Reformers Unanimous
Reformu.com is the home page for Reformers Unanimous a Local Church Addictions Program based in Rockford, IL. The ministry had their previous design for about five to six years, and it was lacking in a number of areas. We first analyzed the site with the client, and determined what they liked about it, and what they felt needed to be changed. The first problem was that the site colors were too dark, making navigation somewhat difficult. To compound the issue, there was voluminous amounts of information on the site, but much if it was not easy to find. Furthermore, the site was declining in traffic, and the ministry wanted the addicted of the world to find the site as a bridge to the local Church by typing common, addiction related search terms into a search engine. Lastly, the client wanted to use the website as a platform for communicating to the several hundred Reformers chapters across the globe.
The solution? The first step was to determine what kind of people in the average day would visit the site. Once this was determined simple headings were placed on each page which directed this people group to the relevant organizational information for them. For instance, "Help I'm addicted," would direct the addicted to relevant information thus improving the chances that the desired impact was made before the subject lost interest.
Secondly, the issue of appearance was addressed. The overall site design, determined by the client, was "clean" meaning plenty of whitespace to make navigation easier by drawing focus to relevant info. There was a preexisting organizational logo, so we decided to use shades of its primary colors to give a somewhat "branded" feel. To increase traffic to the site from search engines, an analysis of what the target audience would be searching for was made. After these key words were determined, they were strategically placed throughout the site to increase visibility in search results.
Finally, to communicate to current chapters, it was decided to begin an effort to leverage the vast amount of communicative data already accumulated: video, audio, writings etc. Online services such as google video, sermonaudio.com, and others services were used to deliver content to the target audience. The result has been a several hundred percent increase in daily traffic, vastly improved communication, and increased response from site visitors.