KBC website Project
Redesigning and optimizing the website to attract and retain members.
Project Overview
The goal of this project was to redesign and optimize the website for Kettering Baptist Church, enhancing the overall user experience (UX) to better serve the needs of the congregation and community. The current website lacked modern design elements, had navigational issues, and lacked mobile responsiveness, hindering accessibility and engagement. Through this redesign, I aimed to create a visually appealing, user-friendly, and technologically advanced platform that fosters a sense of community, facilitates communication, and provide valuable resources.
Challenges:
The Kettering Baptist Church website redesign faced multifaceted challenges, encompassing diverse user needs, content migration complexities, accessibility standards, and mobile optimization demands. Community engagement feature adoption, SEO implementation, and stakeholder feedback management added layers of intricacy. The project required timely completion while preserving a delicate balance between tradition and modern design elements. Successful resolution of these challenges promised a revitalized digital hub, and fostered a stronger sense of community for the congregation.
The Solution & Design Process
Tools Used:
- HTML
- Figma
- Adobe Suite
Team:
- 1 UX designer
- 1 project manager
My Role:
- UX designer
- UX research
- Project manager
Timeline:
- Overall: 16+ weeks
- Discovery & Research: 5+ weeks
- Design & testing: 11 weeks
The Goal:
User-Centered Design:
- Conduct user research to understand the diverse needs of the church community.
- Create user personas representing different demographics within the congregation.
- Prioritize user needs to inform the design process and ensure a user-centered approach.
- Integrate features such as event calendars, announcements, and newsletters to enhance communication within the church community.
Modern Visual Design:
- Develop a modern and visually appealing design that reflects the church’s values and identity.
- Utilize a harmonious color scheme, engaging imagery, and accessible typography.
- Ensure a consistent design language across all pages for a cohesive user experience.
- Implement interactive elements like discussion forums or prayer request forms to foster a sense of community engagement.
Responsive Design:
- Implement a responsive design to ensure optimal performance on various devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
- Prioritize mobile-first design to accommodate the increasing number of users accessing the website via mobile devices.
- Redefine the website’s information architecture to improve navigation and content discoverability.
Interviews:
During the empathy and ideation phase of the project, I conducted generative user interviews to build new personas to inform the design. The interview process included the senior pastor, his staff and members. Each inteview was conducted 1-on-1 and several open-ended questions were asked focusing on the ministry’s pain points, target audiences, motivations, daily routines, and more. In 5 days, I concluded my interviews and created an empathy map and user story to assess which user needs where the most critical to address. I referenced the user interview findings throughout the agile process.
Personas:
pI wanted to better understand the users’ goals, needs, experiences, and behaviors. Four personas were created for each of the user segments. They were based on user interviews and surveys, and they were updated throughout the project as I gathered more data. I used these personas whenever I wanted to think outside the box or reconsidered my initial ideas.
The personas that were created were clear and relatable representations of the target users and customers. Each Persona allowed me to understand and empathize with the users’ needs, behaviors, and preferences to ensure that design decisions were user-centered and more likely to result in successful, user-friendly products. Each persona included information such as demographics (age, location, occupation), goals and motivations, pain points and challenges, preferences, behaviors, and other relevant characteristics.
Wireframes:
I began by creating low-fidelity wireframes that focused on a basic layout and structure and moved later to more high-fidelity wireframes that were more detailed and closely resembled the final design. The wireframing tools used during this project were Figma, and pen and paper. Usability testing was conducted to help identify potential usability issues, navigation challenges, and user interaction problems.
Click on the screen to scroll through the wireframe.
The Design:
Once the usability issues were resolved, I designed the final screens in Figma. My goal was to create a visual identity that aligned with the brand’s values and message, which is: “Making Disciples That Make A Difference.” Also, I checked the competition and took a deep dive into my catalog of references for inspiration.
Qualitative and Quantitative Market Research:
A combination of qualitative and quantitative data was used for market research. This included demographic analysis, analytics data, and user behavior analysis. The goal was to gather insights that accurately represented the diversity of the user traits and behaviors. Tools used were Google Analytics, Hotjar, and Tableau.
Demographic by Gender
Pages with most views
Demographic by Age
New vs Returning Users
Conclusion:
In summary, the Kettering Baptist Church website redesign project is poised to overcome challenges through a comprehensive strategy. By prioritizing user needs, embracing accessibility, and fostering community engagement, the project aimed to create an inclusive and modern digital space. Solutions addressing content management, mobile optimization, and SEO underscored the commitment to a seamless user experience. Navigating budget constraints and ensuring timely completion added to the project’s complexity, requiring careful resource management and effective communication. Ultimately, the outcome was successful, emphasizing the transformative potential of the website in enhancing community connectivity and reflecting the core values of Kettering Baptist Church.