Spirit West United Church

This small community church wanted to revamp their website with a brighter and more inviting ambiance. They had seen dwindling congregation levels over the past decade, and they wanted to bring more people into the church.

After a meeting with the board members, we determined that the new website needed to highlight the characteristics of what they wanted for the future church; mainly, an inviting atmosphere for young families, and an accessible UI.

The church had a few young families already, and they said what kept them coming back was the compassion of the church’s elderly members and that their young children enjoyed listening to their stories. The children said their favourite part of Sunday service was when the minister would invite them to sit on the stage and tell them a version of that day’s sermon that was palatable for children.

With this inspiration, I started designing the site with a ‘story time’ theme in mind, then I put into focus what were the key characteristics of a children’s book:

• A bright and neutral colour palette
• Colourful photos
• Fonts that are easily legible
• An eye-catching front cover

Along with an updated theme, the board wanted to make sure the site was easily accessible as well:

• Magnification of links and images on mouse over and keyboard focus
• Sharp colour contrasts between text and background
• Forms with easily legible labels and text inputs that were easy to edit
• A main nav menu that had links to all of the church’s facilities at the top level; they specifically asked that the nav menu from their previous site be included because they didn’t want to have to learn how to navigate the site again