525,600 minutes

How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?

A year ago we began planning and working towards a new online presence for Mountaintop Community Church, the progressive church where I serve as Minister of Creative Media.  We occasionally measured the year-long journey in miles and laughter.  But typically, it was inches and strife.

We had thought the process would take a couple of months.  We were grossly naive.  Fall turned to Winter and we had rejected our first round of designs from the vendor.  Winter turned to Spring and we’d passed rounds two and three.  As Spring gave way to Summer we’d said no to a fourth round and all communication had broken down. 

Seeing no light at the end of the tunnel, we took the bull by the horns (as they say in Texas) and set out to design the site ourselves.  I became the design firm and my pastor became the client.  During a week of hashing out the design during a retreat to the mountains (about which I care not to speak), we finally came to the design you see today.  If we had tried to do the design ourselves a year ago, I don’t believe we would have ended up with as good a design as we did.

Now, as Summer turns again to Autumn, the site is live and we are moving on with finishing smaller elements of the site such as podcasting, video archives, live streaming, an online store, etc.

Some things I’ve learned:

1. Make sure you are comfortable with both the back-end updating software and the front-end design capabilities your vendor is offering.
2. Find great examples of great work from other great designers and churches.  It will help you communicate your ideas.
3. Form follows function.  While the design needs to be eye-catching and engaging, the ultimate test is functionality.  Is it usable and easily navigable?
4. Everyone that sees a ‘design comp’ will have an opinion, and every opinion will be markedly different.  While they are all important, the job of the designer or project manager is to communicate well using excellent design principles.
5. Opinions will change. As the project drew out, our goals and aesthetic preferences changed several times.  Keep good notes and document everything.
6. Bring your staff and congregation along throughout the process.  Keep them updated well and often.
7. No matter how much time you have, it’s never enough. 
8. A project is never finished, only abandoned.
9. There are worse projects to spend a year of your life doing.