If you didn't know, I have three technical jobs (not counting heARTworks). One such job is to do marketing for the Fort Wayne Fatherhood Coalition. I call it a baby organization; not because it focuses on babies, but because it was formed April 2010 and is still figuring everything else. Right now, we are seeking funding, running programs, trying to recruit dads into programs, educating the community, and filing for nonprofit status legally. It's a busy time.
Well, in the midst of all that, we also decided that we need a new website. When we first started, we had a web designer who rocked and got a site up and running for us, super fast. But, it's not effective for us to continually update and change and add to, so we are making a new one, which is what I'm in charge of.
I have a very rough start, but I want feedback before I go much farther...
Here is the original site (above). The info is great, but it's very static and we didn't have the possibility of making many changes, if any. And to make a change was a process, so we couldn't make updates on things immediately. (For example, I couldn't go in and make a change with contact info. I had to email the webdesigner and wait until it was done.)
Here's the homepage that I have done (using templates and such) with the help of wix.com. It's not live on our domain yet, because I want to get it all done first, but it is live on the wix site. I have added links to both photos, so that if you want to go look at the actual site, please do so.
But I am requesting feedback. I am not a webdesigner, but I do love marketing stuff. I want to make sure that this is the best possible when I present it to the coalition, so I'm turning to you bloggy friends to help. As an outsider, someone who has little or no knowledge of the coalition, does the home page give you good info and does it encourage you to click links and look around? Do you feel interested? Is the new page too simple? Too boring? Is it easy to see? Anything at all?
Thank you all! I know you got my back! :)
6 comments:
I hate to be negative, because I know all of this requires a great deal of work. I only very quickly looked at the new site. I have actually been interested in learning what the organization does, so I thought I could be helpful.
First, the homepage lettering is hard to read. It could be me and my aging eyes, but when I look at something for info I want to be able to get it quickly without having to focus too hard.
Second, are the graphics the ones you intend you use? I found some of the pictures to be disturbing, especially the one of the girl's ruised legs on the contact page.
I hope these don't seem petty. I think you truly want help, and this is just my first impression. I know you will do a great job on the final product!
Jennifer, not petty. Not at all. Maybe I didn't explain it fully, but the only page I have worked on is the home page. The other images and whatnot are from the template that the site had, so, for example, the bruised legs, are not going to be used at all. We will replace them with our images. I have not yet done any programming for the pages other than the homepage.
With the lettering, is it just the lettering over the image? I can easily change the font. That's why I wanted input. :)
Thanks...and I hope you continue to give feedback as I make more changes. I'm hoping to have it entirely done by Friday.
If I were you, I think I would condense the information you have on the home page. I tend to get annoyed when I have to read through "stuff" to find one or two bits of important information.
I think I would keep what you've done so far, but put it under the ABOUT tab.
On the home page I would bullet important information, Or maybe use it to for upcoming events, or things that change often.
I like the font you've used, but I'm not sure it meshes well with the font in your logo or your headers on the right. And for some reason it does seem a little blurry, but that could just be my monitor.
I think that's it...for now...but you still love me right?
I'll try again - last comment was eaten by gremlins.
This may not matter, and you may already know this, but...
the web building platform you are using is Flash. Flash is often not supported by devices such as an iPad, and iPhone. I double checked on my phone to see if I could see it, and it wouldn't come up. But it may not be important for the site to be universally seen on all devices. I just wanted to throw that out there before you got to far in case it was an issue.
Also, I still am not clear on what the coalition does from the homepage only. However, I'm a firm believer on keeping the homepage of an organization clean and simple. May just a word or 2 from a mission statement? coalition is... 'something'. IDK. That's just me.
As far as the look - I love it. It's very simple and clean. Not cluttered with too much info and extra stuff. I like the simplicity of it, it's refreshing.
Looks like your off to a great start. Hopefully your presentation will go well without too many changes. It's hard to build something by committee.
Jamie, I am reworking it to be more of a bulleted main points kinda thing.
Jevvel, I wasn't aware of the flash issues. I didn't get to chose the program we use...this is what the Exec. Director told me to use, so I'm not sure what will come of that. I don't *think* there's a huge need for mobile devices to be able to see it.....we also have a facebook page which they could use to keep track..does that make sense?
Thanks for the criticism ladies! I love it!
Ah, crap...Jevvel, I just realized that there's something wrong and the homepage is NOT what it's supposed to be...hence the reason there is NO WORDS...Ugh.
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