We have worked with Virginia College, Cavan for nearly 5 years. At the end of last year we embarked on a discovery phase which would see a new design realised for the college. The new school website went live yesterday and we couldn’t be prouder of our team. This post will highlight some of the more engaging features of the site design/layout. It is important to note that the school were very hands-on during the build and had a great vision for how they wanted the site to look & feel.
A school representative said:
“A massive thank you to the staff at whole school for their help, guidance and support in the creation process of our new website. They were very helpful throughout the whole process and each request was fulfilled very promptly and efficiently and always to a very high standard. I would highly recommend this company for your school website!”
Feature Focus
When you first access the site, the user is presented with a lightbox style pop-up, which offers a tour of the school. This will be in place for the first term, and will be a big help for those new year 8 students who are unfamiliar with the school’s ethos, history and physical layout. It also allows the school to highlight the proposed upgrades that are planned for the coming year.
Once the splash-screen/ lightbox is closed, we see a video background, offering the user dynamic and engaging content above the fold, to entice them to scroll beyond. The video showcases the various elements of school life at Virginia, and gives the visitor a real sense of the type of environment in which students are taught.
You will notice that there are a lot of floating elements above the fold. The school required quick and obvious access to their social channels as well as their VLE (VSware), this was achieved by adding quick-links above the fold, without compromising on the design, or the impact of the video background. The student and staff login buttons provide a direct link into the school’s Office-365 account.
Project Management
Working with the designated staff from Virginia during a pandemic had its challenges (logistically speaking) however, the school were very attentive and responsive to our requests for content. They worked to get new images, and video footage created to ensure everything was as up-to-date and fresh as possible.
We used the zoom platform for review sessions, which enabled us to make changes then and there and get feedback instantly. This reduced the amount of “back and forth” between our team and the client school, obviating the need for an ‘iterative site build’ and resulted in a stunning website design which the school we’re instrumental in shaping.
We thoroughly enjoyed working with the team at Virginia College – Thanks to all involved.
Have a look at the site here
If you have an exciting website project for your school/college/organisation, please get in touch with one of our website experts – Drop me a mail to ronan@whole.school and arrange a call.
