PremDAC 18 - Beginners Session

Transcript

1. @jamesdoc Creating your first website_ If you need a website but are not sure where to start this session will provide useful guidance and advice” - PremDAC program “
2. @jamesdoc T H E G L B E C H U R C H Hi_ The Globe Church + V&A + IFES + Sparks
3. @jamesdoc Hi_
4. @jamesdoc Slides and notes… …in exchange for feedback_ This topic is covered every year at PremDAC, this is the first time I’ve done it. At the end I will give you the slides and notes to this talk as well as a some of the cutest photos of a chocolate labradors I could find on the internet in exchange for feedback. Secondly - I normally present from a full transcript, because I’m scared of public speaking and forgetting what I’m going to say and generally appearing flustered. I’m trying with slightly less notes today… let me know how that goes - please be nice!
5. @jamesdoc No technical knowledge required_ This talk has no technical knowledge at all. My aim is that we keep as much of the technical jargon outside of this. If you get lost feel free to interrupt me, ask me to explain again better. We are not going to cover everything. I’ve got 40 minutes and you don’t want me to lecture you for 40 minutes! We’ll have time at the end for q&a, and throughout I hope there to be discussion with each other… No such thing as the perfect site - As I was writing this talk I discovered one of two things about Globe site that need fixing, so I’m working on those at the moment!
6. @jamesdoc Let’s talk money_ I have no budget I’ve can spare £15/month I’ve spare £15/month and a little bit more for start up costs I want to get numbers up front as well - we all sit somewhere along this budget line 0-all the budget. I’ve tried to make this talk accessible wherever you are along this spectrum. If you have all the budget (eg £10k+) you can sleep until towards the end (someone will wake you) - if you are paying an agency that kind of money they will should be doing all of this for you.
7. @jamesdoc Don’t just make a website_ You could just download a template from the internet, you could copy your favourite church website (they look nice right), you could ask a teenager within your church to do it. Don’t! Your website is more important than that... Why the website is important Your website is often the first thing that people visiting your church are going to see… people will loose the flyer that you’ve put through their door and google you, it’s your shop window That means that you need to think carefully about how you arrange your display, what you present, what’s most important…
8. @jamesdoc It’s not your silver bullet_ Will it solve all your communication problems? Probably not. Sometimes a WhatsApp group, a Facebook group, a church email is what is needed to solve your communication problem. This session is not the silver bullet to the fact that your congregation have no idea what is going on, nor will it tell your neighbourhood what you’re all about… Your website is just one tool to help communicate with people. Different churches have different demographics, different people use different tools for communication. It is however a single place that you can point people too.
9. @jamesdoc Start with user needs_ “If you don’t know what the user needs are, you won’t build the right thing. Do research, analyse data, talk to users. Don’t make assumptions. Have empathy for users, and remember that what they ask for isn’t always what they need.” - Government design principles https://www.gov.uk/guidance/government-design-principles Gov uk design principles Start with the user need not the church need- you may think that what you really need from your church website is a tool which will solve all of your administration problems… but first ask What do your users want from the website?! First off who are your users? I can’t answer this one for you, but I can give you a starting block: You’ve got a couple of choices: - Are they the people in your church? - Are they the people exploring your church?
10. @jamesdoc Audiences_ Non-Christian Church Attender Church Seeker Church Leader Church Alumni Remote Listener Here’s a view from The Globe Church. We’re a three years old church plant meeting just 30 minute walk from here. We know that we’ve got these people using our website. Church seeker - those who have just moved to London and are looking for a church Church attender - those who actually come to The Globe Church Non-Christians looking in Church leaders - checking up on us + Remote listeners and those who have left and want to stay in touch.
11. @jamesdoc Audiences_ Summer… Non-Christian Church Attender Church Seeker Church Leader This audience changes shape and size seasonally
12. @jamesdoc Winter… Audiences_ Church Leader Non-Christian Church Attender Church Seeker Why such a dramatic shift there? In summer everything changes in London. People are moving to the city, in winter people are settled. In summer people are looking for new churches, in the winter people are settled and trying to work out what the church they’ve joined does each week! Remember this is The Globe Church profile - not necessarily your church. This is people coming to our website, not coming through the doors. We found this out by talking to people as they came through the doors, by buying them a cup of coffee and asking them questions about how they found out about the church when they first arrive, or what they use the website for when they’ve been coming for a six months or so… Running interviews is really helpful in working out what the website needs to do for you audiences…
13. @jamesdoc Start with user needs_ By interviewing them •How/where did you first hear about the church? •What was it that helped you stick at this church? •How did you find out about the other churches you visited in the area? •What makes this church different from the other churches in the area? •If you were to pitch this church to someone who wasn’t a Christian what would you say? •Have you used the church website recently? What did you go there for? •If you were leaving London and moving somewhere else how would you go about finding a new church? Question for newcomer needs: Here’s an example of a set of questions which I ask people who have been at the church for about three months. It’s for working out newcomer needs. I recommend rather than taking a huge number of notes as you are talking with someone about this, to ask if you can record the conversation. Just on your phone is fine that way you can be fully in the conversation. From there you can create user stories…
14. @jamesdoc User stories_ As I need To (x) (y) (z) As an (x) I need to do (y) to achieve (z) This will help you prioritise what you put on your website and how easy is is to get to. It will help you test your site once you have built it (we will come to that)
15. @jamesdoc User stories_ The reason I would go on the website in my previous church is for two things, and I think these are the only times I used the website. One was to see if there is a calendar of upcoming events. So I could put them into my diary… “ a church attender a church diary ensure I don’t miss the events As I need To So this is a quote from someone who had been part of the church for a while where I have taken the the transcript and converted it into a user story: As a church attender I need a church diary to ensure I don’t miss the church events.
