Last month I asked our readers to view a proposed generation 2 version of E-Church Essentials which would allow our ministries to upload their own logo for use on every page, colorize the background to match their unique ministry coloration, and to insert their own description of their online equipping center.  An additional goal, is to move E-Church Essentials one step closer to broader browser compatability (We are waiting to see what Steve Jobs does with Macs in 2006!).  Below are the results of the survey:



Clearly the generation 2 design is preferred to the original design.



The generation 2 design earns a B- grade.  This makes me wonder what our customers and prospective customers would like to see different?  Email Me and let me know, or better yet, select "comment" below and begin a discussion regarding this blog article.



Clearly it is very important to all ministry's that their branding be consistent throughout the entire system.



Colorization is also highly important to ministry brand identity.



The "Branding" theme continues to be very important to ministrys through customized descriptions.



This one surprised me.  The response regarding cross-bowser compatability was split nearly 50/50 with a desire for cross compatability just edging out IE6-only supporters.  E-Church Essentials certainly would prefer to support additional browsers, but this is more of an issue with the browser developers not interpreting standards in the same way.  The result is that currently we would have to dummy-down our software to support other popular browsers. 

The next year holds many potential changes in the browser world.  In particular, Steve Jobs has announced that Apple will begin to use Intel chip sets.  Many believe this is a move to enable Apple computers to support Non-Apple software.  Steve Jobs has already released the "Mighty Mouse" which includes a right-click button in anticipation of the upcoming changes.  Apple also anticipates an upgrade to their popular browser in light of the changes.  E-Church Essentials is hopeful that one way or another, we will be able to support Mac-machines.  But in the mean time, Apple customers can use VirtualPC...it's cheap and E-Church Essentials runs just fine on it.

NOTE: E-Church Essentials is now initiating work on Generation 2.  Based upon your feedback, we have decided to provide full custom header design capabilities that would display consistently on every page of your online community and equipping center.  This will enable your ministry to have full branding control and to duplicate the look and feel of your website.  We are also very hopeful that Generation 2 will support Apple and Firefox browsers.