I've finally got the "Ask the Preacher" site up and running totally as of this morning (mechanics and such). Now I need some loving and if necessary brutal opinions on the look and function of the site... Anyone interested in helping the old parson out at http://parsonscorner.org ?
Yep, I see you added an extra click from your home page to get to our forums and on the same page you have a link to old BF. Nice touch. Having that picture of yourself in action is a nice touch IMO.
A couple things here. From the home page, you have this paragraph: A very minor grammatical error - you forgot a period after the parantheses with Proverbs verse in it. More for my curiosity, is the 'Old Pathways' actually refer to something like a doctrine (since you state you believe in it)? I've personally never heard of that use of terms, not that that means much. I read the Proverbs verse (maybe include it? it's short!). ETA, I see it mentioned as well in the Jeremiah verse at the bottom.
At the risk of being nitpicky, but aiming for consistency, also on the home page: should perhaps be formatted as: Also, the its should have an apostrophe I believe.
After looking at it again, I have one more thing. Perhaps a colon after 'It's as simple as this'. So, something like this: On the Ask Your Question page, there should be a question mark on the What is Your Question form field. You should replace the "Placeholder" text in that text box with "Type Your Question" to be consistent with the two previous fields. In the Answers page, I would consider some more clear distinction between the question and your answer, perhaps the question bolded, and yours in regular font. I am assuming your green text is for OT texts and your NT is in blue. I'm not sure that is necessary unless you have specific reasons for that.
- Your Links section is redundant. You've got a second link to Answers which is already in your top level nav. - I'd put the PCIM Forum link on the top level nav as well, - The gif of the Bible is heartfelt but adds nothing. Worse, it takes away valuable vertical and horizontal realestate. Everyone knows why they're at your site. - Stat counter won't get clicked meaningfully in 1000 years. No reason that should needs to be anywhere on the main screen. By removing the redundant Answers link, putting Forum link in top nav, and dumping stat counter / bible icon, you can get rid of the entire right hand column. This will leave you with a beautiful, simple, elegant single column that contains the content *you* are most passionate about. The Q&A.
Offering this feedback with no malice or I'll intent. Your "other links" has a link to a place that almost all your forum contributors have been unceremoniously banned from. If your passion is answering people's questions, or connecting people with what you believe about the faith, do you think that link aligns to the goal? Do you think that's a place where a sincere seeker with tough questions or difficult choices will feel welcome? I propose a place that greets your brothers and sisters with a closed fist won't be helpful to the person coming to your site.
General UI/ux advice. Ask yourself what the ONE thing you want your site to do. Make all decisions about your site align to that goal. A mentor once told me a product design saying: "sacrifice your darlings". Basically, the set of features you imagine delivering is always larger than the set people want or will engage with. The difference between the two sets is clutter. You mention in te other thread about spending SEO dollars. But do you know exactly what goal you're driving toward on the site?
I've implemented all of the grammar changes and modified the links, removed the Bible image. I'd kinda like to keep the right menu area. hisleast, is SEO one of your things? My goal is the same as it's always been for the Ask the Preacher section of the site. My goal for PCIM is to get it even more active than it is with regular new members weekly. As with Ask the Preacher, I want to witness as I'm sure you all would like to. PHP, CGI, and HTML are my things and I have never been strong in site promotion.
I was paying a local company to help with keywords and search engine placement. Right now I'm paying for hits from www.tumblr.com, www.livejournal.com, www.blogger.com, www.plus.google.com, & www.wordpress.com My next step was going to be to hunt down someone who specializes in helping Christian websites with popularity. Haven't found anyone yet that can fit into the budget. (60.00 per month)
More minor stuff (but I used to lots of technical report editing). On the answers page, I would capitalize the "Type your question here" placeholder text for consistency with the other form fields. Also, you probably missed this earlier, the What is Your Question should have a question mark. You have the red asterisk, which I assume simply demarcates a required field, but there is no explanation for that. Maybe just get rid of the asterisk, and include in the instructions that all fields are required in parantheses. It's only three fields anyway.
Thanks teddy. Some of those changes would require I go into the database to change, but let me see what I can do. And I thought my only problem was I kaint spel. ;.;.
I worked for 18 years with a guy who absolutely fanatical about consistency in everything we did. It sort of rubbed off.