Design that works
beyond the prototype.

Project Overview

What began as a website redesign has evolved into a 9-year ongoing technology partnership with Springfield Church of Christ. Over that time, I've served as the church's de facto technology advisor — leading a full UX redesign and digital strategy, integrating a networked camera security system, managing and upgrading the church's network infrastructure, advising on hardware procurement and specifications for three computer replacements, and working alongside the church's Audio and Video team to build and maintain a live streaming capability that has kept the congregation connected through illness, distance, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The website redesign — and the digital strategy surrounding it — is one major initiative within a much broader, trust-based relationship. That relationship itself is part of the story.

The Challenge

First-time visitors were struggling to find essential information. Service times, beliefs, and event details required multiple clicks, with no clear calls to action guiding next steps. But the digital challenges ran deeper than the website.

• Low digital engagement limited outreach and community growth
• Inconsistent event participation with no digital conversion path
• Website and social media operated in silos
• No live streaming capability — services were inaccessible to remote or ill congregants
• Aging, unmanaged network infrastructure inadequate for modern digital demands
• Outdated hardware with no clear procurement or replacement strategy
• No security camera system for facility monitoring
• Limited budget and volunteer support across every initiative

Research & Planning

Analytics revealed high drop-off rates on key pages. Heatmaps indicated hesitation within primary navigation. Task-based walkthroughs confirmed visitors could find information, but it required too many steps.

• Critical information buried beneath layered navigation
• Dense text reduced readability and engagement
• No consistent CTA hierarchy guided user journeys
• Social traffic lacked a defined conversion path

Designing the Solution

The redesign centered on three primary user journeys: planning a visit, understanding beliefs, and discovering events. Wireframes validated structure before implementation. But the solution extended well beyond the website.

• Service times brought above the fold; "Plan Your Visit" as the primary CTA
• Long-form content broken into scannable, human sections — especially "What We Believe"
• Mobile-first layouts reflecting actual traffic patterns
• Accessible color contrast and simplified navigation throughout
• Networked camera security system installed and integrated for remote facility monitoring
• Hardware advisory for three computer replacements — spec recommendations matched to actual use cases and budget
• Network assessment and infrastructure upgrades to support streaming, security, and congregation-level demand
• AV/streaming pipeline built in close collaboration with the church's Audio and Video team, enabling consistent live broadcast of Sunday services — reaching congregants unable to attend in person due to illness, distance, or pandemic restrictions

Key Decisions & Tradeoffs

What separates a strong UX solution from a polished one is the ability to articulate not just what was built — but what was deliberately left out, and why. These are the decisions that shaped the outcome.

Simplifying the nav rather than expanding it. Research and analytics consistently showed that older users — the church's primary demographic — were hesitating and dropping off within the navigation. The instinct in many redesigns is to add more structure to help people find things. My decision was the opposite: reduce, clarify, and surface the most critical paths. This became even more critical when the project pivoted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the site transformed from a supplementary resource into the church's primary point of contact with its community. Simplicity wasn't aesthetic — it was a lifeline.

Reducing content density on key pages. Several pages were essentially digitized paper documents — dense, text-heavy, and formatted for print, not screens. The "What We Believe" page was the most egregious example: walls of theological language that felt more like a legal brief than an invitation. The decision to restructure this content into scannable, human sections required pushing back on the instinct to preserve everything. I prioritized comprehension over completeness.

Prioritizing "Plan Your Visit" over other CTAs. Multiple CTA options competed for prominence: event registration, newsletter signups, giving links. The decision to elevate "Plan Your Visit" above all others was grounded in two insights: first, stakeholder conversations confirmed the church's primary goal was new visitor attendance; second, competitive analysis of peer churches in the region showed this language had become the standard — meaning users would already recognize and trust it. Familiarity reduces friction. That's not a compromise. That's UX.

Working creatively within platform and budget constraints. This was a pro bono engagement with a client-mandated Wix platform. Many design decisions — layout flexibility, animation capabilities, custom interactions — were shaped by what Wix would and would not allow at the time. Rather than treating those as failures, I used them as forcing functions toward simplicity. More recently, I've explored pointing the domain to Netlify or Cloudflare to host custom HTML builds, which gives significantly more design control while preserving access to the Wix tools the client still relies on. Constraints don't end creativity — they direct it.

Building a streaming infrastructure under pressure. When COVID-19 forced the suspension of in-person services, the church had no existing capability to reach its congregation digitally. Working alongside the Audio and Video team, I helped design and implement a live streaming workflow that prioritized reliability over sophistication — the goal wasn't to build the most polished broadcast; it was to make sure the service went out every Sunday without fail, to people who needed it. Choosing dependable over impressive is a design decision. It's also the right one.

Ongoing Engagement

Nine years is a long time to work with a single client. It's also the clearest signal I can offer that the work has delivered value. Over that period, the relationship has expanded from a focused redesign project into a broad technology advisory role — one built on trust, consistency, and the ability to translate complex technical decisions into plain language for non-technical stakeholders.

The church continues to reach congregants who cannot be present in person. The network supports modern digital demands. The hardware is current. The site continues to evolve. That's not a finished project — that's an ongoing partnership, and I'm proud of it.

Results

This project reinforced that effective UX is often about prioritization rather than expansion. By aligning analytics, user behavior insights, and business goals, the website evolved from an information hub into a structured engagement tool — and the broader technology partnership ensured the church's entire digital infrastructure could support that growth.