We’re excited to continue through launch week this week.  If you follow us on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll notice us using the hashtag #launchweek as a way to share our excitement with you.  We’d love it if you followed us in both places.  To learn more about how you can win FREE coffee, check out our post here.

We just talked about the importance of making sure your website reflects the vision statement and purpose of your company, organization, or church.  In keeping with that theme, we’d also like to talk about the importanct of thinking about your audience: the people you are most trying to reach.

While your website definitely needs to be reflection of who you are and what you do, it also needs to refelct those you are trying to reach.  The reason for this is that your website must appeal to your audience, it must draw their attention, and be able to keep it–it must be something with which they relate.

Here are some things to keep in mind as far as design and audience goes:

• colors:  choose colors that are both pleasing to the eye and complimentary of each other.
• lines:  if your site has a lot of reading or pages people will visit, then you want to keep the lines simple and clean.  If not, you can have more going on.
• fonts:  use fonts that are easy to read and tie in with the colors and design you have chosen.
• tabs/navigation:  use colors for all tabs and navigation that tie in with the rest of the design.  These also need to be well-marked, easy to find, and usable.

When we set out to design the site for Redeemer Pampa, audience was something we definitely had in mind.  This church plant is unique in that the people who would be using the site represent a wide range, uniquely including a beautiful mix of races, economic levels, ages, and positions.  Because of this, the church’s site needed to be appealing to all.  Keeping this in mind, Redeemer chose neutral colors, with bold fonts that are easy to read.  The navigation buttons are well-marked and make clear all relevant information to anyone who might be visiting the site.

The result is a website that is beautiful and appealing for all who use it.  What about your website?  Does it keep in mind your audience?  Does the design reflect things that appeal to them?  What could you change?