I recently read an article that described looking at websites as

‘web users walking down an electronic Main Street (the web) looking into the windows of various firms (websites) and using the window dressing they see to form impressions of the firm.’

(Winter, Saunders and Hart, 2003, Electronic window dressing: Impression management with websites in European Journal of Information Systems, 12)

If a window shopper stood at the door of your church’s website what would they learn about your view of children? Recently I spent some time window shopping in the electronic Main Street of churches, I’m not an expert on websites, but I learnt a lot.

First impressions really count. If I have to wait for a long time to see the website, if it looks boring, if the front page is advertising an event that happened three months ago, or if there are spelling mistakes on the front page, I rarely bother ‘walking’ in. In their article, Attention web designers: You have 50 milliseconds to make a good impression!, Lindaard et al (2006,  in Behaviour and Information Technology, 22:2) explain that people form first impressions of websites very quickly. They conclude that even if a website is highly usable and provides very useful information, this might not impress a user whose first impression of a website was negative.

It is not always easy to find out what children can do at your church. I do understand that not all churches have children as their first priority. But if your church has children’s ministry please make it easy for window shoppers to find out about it.  On one website, I had to download a weekly bulletin before I could find out what the children did at church. Whereas at others, there were photos, easy links that took me to vibrant interesting pages, and readily available information about children’s ministry.

Be careful of what you are really saying about children and families. If you say that children and families are welcome in big colourful letters, please make sure that all your information agrees with that. It was hard to believe the church that told me they loved children when in the next sentence they asked me to take my children to the cry room so they wouldn’t bother the congregation. I would also suggest thinking carefully about how you describe the different children’s ministries in your church. For example, is crèche a place for children to first discover a loving Saviour or is it a place that helps parents to get the most out of the church service they attend?

Tell the window shopper who is going to look after their children and what the children will do. As it’s window shopping we don’t need to know all the details, but it is helpful to know that the leaders and teachers are trained, and that they have completed Safe Ministry Training, The websites that explained what happens in each age group indicated that they were serious about children. When they also displayed photos of the children it showed that they weren’t so serious that they couldn’t have some fun.

I learnt that the church websites that made me stay awhile and have a good look around were the ones that:

• focused on the needs of the window shopper
• ensured that information could be accessed quickly and easily,
• guided the shopper to useful resources, and
• made it clear for the first time shopper to know where to go. 

What is your website saying to window shoppers and prospective visitors with children? Have a look at your website through their eyes.

Are they going to stay awhile, get to know you and maybe even visit; or are they going to walk on to the next shop?