This is my second ever video and part of a short series. The first looked at the five worst Intermediate Body websites and this one reviews the five best.
One issue I’m aware of is negativity. The truth is these sites are disappointing and this video reflects my disappointment. I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago, when I reviewed feedback about the first video and suggested these sites share a lack of soul. I don’t mean no time and effort goes into them. I’m sure a lot of effort has gone into some of them but they seem arms length, peripheral to these organisations’ activity.
They have a low priority. There is little awareness of what a good website can do for an organisation and how simple it is to transform the way the site functions. I’m hoping to follow-up these two videos with another to show how websites can have soul. I reviewed these sites seeking inspiration. I’ve found inspiration of sorts! How can organisations such as these, with limited resources create websites with soul?
Anyway, watch the video and see what you think!
One innovation is the captions. I’m not sure about the speech bubble effect on reflection but captions can be used to underline learning points. Do you think they work?
Here are the 12 captions for easy reference. If you haven’t watched the video, you need to see where the captions come up to understand the context of these remarks.
- Use WordPress. Free use and full functionality.
- Use your own images!
- Avoid acronyms, especially in headings.
- Address your visitors, say what your site aims to do for them.
- Honour your promises.
- A call to action on every page.
- Follow conventions. Start with an informative heading.
- Think about what your visitor will want to know and give it to them.
- Always have a heading and explanatory text on the home page.
- Think about how the eye moves around the page.
- Avoid sliders and other distractions.
- Text should be in high contrast to its background.
Stop Press: Black Country Churches Engaged has a new website that seems to be running alongside the old one featured in the video. It’s worth a look and I may review it in the near future. I would have expected the old site to include a prominent link to the new. Presumably it is still active because some contacts have the old url.
Please leave your comments on the video here or on YouTube.