Divine Design: Revitalizing Church Website Usability

<span style="color: #242424; font-family: 'Aptos Narrow', Calibri, 'sans-serif', 'Mongolian Baiti', 'Microsoft Yi Baiti', 'Javanese Text', 'Yu Gothic'; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space-collapse: preserve; background-color: #ffffff;">This thesis evaluates and proposes a redesign of the Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church (GSMBC) website to enhance user experience. Usability testing and strategic design methodologies were used to identify limitations in navigation, content clarity, and visual appeal in the current website, impacting both congregants and non-congregants. An initial analysis of the website informed a comprehensive user experience (UX) test to gather feedback on key aspects of the site, focusing on usability, functionality, and emotional response. This test asked a group of users about the website&rsquo;s navigability, understanding of the content, and overall interaction with the website. Special attention was paid to ensuring a diverse participant pool to capture varied experiences, although direct recruitment of individuals with visual impairments was beyond the study's scope. Data on vision impairment, education level, and income were collected to contextualize the findings and foster inclusivity. User-centric design principles derived from Maslow&rsquo;s Hierarchy of User Experience and insights from &ldquo;Design is Storytelling&rdquo; were used to create a pleasurable, functional, and reliable prototype of a redesigned website. The redesign emphasizes responsiveness, recognizing that there are over 5.4 billion website visitors each year (ITU, 2023). The website prototype therefore optimizes user satisfaction and engagement and demonstrates how thoughtful digital design can enhance community outreach and involvement in religious organizations.</span>