Minnewashta Church

Context:

Minnewashta Church began its life in 1901 and has remained a fixture in the West suburbs of the Twin Cities ever since. The church didn’t take its first leap into the online space until early 2016 when they were looking for new ways to increase their membership. I was initially engaged at that time to build out a cost-effective site that would showcase the church’s history and deep roots in the area. I had also taught one of the members how to update the site after my initial build, as the church did not have the budget for maintenance.

Challenges:

In the ensuing years, the church had engaged another local website company to redesign the site in 2020 after a change in church leadership. This new company had completely changed the look and feel of the site, removing most of the unique features that had set the original site apart from other local churches. 

Upon the resignation of that new leadership in late 2021, I was asked to come back and complete a full site audit as they had seen a significant drop in site traffic and a change to the visual and text messaging that the church board felt did not accurately reflect their doctrine or beliefs. 

During my audit of the site I found a site that had been stripped of most of its original content, a generic and monotone color scheme. They had also employed a video background to the hero banner that had not been properly optimized, which was significantly affecting the site’s performance (to a score that fluctuated between 4-19 on mobile). And a lack of consideration and implementation of ADA considerations and guidelines.

Consultation:

I provided a pitch deck to church leadership of my findings along with recommendations for technical improvements. From a design standpoint, while I was given “carte blanche” to give the new site whatever look and feel I wished to, I elected to work closely with a senior member of the congregation to refine the messaging to make sure I was accurately reflecting the church’s beliefs. We then discussed how the color scheme and visuals we selected would provide context to the site’s content. Ultimately, using a tapestry in the church’s possession to inform the color scheme.

Finally, the branding was reworked to bring it back to a more classic version of the church’s logo, with the updated color scheme to ensure that the site all worked in concert from element-to-element.

Notable Results:

While I am still working with this client to continue to refine the site to improve performance, as of February, 2024 this site has seen a GPSI score increase from 4 to 51 (mobile) and 7 to 63 (desktop). And an accessibility score that was originally scoring under 49 to a score of 90.