Aber Conf: Designing the Gathering
The Community-Focused Interface for Aber Conference
After designing for commercial services, specialised medical conferences, and community-focused charities, the project for Aber Conference (Aberconf.org) required a shift toward faith-based event promotion and community guidance. This website’s primary function is not sales or service provision, but to serve as a comprehensive, encouraging guide for attendees of a major annual Christian conference.
The Commission: A Digital Program and an Encouraging Welcome
Aber Conference is an annual event focused on fellowship, worship, and the preaching of the Bible. The website, run by the Evangelical Movement of Wales (EMW), needed to function as the attendee's essential resource: a detailed program, a live media portal, and a source of practical information.
The design had to achieve three main goals:
Warmth and Welcome: Create an encouraging, inclusive atmosphere consistent with Christian fellowship.
Information Hierarchy: Organise a vast schedule of meetings (morning Bible readings, evening services, workshops, prayer meetings) clearly.
Functional Pathways: Provide easy access to key features like purchasing passes and watching live streams.
Our Design Strategy: Clarity, Community, and Calendar Focus
The design approach was built around simplicity and direct navigation, ensuring that the user's focus remains on the conference schedule and the event's spiritual purpose.
Aesthetic: Warm and Uncluttered: The overall aesthetic is clean, bright, and inviting. It avoids overly formal or overly dramatic visuals, favouring a straightforward layout that prioritises content over decoration. This choice signals approachability and sincerity, making visitors feel welcome whether they are first-time attendees or regulars.
Menu as a Program Guide: The navigation structure is perhaps the most critical element. The menu items are incredibly functional and direct, acting as the main conference guide: Welcome, Calendar, Details, Watch, Buy, Maps, Songs, Info. This immediately tells the user exactly where to find every piece of necessary information, eliminating guesswork. The prominent "Buy" button also ensures the necessary e-commerce transaction (event passes) is easily accessible.
Mission-Driven Messaging: The headline messaging is direct and spiritually focused: "Be refreshed by the Word." This sets the tone immediately. The welcome text reinforces the community aspect ("It is our great joy to welcome you to Aber"), making the digital space feel personal and inclusive.
Schedule and Organisation: The bulk of the content is highly structured to manage the complexity of a week-long event:
Calendar: Serves as the master schedule.
Details: Contains crucial breakdowns for groups like Children, Youth & Families, Workshops, and Fellowship.
Workshops, Mission Exhibition, Prayer Meetings: These sections are clearly defined and given ample space to detail opportunities outside the main sessions, ensuring participants know how to get "involved."
Multichannel Integration: The design seamlessly integrates the digital and physical experience. Clear links are provided for "Watch" (Live Audio/Video), and information is included about the physical Bookshop, ensuring that users can engage with the conference content both on-site and remotely.
The Result: An Essential Digital Companion
The website for the Aber Conference is a highly successful example of service design for a large-scale, mission-driven event. It leverages a simple, clear aesthetic to organise an enormous amount of information, transforming the site into an essential digital companion for all attendees. It effectively balances the practical logistics of event attendance with the overarching goal of fostering community and spiritual growth.
