CHICAGO, IL (January 26, 2011) – The Evangelical Covenant Church website will sport a decidedly different appearance when the beta site that has been under development for several months goes “live” sometime during the day tomorrow (Wednesday).
The new website has been re-engineered to be less cluttered in appearance and more user friendly in its architecture and navigation. Users will find the navigation approach to be topic-oriented, not content that is organized by traditional Covenant departments as with past website versions.
Users will notice a number of enhancements to the redesigned home page, including restructured drop-down menus, a new find-a-church feature, and a new translation feature that allows any page on the Covenant website to be translated into one of more than 50 languages. The translations are not perfect, but provide enough context for users to understand the content.
The home page also provides direct access to the president’s monthly “Compass Bearings” articles as well as Covenant Twitter feeds. Another new feature is a “donate now” button for quick access to a list of Covenant ministries an individual may want to support. The daily online news report also is available from the home page.
The resources area has been redesigned to allow searches by topic, by type of resource, and by theme, as well as a more robust search window. World Mission and Covenant World Relief areas also have been expanded. Other popular and often-used content can be accessed through the Quick Links drop-down menu.
The “Who We Are” and “What We Do” drop-down menus also have been reconstructed, including refreshed content, and a new welcome message from the president has been added. A complete index of ministry departments, regional Covenant offices, and affiliated ministries appears at the bottom of the home page. Users also can visit the Site Index link at the top of the home page for a detailed inventory of material available within the website.
Four principles guided the new website development – an uncluttered appearance, streamlined and relevant content, information that is mobile adaptable, and user friendly.
User feedback is invited – a feedback link will be found in the introductory text in the top portion of the home page. As with any new website introduction, errors and unforeseen glitches can occur. The Interactive Services team will be working to quickly address any problems, should they occur. Feedback will be helpful in that process.
