Archive for 2006-09

UPDATE: The site was just featured on ChurchBeauty!

The much anticipated redesign of theaterchurch.com has arrived. I’m not really sure how many other people were anticipating it, I’m talking about how anticipated I was. Finally. It’s here. And it’s actually incomplete. Due to some time constraints with some upcoming events, the site was pushed live Friday morning. Normally, I would never consider going live until a site is at least 99% there. But I made an exception with the hope that the general public would be somewhat forgiving. Within a week’s time, the site should be to that 99% mark where it will stay… permanently. Because nothing is ever really done in this business.

Here’s the long and short of the design process and some of the tools and tricks used along the way. It probably won’t be definitive, but it should be close:

Concept

We started with the basic wireframing process on paper. I then developed several color pallettes of which we chose one. In the end, the colors changed slightly and we dropped a modified blue altogether in favor of the orange as tertiary. Then, I began the initial mockup process in Adobe (Macromedia) Fireworks. Interestingly, we nailed down a mockup we all liked within three revisions. The grid was pretty tight, so I was happy that we were moving forward. The eighth revision was the final choice, but the differences between the five iterations were miniscule. We wrangled over the details.

The Build

Around the sixth concept revision, I started the build. I chose ExpressionEngine as our content management system. It wasn’t nearly as apparent to me early on, but EE was an outstanding choice for us. In the beginning of the build process, I became frustrated at a very small issue in the CMS that wouldn’t allow me to parse PHP in the EE templating system. In the end, it was completely my fault for leaving a little string of bad code in the template. Garbage in, garbage out. If I’ve learned that lesson once, I’ve learned it a thousand times.

Once that little fiasco was out of the way, I moved into EE’s templating system. I got major help from Sean Sperte in the initial process. I’ve admired Sean’s work for a long time. It’s not that EE would have been difficult to learn flying solo, I just needed to know the process fast and I needed a mentor. Thanks again, Sean.

Once I had the feel for the way EE could flex in its ability to manage our content, I created the initial sitemap based on a blueprint I had on paper. The I began building the static portions of the site. EE has a brilliant option of saving templates (pages) as files on a server, but maintaining a copy in the MySQL database for retrieval. This allows me to continue developing “traditionally” without using the EE administrative interface for changes to the template system. So, I would add the barebones page to EE in the admin, save the template (page) as a file and then move to Dreamweaver for coding. DW and I go way back–I love some of the features like collapsable code, syntax highlight and automatic tag closing. I’m quite productive in that app. In the development phase, I use DW because of its file management, FTP and auto upload on save feature. I also use Notepad++ in combination with SmartFTP for quick changes to single files when DW is closed.

Once the basic pages were in place, I built the style sheets and started the process of slicing the art from the mockup. This site was the fastest initial CSS process I’ve ever done. The layout and basic color and structure was in place within about 20 minutes. Then, things slowed to a crawl as I incorporated the transparent PNG elements. They were beautiful in Firefox and Opera, but in IE6 and below, the PNGs needed some work to get them rolling right. In the end, I managed it. This was the first time I have approached transparency in web design. Because of the limitations of IE and the invalid hack to the CSS, I’ve avoided transparency like the plague. Now, I’m quite fond of the look it achieves and I like that my invalid CSS isn’t in my main style sheet. I can live with that.

So the short layout process turned into quite a long process in managing the finer details of the site. And it was really worth the investment of time–not just in achieving a look, but really strengthening my knowledge of the unique elements.

The rest of the story

I certainly can’t relay everything about this process in one blog entry. So, perhaps I’ll expound on some of the details in a series of posts. Perhaps.

Site Features

• CMS: Expression Engine
• Streaming Media: Light Cast Media
• Flash Gallery: SlideShowPro
• Host: 1and1
• Pipe: 100Mb/s
• Server: Linux (Fedora Core 4)
• Scripting: PHP, Javascript
• Compliance: XHTML 1.0 Strict, CSS, Section 508

Thanks

This was a fun project. But it was also big. And I couldn’t have done it without a few people:

Missy: My love. You were so patient with my long hours on this work. Your sense of grace is like none else. I love you.

Mom, Dad, Jenn and Jon: Thanks for letting me use the computer when I was a kid.

PM: Prime Minister Mark Batterson. Thanks for pushing creativity out of me.

Dave Clark: Dude, you were right-hand the whole time. Half of my late nights were late nights for you too. The Exchange server is money, and so is your Flash compression. You’re a beast. Thanks to Jenn for letting you chill with me. Now, where’s that Unreal action?

Lima Zulu: Thanks for keeping me entertained and lowering my stress levels. The Russells are free for dinner again.

