Speaking of Clover.

Compare to Clover: Design

This is the second in the series of comparisons. Give the intro a read first…

Even just a few years ago, church web design was kind of a joke. Probably off the top of your head you could name 5 to 10 different ministry websites that were just horrid. Not necessarily because people didn’t have any taste is website design, but simply because there wasn’t much of a necessity found in having a current, relevant or engaging website. We were just at the crux of putting (somewhat) current music into our church services… Who had the time or money for a current website that no one would check out?

Luckily, times have changed… Well, somewhat. Like we talked about in the “Design Standards” blog post I linked you to above, it seems like we’re still missing the boat a little bit in our standards of what websites should look like and accomplish.

With Clover being built in Flash, we get the ability to add movement and flexibility to each site design. This pretty much gives us the ability to not be restricted while creating sites for ministries. The bottom line is that the website for your ministry should be current, beautiful, and represent your ministry- not just in text or pictures, but also in flow and elegance. If you convey the “right message” the “wrong way”, a lot of times it’s better to have not communicated the message at all.

What’s interesting to me is that most arguments in defense of ugly websites tends to be a Flash versus HTML argument. Isn’t it ironic that there are extremely beautiful HTML websites and really ugly Flash sites?  One of the major problems in web design is found in programmers who have not learned the skill of using the right programming language for the right occasion. One of the problems for those of us who are not programmers is asking the opinion of a programmer about a particular platform. We automatically have the assumption that the programmer will bag on the language he or she is not great at, thus not necessarily giving us the straight answer. HTML is a great language when used properly and in the right context. Flash is the same… For more about this, read this post about Flash.

So what is right for you and your ministry?

I don’t know. But I can tell you that if you are a super young, hipster church, an old crusty looking site is probably not the best fit. If you are an older congregation, you probably shouldn’t go for a super interactive, blog-driven, website with links to your Twitter account and Facebook page all over it.

On either side of the spectrum, I will say that there is a good chance that Clover is a fit for you. The best part is that you can easily demo everything to find out if it’s the right choice.

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Read the next Compare to Clover article on “Ease of Use”