People think they know you. Even before they know your name, they think they have figured you out. Why?
Strangers make assumptions about you based on your appearance.

The scary part is that their assumptions about you are solely derived from their past assumptions and experiences as well a variety of cultural and psychological reasons. It takes a relationship or an outside opinion to change those assumptions.

PERCEPTIONS
From the two photos below, which do you perceive to be Bob and which is Tim?

Photo Credit: Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

Most perceive the man on the left to be Tim and the man on the right to be Bob. Miami University Researchers are trying to figure out why. One possibility is that the sound of a name crosses over to a visual representation. (source)

These types of effects of category labels on lower-level perception are becoming a concern for researchers in cognitive and social psychology because their existence suggest that we may not ever be able to see what’s actually there but will always be influenced by what we expect to be there.
- Robin Thomas :: Associate Professor of Psychology :: Miami University

In other words, perceptions are influenced by expectations.
David Kinnaman of The Barna Group conducted a study asking non-Christians ages 16-29, “What is your current perception of Christianity?” (source)
o 91% said antihomosexual
o 87% said judgmental
o 85% said hypocritical
o 78% said old-fashioned
o 75% said too involved in politics
o 72% said out of touch with reality
o 70% said insensitive to others.
Before a church reaches someone with their website or a postcard or MySpace page, that church is already at a great disadvantage in how it is perceived by young non-Christians. For this reason, churches must do everything they can to make their first impressions great impressions.

AESTHETICS
A man once approached Bombay Creative about designing a new website. His business was quickly dwindling, and he was becoming desperate. He had a limited budget and had finally understood the importance of a well designed website. However, before we could even begin designing his site, he invested in pay-per-click advertising. He had a good product, but his website’s poor design was ruining his credibility. The advertising brought 1,200 prospects but only converted two into customers. Instead of reaping a return on his investment, he lost thousands of dollars.

60% of the decision to buy a product is based on color.

A 14-year-old named Michael once said this about Zours, “First I bought it because it looked cool. Later I bought it because it tasted good.”

JUDGING WEBSITES

A Nature.com article on Gitte Lindgaard’s research about how web users judge websites shares the following:
o If you can snare people with an attractive design, they are more likely to overlook other minor faults with the site, and may actually rate its actual content more favorably.
o People enjoy being right, so continuing to use a website that gave a good first impression helps to ‘prove’ to themselves that they made a good initial decision.
o Potential readers can make snap decisions in just 50 milliseconds. (source)
Yesterday’s best is today’s bad. Websites have greatly evolved in ten years. (see article)

SEVEN QUESTIONS TO ASK
1. Who am I?

o Your design should be a reflection of your ministry (your brand).
o 18 Questions to discover your brand:
1. Why was your ministry created?
2. What is your ministry’s mission?
3. Who are you called to reach?
4. Rank your target audiences in order of importance.
5. How do you want to be perceived by each audience?
6. What are your three most important goals?
7. What is unique about your ministry?
8. What does your ministry do better than anyone else?
9. What values and beliefs unify your staff and volunteers and drives their performance?
10. What other ministries do you admire most and why?
11. Why would someone who is unchurched want to attend your church?
12. How do you market your ministry?
13. What are the trends and changes that affect your ministry?
14. Where will you be in 5 years? In 10 years?
15. How do you measure success?
16. What are the potential barriers to your success?
17. If you could do or be anything in the future, what would it be?
18. If you could communicate a single message about your ministry, what would it be?
o A logo is the most prominent visual part of your brand.
o In Designing Brand Identity, Alina Wheeler writes, “The brand identity must be an authetic expression of an organization - its unique vision, goals, values, voice, and personality.”
o Steff Geissbuhler of Chermayeff & Geisman says, “The trademark although a most important key element, can never tell the whole story. At best it conveys one or two notions or aspects of the business. The identity has to be supported by a visual language and vocabulary.” (source)
o Distinctive. Memorable. Timeless. Aesthetically pleasing. Scalable. Looks good in color and grayscale. Simple.
o My favorite church logos. (source)

2. Who are they?

o Your design must be relevant.Understanding those who you want to reach is essential to success.
o Your design should be created to appeal to culture and needs of its target audience.
o Scott Cook, founder of Intuit, says, “Go out to your customers first and design from that.” (source)

3. Am I serious?

o Your design needs to be taken seriously.

o Your design must be truthful.
o Don’t project an image that you can’t deliver.

o If you design looks sloppy, people will think your church is sloppy.
o If your postcard is flimsy and cheap, people will think your church is cheap.
o If your design looks like it was created by an amateur, people will hesitate to trust you.

o Unless intentional, your design should never date you.
o Design and fashion are two things that are constantly evolving.
o Photographs, colors, and design techniques can date you. Stay current. This is particularly important for ministries targeting a younger demographic.

o If your design is confusing, you are frustrating people.
o Quite often less is more.
o Create a website with clear navigation and usability.

Your design is your credibility. You can’t stop people from making assumptions, but you can create an image that produces the right assumptions.

A FEW RESOURCES (there are plenty more)
Church Related
o ChurchBeauty
o Church Communications Pro
o Church Marketing Sucks
o Church Relevance (The Top 75 Church Websites)
o Godbit
Culture (warning: these resources may also publish objectionable content)
o TrendWatching.com
o Trend Hunter
o Trend Spotting
Design
o Colour Lovers
o Design Meltdown
o Smashing Magazine
I also mentioned ClickTale, a web tool that allows you to see heat map of where your website visitors give their most attention.

from Kent Shaffer at Churchrelevance.com

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