TeamNCC: Somehow, each of you had a part in making this happen. To each of you, thanks. You make our office cool.

Stephen Elliot: You take astonishingly beautiful photographs. The magic isn’t in that sweet camera, it’s in you. Thank you for sharing your creativity with the world. You’re famous.

Nathan Gonzales, Heather Zempel and Brad McDonald: Your contribution to this project is one of the most important, and one that won’t give you the notoriety you deserve. But that’s some great copy.

Sean Sperte: For inspiration. Pure inspiration. And for the help with EE. It was the breakthrough I needed at the moment I needed it.

Ken Yarmosh and John Scordos: You two are amazing. Best to you both. The road ahead is bright for your company, thanks to you.

The creators of ExpressionEngine: This is the not the first I’ve seen of your product, but it’s the first time I’ve been immersed in it. EE is one of the best systems I have ever seen in my life. The more transparently I see your CMS, the more I love it. $100 is ridiculously inexpensive for such a fine application. See you in the forum.

The Godbit Community: I hope churches open themselves to the web standards and content accessibility. Without you, there would never be a chance of it. I pray that one day, web content will truly be for everyone. May our work make the difference. (Nathan, you make Gb happen. Mad props to you.)

Lastly, the critique section. Lots of people I really admire critiqued this site during the design process. Special thanks to each of you.

Technorati Tags: national community church, design, web, concept

Getty Images (referral)

Missy and I just finished watching Path to 9/11 on ABC. I’ve also been glued to the memorial and remembrance coverage on the news stations. Today, I’ve had a startling reminder of both the evil that struck our land on that dreaded day and the irresponsibility of the government prior to 9/11.

In so many ways, I believe we have forgotten about 9/11—even though we were so adamant five years ago that we would never forget. There isn’t anyone to blame. In fact, I blame myself for disconnecting from it. I realized tonight that I’ve failed in remembering the lives that were lost that day. But it makes me proud to have a President who has not forgotten—a President who has remained steadfast in the mission of battling terrorism across the globe regardless of public sentiment. And I’m proud of our U.S. military who are at Ground Zero of the war against terror.

I’m prayerful tonight about so many things. I pray that God unites this country. I pray that God strengthens and guides our President and national leadership. I pray God’s protection over our troops. And I pray that we never, ever forget.

Technorati Tags: 9/11, 911, September 11, WTC, terrorism, war, President, Bush, prayer

There were many cool take-aways from MinistryCOM in Phoenix. The general content of the main sessions was good. Pastor Mark did an excellent job, of course. He talked about carpe digital, using technology to communicate the Gospel. The first breakout session followed and Dave and I joined about 75 people for a discussion about the creative process and team meeting management by Anthony Coppedge, Shawn Wood and Greg Atkinson.

After the morning sessions, we grabbed lunch with Shawn and recorded a podcast as guests of Señors Coppedge y Atkinson. (I sure hope the podcast isn’t a secret… ) I’ll let you know when it is released.

I was also able to meet Tony Morgan and Kem Meyer from Granger. That was cool.

In fact, the whole conference was cool. The venue, Christ’s Church of the Valley, was absolutely stunning. I grabbed a few images with my phone, though they don’t give justice to the beauty of the facilities. The weather was great as well. The temperature floated between 85-95°F, but the humidity must have been absolute zero. Fantastic!

We had to snag an afternoon flight out on Friday, so we missed the final session. In the end, we had two delayed flights, including a 3-hour delay in Denver caused by a faulty backup battery. We didn’t get home until 3 a.m. Not fantastic. But, at least we were home.

If you are a church communications professional, MinistryCOM is a great conference that will inspire you to be more effective in the workplace.

MinistryCOM | Christ’s Church of the Valley | Images

Technorati Tags: ministrycom, communications, conference, phoenix

I’m headed to MinistryCOM in Phoenix for the next couple of days. I’m really looking forward to this conference for a number of reasons—particularly the emphasis on communications. There are some very talented people teaching in the workshops and general sessions, though I’m probably most excited to hear from communications expert Kem Meyer from Granger Community Church. Still, I think the whole conference will be well-balanced with good information and inspiration.

I’m also looking forward to meeting some peeps from the CFCC Flickr Labs, ChMS and leaders from other churches making the trek to Arizona.

Dave and I were wishing to get some entries into the creative arts competition, but we couldn’t get our projects wrapped in time. Next year, though.

Of course, as I like to do at conferences, I’ll try to blog a few highlights. For the record, Phoenix will be the farthest I’ve ever traveled into western U.S.

Technorati Tags: ministrycom, conference, phoenix