Why is everyone trying to cram all of their content into a small sector of their screen? It’s a dilemma that I have seen repeated over and over again within traditional church and ministry website designs.
It seems that people think they need to pack every inch of their ministry onto the first page of their website. For the love of all that is good and wonderful, please stop. It’s okay to have some white space injected into their church or ministry website design.
I know when I go out into the abyss of the world we know as the Internet and browse around various ministry websites, the first thing that often times comes to mind when I view various websites is why they are trying to cram everything within the section of their website that is known in my industry as “Above The Fold.”
First of all, having too much information that is both overwhelming and crowding, just blows my mind as to where I want to navigate to next on their website.
Give a person some room to breathe and digest what they have seen and read. There’s nothing wrong with taking it slow when it comes to providing them with the information you are hoping they will venture into and take a look at.
A well planned visual conception to your website will go a long way. Furthermore, giving your various items a bit of room to breathe and resonate will give your reader more reason to continue further down the page. That being said, it is not critical to have it all on the front page of your website.
You have to think categorically. Break your ministry into relating parts and pieces and begin to build your website exactly like that. Giving more focus to your navigation is more important than the actual content on each page is. When you make it easy for your visitors to find and use the content upon your website, you’ll soon be reaping the rewards of taking more time to think it out in the end.
Let’s also keep in mind that the vast majority of visitors to your website will be doing do from either mobile devices or tablets. You can take control to the extent that what a person sees while visiting your desktop can be completely different than what they may see while viewing it from the convenience of their mobile device.
It’s a proven stat that more people spend their time viewing the web from their mobile device than they do from the traditional desktop computer environment. So it goes a long way in saying that you need to be able to design and develop to meet the needs of both users without having to have two separate websites.
Fortunately, with WordPress and some of the amazing page builders and themes that exist, you are able to achieve this and so much more. Gone are the days of needing to lay out a truckload of cash for a mobile app as well as the traditional website.
For anyone who has been on the Internet since its inception, it wasn’t uncommon to come across websites that resembled the illustration above. Back then they were like “Beyond Cool,” however, I still come across those same type of designs in today’s modern world of sophisticated and elegant website design.
And if you were really lucky, you would even come across a few of the old GeoCities websites that were jam packed blinking GIF’s. It was all about the graphics and the bigger and brighter and flashier, the better. Thank Jesus those days have passed us by. However, it was too long ago when “MySpace” was the thing that you could immerse yourself into the graphic blingdom.
Great news! The Internet has grown up since then and so hasn’t the procedures and Internet Consortium’s take on what it takes to put together a powerful website that is geared towards the ease-of-use for its visitors.
Now who doesn’t like an amazing website design like Apple sports. However, what I want you to take notice is the vast amounts of white space that has been thought of in implementation of their beautiful website.
I just know that out there somewhere in the abyss of the Internet will be the one person who wants to argue that the mere increase of white space on a website design represents the use of invisible pixels that takes energy to produce. You just have the love the Green Energy folks.
Nonetheless, what it does provide is an amazing experience for any visitor to your website. It provides them with the opportunity to digest what it is they have taken in and seen, and believe me if you have some amazing content, you want them taking more time to view it and interact with your online ministry as well as sharing it with their friends and family.
So while you’re out and about and strolling through the great abyss we know as the web, take time to see if you can find a few websites that are taking advantage of using the white space and what your thoughts are in regards to the overall design.
Take a minute and let us know. We’d love to know what you think!
As always, keep coming back for more great content in regards to helping you think about a new church or ministry website design or updating your existing one.
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