The importance of design

Like many of you I have been enjoying the coverage of the 2008 Olympics. One of the surprises of the 2008 games for me has been the architecture of the various Olympic venues. In particular I am impressed with the design of the Bird's Nest and Water Cube venues on the Olympic Green. While I missed most of the opening ceremony (which I regret based on reports) I have been impressed how the organizing committee has managed to blend the ancient with the modern, nature with technology, and beauty with function.

Good design inspires, connects, in short, it fits like a well-worn pair of blue jeans. I have been doing some research over the last month for a major redesign of our church web site. Our current web site design has been in place since it's inception. And it has served us well. But it could be better.

I have several goals in mind for the new web site

• A new web site to go with a renewed building
• Create a place for new innovative ministries (ex. Bridge Builders)
• Continued highlighting of our blogs and sermon podcast including expansion of our family of bloggers
• Transition to easier to maintain, standards-based HTML and CSS markup
• Pruning of content that never seems to get updated.
• Better navigation

While I probably won't equal a Water Cube or Bird's Nest it will be interesting to see what shows up. Let me know your thoughts.