Website Design for Genesis
Timeline
Three Months
My Role
Product Designer
Deliverable
Website
Platform
Figma
The Power of Connecting Through Web Design
A church's website is the ultimate tool for building community in the digital age. It removes barriers to communication, creates spaces for engagement, and sets congregations free to connect and support one another." That's why strategic web design is so vital for churches seeking to facilitate tighter bonds and relationships among members. My passion is leveraging user-friendly web design to help churches better nurture fellowship, discipleship, and compassionate service to one another and the community.
Problem & Solution
A church's website is the ultimate tool for building community in the digital age. It removes barriers to communication, creates spaces for engagement, and sets congregations free to connect and support one another." That's why strategic web design is so vital for churches seeking to facilitate tighter bonds and relationships among members. My passion is leveraging user-friendly web design to help churches better nurture fellowship, discipleship, and compassionate service to one another and the community.
Understand the Users
I interviewed church leaders to understand their biggest challenges and needs around online community building. Many expressed frustrations with low member engagement on their current websites and obstacles translating in-person fellowship into digital spaces. I had each sketch out their vision for an ideal online hub focused on facilitating tight congregational bonds. The insights from these discussions directly informed the user personas I designed to keep at the forefront in crafting tailored web solutions. My goal was to capture their diverse priorities, pain points and wished-for features in order to create websites as unique as each church I partner with.
John
Age: 48 years old
Location: San Jose, CA
Role: Ministry Leader
Bio
John is a dedicated church member with a passion for helping people in the congregation build godly character and connections. He oversees coordinating classes, retreats, service events and small groups. John is wise, kind and a great listener.
Goal
John wants to leverage the church website to provide stronger fellowship and discipleship among men of all ages and stages of life.
Frustrations
John gets frustrated by the lack of online tools and engagement specific to building community among the church. He desires features facilitating things like shared prayer requests, event management, and access to speaker content.
So, why is John frustrated?
Currently, John only has basic website tools and content available for coordinating ministry efforts. However, there are no features specifically tailored to facilitating digital fellowship, discipleship and relationship building among the members in the congregation. He needs an online platform customized to enable community engagement in order to save time coordinating and deepen bonds between members from the accessibility of homes and devices.
High-Fidelity Prototype
What I Learned
First, I used Figma as my primary web design platform for recent church website projects, expanding my skills beyond my typical tools like WordPress and Squarespace site builders. The increased customization enabled more tailored user flows and functionality to facilitate community building. I learned that when designing for a complex goal like relationship cultivation, it's best to map user journeys across multiple artboards focused on specific tasks or groups. This modular approach made it easier to craft and connect the customized features needed while maintaining clean, cohesive UI. Testing on various device screens then allowed seamless responsiveness. Equipping churches with strategic web design showed me the importance of understanding audience, purpose and best practices in unison when crafting online solutions.