16. @jamesdoc User stories_ I used it whenever I missed a service to listen to the sermon. But each time I’ve gone on when I’ve missed something, I haven’t been able to find it. I found the page with the list of talks, but I’ve looked on a Monday and they don’t go on until later on in the week. That could be why. Then I just haven’t caught up, because that was the only time I had and then I just forget. “ As I need To a church attender the sermons uploaded catch up on what I’ve missed Where do you get to with this quote from the same person? Shout out?
17. @jamesdoc User stories_ I used it whenever I missed a service to listen to the sermon. But each time I’ve gone on when I’ve missed something, I haven’t been able to find it. I found the page with the list of talks, but I’ve looked on a Monday and they don’t go on until later on in the week. That could be why. Then I just haven’t caught up, because that was the only time I had and then I just forget. “ As I need To a shift worker the sermons uploaded catch up on what I’ve missed As I need To a shift worker uploads quickly so I don’t forget about them There’s a second one in it too… One that isn’t solved by a website - it’s something for the church office to learn from. For this user getting the sermons online quick is really important.
18. @jamesdoc Site map_ I need the sermons uploaded I need the latest sermon I need a list of events I need the regular meeting times of the church I need to know when the prayer meeting is I need the location of the little fishes group I need to know what the church believes I need to know who is on the staff team I need what the church cares about I need to know if there are children groups Soon you’ll end up with a fairly overwhelming collection on what the users need. This is just a small section of what you may end up with. But as you read this collection you’ll see that there are overlaps… in fact a lot of over laps which could be nicely grouped together
19. @jamesdoc Site map_ I need the sermons uploaded I need the latest sermon I need a list of events I need the regular meeting times of the church I need to know when the prayer meeting is I need the location of the little fishes group I need to know what the church believes I need to know who is on the staff team I need what the church cares about I need to know if there are children groups Sermon archive: About the church: What’s going on: As you collect all these user stories you’ll start to see similarities and overlaps and you’ll then be able to start drawing lines and grouping items. As you group your user stories you will find that pages or sections will come out of it… next up is to work out how these pages and sections relate to one another. Can some of these groups merge? What makes sense to link things together Make sure that you keep each of these user stories and sections linked together- they will shape what content you write…
20. @jamesdoc Site map_ Sermon archive: About the church: What’s going on: Get in touch: What does the church believe? Who are the leaders? Who is the church linked to? Sunday services Midweek groups One off events Latest sermon All other recordings Contact details Social media Home page Squashing this all down you can end up with quite a simple plan which will solve a lot of your user needs
21. @jamesdoc Content design_ No! We’re not talking about design yet. Well actually we are. This is all part of the design on your site. I know you want to make it pretty, but we’re not there yet. Design your site around the content, not the other way around. So… content.
22. @jamesdoc Content design_ As I need To visitor to the church to know when and where the church meets so I can turn up on time As I need To an expecting parent to know is there is child care know what is provided in the coming years Let’s take a couple of user stories that are reasonable to expect... As a visitor to the church I need to know when and where the church is so I can turn up in the right place at the right time. As a parent bringing children to your church I need to know what the child care facilities are so I know what to expect for little Susan I’d be grouping these under church service information. I’ll give you a minute… how would you write some content to make sure these user stories are met? Compare with your neighbour.
23. @jamesdoc Content design_ Who does this well? Lyonsdown church example. Simple, clear, effective. Reading for the readers, video for the watchers. Even a clear method of asking more questions. I’ve got a lot of lessons to learn from this - compare for example what’s currently on The Globe Church site - time and location nice and clear, but an impenetrable wall of text. Eww. Both bits of content serve the same user needs, just one does it a lot simpler and clearer. One word of warning - keep it up to date Did you change your service time? Keep it up to date Did you change venue? Keep it up to date Did you Vicar change? Keep it up to date Don’t put anything on the website that you can’t keep up to date.
