Media Outreach

As we continue our look at the elements that make a good website, let’s turn our attention to the actual inner-workings of your site.

Functionality
With good navigation and interactive elements, a church sets the site up for success, but it is also important to have a site that is functioning properly. Some, more complex, tools require a well functioning website. These are just a few that can be great ways to make a site more appealing:

• Podcasts
• Flash videos
• Pop up windows
• Flash photo galleries

Keep in mind, these, and all other tools and features of your site, become meaningless if they don’t work. Some of the obvious functionality items are:

• Pages should navigate the way they are supposed to – if something is titled contact and directions and leads users to staff bio info, they will become frustrated in their efforts to find the information they need.
• No broken links – if you remove a page from your site, be sure to remove any navigation or internal links that lead there.
• Conform to standard online practices for formatting content – one major element that comes to mind here is underlining; underlining, in the online world, indicates a link. If you want to emphasize text, use another method or this will appear to users as a broken link.
• Text and graphics should be optimized so they load quickly - if it takes too long for either to load, it is very likely the user will leave the site.

There are some subtle functionality items that make a user’s experience better. For example, in order for things to work properly, a church should not require a plug-in which is “an accessory software program that extends the capabilities of an existing application.”* People online have learned to be suspect to any site that wants them to download something and this will often cause a new user to turn away from that section and miss information.

As you review the functionality of your site, share with us what you find. Whether you want advice on improving some aspect of your site or you have more tips about what makes a well-functioning site, leave us a comment; we would love to here from you! Join us tomorrow as we conclude this look at elements of a good site.

* Dictionary.com, The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. <http://dictionary.reference.com> Accessed: 20 May 2008.