Church Website Outlining Our Church Vision

[Boy]

So, now I am seeing quite a different site from earlier. I really liked the first one (which apparently has been removed) and, to be honest, I don't really care for this one.

[pauland]

A huge thumbs-down on both presentation and content.

I hate the background graphic and the page layout is just one thing after another and loads of text.

The content itself seems more about preaching a particular religious agenda at the visitor rather than engaging them in a partnership with god.

[cjosephgrayson]

Definitely open to feedback here. The message is what it is, but do you have suggestions as to how to present this better? I agree there is loads of text, and I'm not interested in taking out any content. The idea is for people who are new to our church to find out about our vision and values, for the purpose of deciding whether it's a good fit for them. The video is brief, and the text expounds heavily on what is presented in the video. Thanks for any honest feedback.

[pauland]

My feedback is this

1) Don't lecture people
2) Keep the message simple
3) Make the church approachable and friendly
4) Say what you do

The current page is none of that.

On the index page of the site be ultra simple. Let people decide if they want to know more. Don't ram it down their throat. You aren't writing a book or presenting a sermon.

People will come if they want to know more. Don't scare them off.

It's just my opinion.

[cjosephgrayson]

Thank you for the feedback, Pauland. That's quite a bit to digest, even with the few words you used. I have some ideas for how to implement these so the site better reflects 4 those values you mentioned (which I fully agree with). I'm thinking a synopsis on the landing page wouldn't be a bad idea, then they can click through if they want to get the details. Your comments made me think, about this: the contrast between the simplicity of the landing page vs. the complexity of the content pages is glaring, and might be jarring to the user. And here I was thinking I was finished! Thanks again.

[ss-kalm]

Personally, I find the use of many different font sizes off putting. I would prefer to see ALL the text in a standard size. Simple titles/headers could be in Bold or a different size, but I would much prefer NOT to see paragraphs in different sizes.

Sorry to say this, but it looks like you've cut and pasted the text from many different locations, and not changed any of the original formatting.

I didn't have any problem with the original navigation, but do dislike the little hand pointer. It makes me think that only one section is clickable. Again, personal preference, but I would lose the hand.

[cjosephgrayson]

Okay folks, I never thought I would change the site up THIS much based on these suggestions, but the input has been SO solid! I did away with the uncertain landing page...it now has real information on how to use the site, and what the site is for in the first place. Also, I took ss-kalm's suggestion and ditched the multiple font sizes. I'm using bold for emphasis in certain areas, but that's it. I also figured out that my background image was waaay too big and was causing slow load times. Fixed that too, or at least it's better.

Much better, guys, so check it out now: ResoundFour.com. Thanks again!