MinistryPlace.Net » Web Design

Northwood Baptist Church – Sullivan, Indiana

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:56:02 +0000

Northwood Baptist was the 2009 winner in the Christmas giveaway at BrentLacy.com.

Northwood is a Southern Baptist Congregation in Sullivan, Indiana (In the Terre Haute area) and a member of the West Central Baptist Association.

They needed a Website that was clean, simple, and easily maintained by the Pastor. They wanted to be able to get the message across about their church quickly and simply. They already had a logo that had been used in their branding for several years, so we worked it into the colorset.

For ease of maintenance, we chose Wordpress 2.9, largely utilizing pages, since the their content is mostly static. The Church has taken over maintenance, and they are utilizing it as a part of their overall ministry scope.

5 Basic Usability Breakdowns You Want to Avoid :: Echo Enduring Blog

admin — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:32:08 +0000

This is a great write-up on designing websites to be functional, easy to navigate, and clean. Great Read.

Link [5 Basic Usability Breakdowns You Want to Avoid :: Echo Enduring Blog.]

Web Design Meets Customer Service.

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:11:40 +0000

With any new addition to someone’s life there can be a resistance to change. Last week we rolled out the ClearOS Server on out Network at the Church. There were a few hiccups with the Web Filter being “too” effective. This led to several questions left unanswered by the stock ClearOS or Dansguardian “Access Denied” page. In order to make the transition smoother, I created a Google Docs form that people can submit blocked sites for Administrator review by the tech team. It is by no means a perfect solution, but it is Open-Source, free and relatively easy to implement on hardware that may be lying around in a closet somewhere. I added the branding of both our church and the technologies used. The custom message is designed to remind that a filter is only as good as the lists it uses to determine content. What suggestions do you have to the design/implementation? Comment Below…

Wow! Suprising traffic numbers…

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:12:22 +0000

Every so often, I run the reports on my server that tell how many page-views (or “hits”) that the various sites I administrate (BrentLacy.com, and several others..). I was very pleasantly suprised to see the traffic numbers for MinistryPlace.Net have been increasing beyond what I could imagine. Because of the increased traffic, there are a couple small changes on the way to make your experience at MinistryPlace.Net even better.

I want to see God bless this as a way to reach, encourage, and equip ministers and layleaders all over the world.

These Numbers are 1/1/10-3/4/10 - over 27,000 Hits!

10 Principiles of Web Design…

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:53:58 +0000

Smashing Magazine just released a hard copy book called 10 Principles of Web Design. They have a great overview article that covers some tips that are good to remember for both beginner and experienced web designers. Link via [Smashing Magazine]

15 Sites that Died in 2009

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:22:20 +0000

In case you missed it, CNET gave a final look at 15 Sites that called 2009 their last year. Among the victims were Geocities, Windows Live Events, Yahoo Briefcase and more. [Link to full story on CNET]

Church Website Design Series…Churches With Good Websites…#1 (In No Particular Order)

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:20:22 +0000

This is the fist in a new series at Ministryplace that is going to look at
church websites that are done well (and maybe some later that are not done as well)…..

*Want Your Church Website Reviewed?
Comment it!

Southridge Church
(southridgechurch.ca)

What They Did Well:

- Good use of whitespace on homepage
- Good color scheme
- Very easy navigation
- Easy to find service times
- The image rotator is not overwhelming
- Good placement of events calendar
- You get a sense of the mission of the church
almost immediately
- The focus on family shines through

What could possibly improve:

- The default text size is small on widescreen displays.
- The the use of whitespace on the rest of the pages.
- The effect of the Shortcuts Link is “interesting...”

Internet Explorer 5.5 and the Church…A Fair Comparison?

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:00:43 +0000

Not Long ago, ChurchCrunch took a look at IE 5.5 and the comparison to
methods of doing Church in America. I found some of the points very
thought-provoking. Are you willing to keep the status quo?
Take a read…