Earlier this year a team of St John’s staff, myself (Madison Gies-Guy), and our development partner (Joseph Lee), worked together to update the St John’s website. Our initial goal was to simply make the website look and feel like an extension of the larger St John’s experience. With this as our guiding goal, we set out to understand the needs of congregation members, as well as prospective church-goers.
Through a series of group conversations and online surveys, we gained a better understanding of how the website could better serve the St John’s community, as well as accurately reflect our community to those seeking a church. Some of the suggestions and insights we heard were simple: add more photos, make the church directory more prominent, and make COVID protocols more clear. Others were more challenging: for example, make Sunday sermon text, video, audio and resources in a central location; and make upcoming events and activities more navigable.
With these findings, we wrote, designed and developed a new St. John’s website that we hope is more navigable, more modern, and begins to solve the pain points listed above. You will notice that some pages have different names, and others are laid out differently. Our intention was not to confuse current congregation members, rather, help organize the content and information for everyone to understand, not just those who’ve used the site for years. We also understand that this is a living and breathing document, and is subject to change and grow as our community changes and grows. We hope that this new website is the beginning of a better online experience, not simply the final product.
We appreciate everyone who has provided insights and feedback—we could not have made the site without y’all.
If you have any issues finding important pages, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Rachel Svihel with questions. Also, we will have someone available in the Parish Hall during the 10am coffee hour on January 8 and January 15 to help people learn where to find things on the website.
Please take some time to explore our new website and give us any of your feedback!
Many thanks,
Madison Gies- Guy
