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!