24. @jamesdoc Photography_ Evangelistic café event Church service Dedication The Mark Drama Church day away Okay, we’re getting closer to talking about design As the saying goes… a picture tells a thousand words. What are people going to see when they walk in your door for the first time? I’ve mentioned The Globe Church several times now… but now you can see what we’re like! Do you need to get professional photos? If you can yes! They look 1000 times better. Do you need to? No. 50% of photos of the globe site are taken with the camera on my phone. Only one of these photos was taken on a ‘proper’ camera. Here is my criteria for photos on church websites: Buildings are boring unless they they are for context (and ugly if you meet in an old community hall or school) Real people are excellent But never people you have downloaded from the internet. Show photos of people who are going to be in church on Sunday. Give people to recognise. Yes, that is your pastor, but not only. It might be the people on the welcome team, some of your elders or the pcc… Don’t be afraid to stage some photos…
25. @jamesdoc Photography_ As I need To someone who has been coming for a couple of weeks to find out about home groups so I can join one next week So for each of these user stories what photos are you going to use / take? As someone who has been coming to the church for a while I’m want to know about home groups so I can join one next week
26. @jamesdoc Photography_ As I need To a visitor in this church know more about the recommended Alpha course see if it is right for me As a guest to the church I’ve heard about the alpha or Christianity explored group and I want to know more about it
27. @jamesdoc Photography_ As I need To someone who has just made a commitment to Christ more information about baptism be baptised! As someone who has just made a commitment to Christ I need information about baptism within the church so I can be baptised
28. @jamesdoc Still with me?_ Audiences User stories Groupings Site map Content design Photography We’ve covered a lot of ground Before we talk about building it… are we all happy?
29. @jamesdoc Building it_ Finally we’re here! There are so many different routes we could go down here… But, at this stage you’ve now got a couple of questions to explore and they revolve around speed, money, quality. Here are the options… there are others, I’m only recommending what I have used / done / had experience with. All of these are good options to go down. What I’m not going to do is go through how you use each of them - each tool I recommend will have countless videos of how to use them.
30. @jamesdoc Building it_ A Church Near You achurchnearyou.com Free! If you’re a CofE church did you know that A Church Near You is great and might solve all your problems?
31. @jamesdoc Building it_ SquareSpace squarespace.com ~£10-15/month Squarespace (or Wix) This is all 100% do it yourself. No code, drag and drop predesigned templates You don’t have to worry about anything, log in and build as many pages as you want Limited to the themes, and built in functionality
32. @jamesdoc Building it_ DIY Wordpress wordpress.org ~£10+ (for hosting) per month Wordpress wordpress.com ~£20 per month eg: tsohost.com Hosted Wordpress £20/month All the fun of SquareSpace but with a lot more themes to choose from Where WP really comes into its own is when you self host though and you then have the plugin library to extend it’s functionality (eg: sermon library plugin)… DIY Wordpress land ~£10/month for hosting and up For a whole lot more flexibility (and a little bit of a step up in the technical world) there is something like Wordpress Countless themes, and flexibility for functionality https://www.tsohost.com/ There is a lot that is good here, you have to keep the software up-to date though. I would only go down this route if you’ve got someone in your church who ‘knows’ wordpress
33. @jamesdoc Building it_ Small agency £500–> £2k setup ~£10-15/month ninefootone.co.uk Small agency £2k setup + ongoing hosting The lower the price the less likely they’ll go through the steps that I’ve mentioned above, but they’ll do the heavy lifting for you to get everything set up. They’ll know the things about what a church needs and will already have the knowledge to apply best common practices They’ll look after building the site on a platform of their choice, might be Squarespace, might be Wordpress, might be something different. For example I’ve worked with Jon at NineFootOne. They make some great sites on a shoe string for churches
34. @jamesdoc Building it_ Large agency £2k and beyond worthers.com boxhead.io onesheep.org sparks-studio.com Large agency They’ll go through all of the steps above Custom build a site to your user needs Set it up and look after everything Team of experts Better perspective; outside taking the time to understand well Oh the cost. Much expensive
35. @jamesdoc Testing and review_ Remember those user stories? Find a couple of other people, get them a coffee and ask them if they can do find out (z)
36. @jamesdoc Testing and review_ “The best results come from testing no more than 5 users” - Jakob Nielsen https://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/ Remember those user stories? Find a couple of other people, get them a coffee and ask them if they can do find out (z) Nielson - 5 people find 85% of the problems If you find a problem - work out how to make it simpler.
37. @jamesdoc Testing and review_ The only link to the blog section is here A quick example from The Globe Church…I know that the pastor has written a blog post from the latest sermon… how do I find it? Okay that needs fixing. Simple changes make the world of difference
38. @jamesdoc Make it live_ Right - there you go. Your site is built, tested. You can launch it into the world. Depending on who the site for will depend on how you do this… When we launched the new Globe Church site we didn’t tell anyone. It was made for people who were exploring churches in London, therefore it didn’t need fanfare in the congregation. If your user needs have come from the church congregation you may want to make more of a thing about it. Bring out those user needs and show how you have listened to people and show how you have made specific things easier to do.
39. @jamesdoc A final word on sign off_ The quickest way to make this the most painful thing that you have ever done is to make a committee. Building a website is not a committee thing. It’s not. Please don’t make one to do this. You’ll end up with a website that looks like it was made by committee. Trust is a really important thing here- trust people, get trust. If you work through these steps you’ll be able to make something with confidence If you’re building it get permission to make decisions If you’re not building it give permission to make decisions Ship it early, you can fix it quickly later if you need to.
40. @jamesdoc Questions? PS: Slides in exchange for feedback jamesdoc.com/premdac-feedback