16 February 2008

My last post was 10 days ago - right about the time I (we) got knee deep into three projects with fairly short timelines. But that's the nature of things in this position. You pull hard for a while then back off to clear your head.

Yesterday, things reached a feverish pace right up until it was time to go home, but before we left we were able to check two things off the big list:

1. Not completed - More info soon to follow...
2. Online Giving Project
3. Weekend Experience Page Project

Online Giving Project
Starting this weekend we're doing a 4-week series on giving - which typically happens once a year. But this year we decided to really dust off the online giving process to make sure we weren't creating barriers for people. After finding more than one pain point we decided to make the following changes:

People let us know that the process was difficult from the beginning because online giving was hard to find. It's in the main navigation under 'More Next Steps' but it wasn't visible. So to accomplish this we added both Online Giving and My Account links under the search box on the right sidebar of every page. This makes it easy to find but doesn't elevate it to the point where it sticks out like a sore thumb. Next, we added 'Give Online' as a quick link option on the Weekend Experience Page - currently the most visited page on the site other than the home page. It's a place people go to watch the services so it fit in nicely there too.

The online giving page itself got a makeover. Gone is the pledge link for the My Life building campaign. New to the page is one large button to launch the online giving application and a heart theme (icons, quick links and the main graphic). For those of you that attend the church you'll understand. Our senior pastor typically uses the "Where your money is, your heart will also be" analogy when talking about giving.

A sidebar was added with the following information and/or links: how to give online, frequently asked questions, a link to change scheduled giving and a link to view giving history.
Hopefully these changes will make online giving a quick and easy process for people that may not have known it was even available a week ago.

Weekend Experience Page Project
Ever since we added streaming video to the site our main series page has been the number two visited page on the website. However, it lacked the functionality it needed and wasn't built to accommodate this crowd with it's specific interests. So we split it into two pages.

Now, there is the main series page which lets people know what is coming next week, and the Weekend Experience Page where you get the following:

• Last weeks message. Streams at the top of the page with the series graphic visible prior to starting.
• The ability to watch the messages in full screen mode.
• Archived messages from the last two full message series.
• Quick links to important areas of the site for those 'attending' church on this page.
• Access to service elements like the program, granger notes and MP3s of the messages.

It's been a fun week - but I'm also glad it's over...