Font Rants on Many Subjects

New Church Website

Well the Episcopal church has redesigned their website. There are many great things about this new website, and I hope if any of the creators read this blog they won't feel that I'm totally trashing them. I'll just say up front that its a vast improvement over the old page; but there still is a ways to go. I do like the fact that they are at least trying to think about the website as a tool for evangelism; and they seem to have taken a great deal of feedback from users to heart.

With that out of the way here are some general criticisms.

• General comments -- Too many things popup, and its too hard to figure out where the links are on the main page.
  
• Accessibility -- Overall I give them a C+ because most things are ok, but I want the church to be an A+; because the average Episcopalian is getting older and as we age we are all going to need more accessible websites to accommodate motor and visual impairment that come with growing older.
  
  
  
  • Alt tags -- The rule is if there is text on the image, then the alt tag should contain it. If the image is just an icon, or spacer, the alt tag should be alt="". For example "member of the Anglican communion", a graphic at the bottom with a link to the Anglican communion should have an alt tag that says "Member of the Anglican Communion"
    
  • Lack of a skip nav link. This is one of the most common web design mistakes out there. If you have navigation at the top of your site, put a hidden link in (see article) to let people skip it if they have a screen reader.
    
  • Significant text rendered in graphics. Try this trick. Go to a website in Firefox, and hit control and the plus (+) key. See how the text gets larger. Now press control and the minus (-) key. See the text get smaller. If you have poor vision you can make the text larger; but the graphic text stays the same size. Text which is significant should preferably be provided as text.
    
  • Too many popups. Look if I want a new browser window or tab I'll right click. Every other link on the home page seems to launch a new window. Folks with mobility impairment may find all these popup windows quite frustrating.
    
  
  
• Interactivity
  
  No registration / personalization -- How do I sign up? How does the site know me and present information in a meaningful way. It's kinda depressing that when I go to Amazon.com they immediately know who I am and give me a list of books I'd want to read; but the church is still just giving me a hypertext brochure. Remember the whole "personal Jesus" thing; reach out touch faith.
  
• Community.
  
  Where is the social network? Look at Friendster and Facebook. Where do I connect up with other Episcopalians on-line?
  

More comments later.