I got so much great feedback from my last post – which led to a lot of changes.

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Overall the major changes were:

• dulled the colours a bit and increased the hint of grunge-style to reduce the children’s-site vibe.
• added a cross to drive home the whole xian thing
• added an ad/feature slider to the top to allow for the inclusion of more colours and pictures of real people (unfortunately there are no pictures of ‘real people’ yet from the community, so I’m trying to keep the stock-photos to a minimum – but they can be added here later)
• removed the badges from the sidebar (and adding them to the slider)
• separated the news & events to eliminate important ones being buried
• increased the padding/spacing in the main text
• increased the size/shadow of the headers to make them stand out more

Some things I’m still unsure about:

• the colour of the sidebar – some people mentioned it doesn’t feel quite right. I agree, but I can’t seem to find anything better – suggestions?
• social media badges – style/size/position?
• visual balance – especially in the header area
• the right sidebar in general
• anything else?

Thank you so much for your feedback – I think it’s looking better already. And I’m learning a lot in the process

Just a quick FYI – the comments are broken on here temporarily. I still get them but they aren’t displaying right so I’m getting them and I appreciate them but until I fix it, I can’t reply directly. But since most people are letting me know their thoughts on Twitter anyway, hopefully it doesn’t matter too much for now (hint: I’m easier to find on Twitter anyway)

This is for a church website (can’t do anything about the logo) with a median population age of mid-30s.

The premise of the community is that it is similar in its revivalist essence like the crazy-costal churches but on the more liberal end of the spectrum.

Ideally it will be as expandable and flexible as possible.

There are some font problems with the tagline + headers – that’s due to working on 2 different computers – just ignore that (the services and news & events headlines have the correct font).

This is the front page only and will feature blog posts by Marty – the subpage is intended to be pretty much the same, not sure if the sidebar would go there or not yet.

Some of the things I’ve struggled with are: positioning of the social media badges (especially if I only use 2), background colours/pattern that can repeat/stretch, and the positioning/style of the tagline (which ended up impacting the headers).

Thoughts?

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I’ve never fully understood this attitude. The idea that having an ‘online’ life is somehow not ‘real’ leads to the idea that people who spend time socializing online don’t ‘have lives’.

Last night I went out to a great spontaneous tweetup with 5 people I’ve met and got to know online. It was a real life meeting, with real food, drinks and social interaction. Yet a large part of my relationship with each of them occurs online.

Last week, I went to see the new Star Trek movie with rtraction who gave away tickets to local Twitterers. I met some new people and saw a great movie just because of a connection made online.

I don’t think this experience is unique to heavy users of social media either. I’ve seen everything from birthday parties to political rallies organized on Facebook. Are these events any less real because they’re organized virtually?

Facebook has taken off because it allows users to keep in touch with friends and family that they may not otherwise. It allows users to know people by real names and mirrors real relationships users have with each other.

If you’ve ever tried to manage your personal and professional image separately, you quickly learn how difficult it is to make a strong distinction between the two. Of course there will be differences, but they are rarely dramatically different.

As people move to using their real names, profiles and are more strongly linked to their online usernames, I scratch my head at the idea that somehow online image management can be any different. In fact, in my experience, it makes any sort of distinction harder.

Drawing a line between the online world and the offline world is something I’ve seen a lot in advertisements that make an awkward distinction between their online and offline campaigns/images.

The fact of the matter is that technology isn’t just for geeks anymore. Online isn’t just a fun place to go and role-play. Conversations online are no less real and genuine than a conversation on the telephone or by letter for that matter. They may have different characteristics (as would a telephone or business conversation differ from a letter or friendly conversation) but they are real nonetheless.

The word virtual doesn’t only mean the opposite of real. It also means a simulation.

The dialogue, interactions and relationship may only ‘simulate’ real-life conversations (just as the telephone might simulate real-life discussions), but the ideas and dynamics between participants are just as ‘real’ as ever.