your church website vision into a virtual reality in no time at all.

Something that I have never quite understood about Christians is our tendency to lag behind, and actually often follow, the prevailing culture in terms of art, music, etc. Why do we do this? One only has to think back to the magnificent works of art and symphonic pieces of previous centuries to recall that at one time we were at the cutting edge of art and music. And why? Well, not because we were attempting to be at the cutting edge, but merely because we were striving to reflect the creative flare demonstrated by the Creator Himself.

Ah, but I digress… Unfortunately this tendency for us to lag behind the culture is often true in web design as well. When I peruse the WWW looking at various church website designs I am, to be brutally frank, often appalled by the designs I see representing various congregations. It doesn’t have to be this way! It’s not like prohibitive prices are what prevent churches from finding striking designs to form their virtual presence online.

Sure, custom website design for churches can be a cost-prohibitive endeavor, but that’s where the wonderful world of preformatted church website templates come in! These church templates not only offer a wide variety of bold and beautiful designs, but they’re also designed with the latest in WWW conventions in mind, and - best of all - are priced so as to be affordable for every church, ministry or Christian organization imaginable.

It should be noted however, that while there are church website template design companies offering striking, state of the art templates, not all of these companies are created equally. So perhaps it would be helpful to touch on some of the most common design gaffs made in church websites. That way, regardless whether you’re going the route of buying a church template, or having custom work done, or simply critiquing your current church website, you’ll be able to do so with an educated eye. We’ll start with this list of five common design mistakes. Tomorrow you can tune in for the next five. But, without further adieu, here we go:

Church Website Template Design Gaffs (1-5):

1.) Too Much Busyness!
For those of you who have seen this you’ll know exactly what I mean here. I’m talking about those church websites that have so much going on that it actually produces dizziness in the web surfer. This can take the form of too many buttons on the page (here, a simple solution is to learn to consolidate), too many colors, too much animation, etc.

2.) Distorted Images
This is a common error that is so easily fixed that is a shame that it happens at all. What’s the point in having a great photo on your website if it’s so stretched and distorted as to make one’s eyes hurt. To avoid this, simply make sure the photo is displaying in its original (or equivalent) dimensions.

3.) Navigation That’s Too Hard to Find
Have you ever found a homepage that seems to make a game of letting you find other links, especially contact information? This is frustrating at the best of times. Make it easy for people to find your navigation – especially your email, phone number and physical address information. The best way to do this is to follow common conventions for link placement. Put them at the top, sides, or bottom of the page.

4.) A Page That Scrolls Ad Infinitum
Well, maybe not quite ad infinitum, but you know what I’m talking about- those webpages that scroll on and on, and on and on, etc… Again, there’s no need for this. Consolidate your information into various categories- easily found with your navigation. This is a much better option than trying to cram too much information onto your church website hompepage. Even worse than ever-downward extending pages are pages that scroll left and right. Yikes! This should never happen. Center your church website template, leaving room on either side of the actual content section so as to fit well in a variety of computer screens.

5.) Color Schemes That Frighten Children
I’m being a little facetious here. I’m actually talking about color combinations that are just plain ugly. Yes, design is to some extent a subjective endeavor. But believe me, there are certain common conventions you should stick with. God’s Creation is actually a good guide. Simply put, don’t combine colors you never see together in the natural world.

So there you go! Avoiding these basic, but all too common design gaffs will put you on the road to website design recovery. Does this all seem like too much to remember? Well, choosing your website design from a collection of preformatted church website templates provided by a top template design resource such as Christian Templates Online offers the best of both worlds. You end up with a state of the art template design, and you save time and money in the process!

In this day and age, perhaps more than ever, first impressions really matter. And when it comes to churches, often people’s first impression takes place online. That’s right. Now matter how pleasant and welcoming an ethos you create in the building where your church gathers, no matter how many smiling faces are ready to greet newcomers at the door, a large number of people’s first impression of a particular church will come via the church’s website.

So, that being said, you’ll want to take hold of that reality and really make that first impression impacting. And how, primarily, do you do that? Is it with the posting of moving articles? Is it with a clearly articulated vision or doctrine statement? No. Simply put, the sheer design appeal of your site will create 80% of the visitor’s initial impression of your church. Now, if they like what they see, they may very well stick around to read about your history, vision, community life, etc. But, if that initial impression fails to impress, the majority of people won’t even stick around more than ten seconds.

They say you should never judge a book by its cover, but, in this day and age, like it or not, when it comes to website, people do. So, that being the case, you want to make sure that your website speaks the right things to your website visitors. Think about that. And take as much time considering how visitors might interact with your website as you do thinking through how to make them feel welcome on a Sunday morning gathering. That initial interaction with your website includes considerations such as ethos, or “look and feel”, as well as structure.

Design matters. I really cannot stress this enough. There’s a reason why large corporations spend millions of dollars investing in color schemes and logos. They know that “the vibe” their logo or brand gives off will have as much OR MORE to do with the individual’s enjoyment of that product, as the quality of the product itself! Crazy, but true. Now, while we don’t want to surrender to consumer culture, we do want to create an ethos that suggests a sense of peace, fun, community, or what-have-you. So keep this in mind when you choose your color scheme or pick from a collection of preformatted church templates.

Are you curious as to what this might mean? Well, if for instance your church is reaching out to the youth and college crowd, perhaps gothic colors and styling might be the way to go. This is often a popular choice when it comes to a youth church website templates.

Generally this means dark backgrounds with vivid contrasts in shape, texture and color. If, on the other hand, you’re trying to reach out to young families, remember to include pictures of the demographic your reaching for, and frame things in colors that are pleasing to both parents and children. Here you’ll probably use more neutral, but lively tones.

Something else that really should aim for when you set up your church website, or chose a preformatted church template to turn into your website, is common-sense navigation. This might seem obvious but I never cease to be amazed by how many church websites make it difficult just to find out who the pastors are, or where the church meets, or how they can email someone to find out about growth groups, or something similar. But this shouldn’t be hard.

Keep this in mind: everything that needs to be essentially communicated (including the list I just gave you) should be easy to find from you home page. A guideline to follow here is that such important information should never be more than one click away from your homepage. If people have to spend more than a few seconds finding your contact info, they’re libel to grow frustrated and click on to the next site. Remember, that’s easy to do. So you need to make your site navigation straightforward so as to avoid this.

Now, how does one go about accomplishing all of the above? Does putting a church website together suddenly feel more complicated than you ever imagined. Perhaps you’re also thinking, to hire a professional to do this could get expensive- and time consuming. Well, you’re right. Custom website design- especially quality web design, is not cheap, nor, in reality, should it be. However, for many churches such costs are prohibitive.

But fear not. This is where the wonderful world of preformatted Christian web templates comes into play. A collection of quality preformatted church templates offers you quality craftsmanship, striking design appeal, and common-sense navigation- all for a price that won’t break your budget. So, don’t turn to amateurs. Aim for a professional looking website. With some of the incredible church templates available online you can have just that- on time and on budget to boot. And because these church templates are designed to be easily customizable, you can still create a finished product that seems unique and fitting for your particular congregation.