Context & Problem

The existing parish website had good intentions but struggled to support real daily questions: “What time is the liturgy?”, “How do I arrange a baptism?”, “When is the next youth meeting?”.

The structure had grown organically over time. Important information was buried in long pages, the navigation wasn’t intuitive, and the site was difficult to use on mobile. Parishioners and visitors often had to call the office for details that should be easily discoverable online.

My goal was to reorganize content around user intent, not internal church structure, and to deliver a calm, respectful interface inspired by Orthodox aesthetics but kept modern and clean.

Research & Personas

I started with informal interviews and observation: what do people actually ask the parish office and priest on a weekly basis? From this, I formed three lightweight personas:

• Regular parishioner (Maria, 45): wants liturgy times, feast days, and events for children.
• Young adult (Giorgos, 29): wants youth group schedule, volunteering, and confession information.
• Couple preparing a sacrament (Eleni & Nikos): need practical steps, required documents, and who to contact.

These personas guided all later decisions: navigation labels, which content to highlight on the homepage, and how deep a user should have to click for core information.

Information Architecture

The main change was a new, intent-driven structure.

I restructured the site into clear sections:

• Home: today’s or upcoming main service, key announcements, and 3–4 quick links.
• Schedule & Services: weekly liturgy schedule, feast days, confession hours.
• Sacraments & Ceremonies: weddings, baptisms, memorials, each with step-by-step guidance.
• Events & Talks: youth meetings, lectures, retreats, with dates and registration info.
• About the Parish: brief history, clergy, and photos.
• Contact & Visit: map, directions, phone, email, and a simple contact form.

Every menu item answers a clear question like “When?”, “How?” or “Where?” so that less tech-savvy users can navigate confidently without guessing.

Design & Implementation

I designed wireframes in Figma, focusing on hierarchy. The homepage shows one primary action: “See liturgy schedule”, followed by prominent links for sacraments and events.

On the visual side, I used calm colors inspired by iconography (deep blues, warm gold tones) combined with plenty of white space to keep readability and respectfulness. Typography balances a classic feel with modern clarity.

Implementation was done in WordPress to allow non-technical parish staff to update content. I used:

• A block-based or Elementor layout for reusable sections (schedules, events).
• Custom post types or categories for events so they can be listed and filtered.
• Basic on-page SEO for location and service-related queries.