Engineering Art...And Other Seemingly Impossible Tasks

At work today, I used the men's room and while washing my hands, I noticed that the counter that the sinks were in was collecting water. While the room still had nice aesthetics (for a corporate bathroom, at least), the engineer in me was irked. The functionality of the room was not correct, and my mind went about thinking how it should have been better designed for functionality.

Once again, I had found another example of appearances trumping function.

I know I've written about this before, but I'll keep harping on it because it's important. In order to reach out to the masses effectively, a website has to have a complimentary balance of aesthetics and functionality. If a site is too functional, it cheap, old or boring. If a site is too artistic, it can be hard to get anything useful out of it.

Shortly after I let go of my frustrations about the functionality of the men's room, I came across an article put up by Dean Peters called Too cool for Old School - Sonrise Baptist Church Newnan, GA where he was questioning some of the artistic decisions made regarding the site. While the site looks terrific, he points out a number of flaws with the design that may actually keep people from their church instead of drawing them to it.

Add that to Why Your Fancy Web Site Sucks from Church Marketing Sucks last month, and you'll see that this is a far too common problem.

The next time you look at your church site, try using Dean's piercing questions when looking at it:

1. How easy is it to add and/or modify new features?

2. Has any consideration been given to the visually impaired?

3. How much navigation needs to be explained to new users?

4. Has any consideration been given to a mobile version?

5. Has any consideration been given to an alternate path for those w/out Flash, audio speakers and/or dial-up access?

Then ask yourself, "does our site live up to what we need it to?" If not, it may be time to go back to the drawing board.