For this project I called on my colleague, Janice Gentiles-Jones, of Online Success Map for some custom coding, SEO and general web development. Together, we met with key members of the staff to redesign this site from top to bottom. We all agreed to keep the WordPress platform for ease of use, but that was about it. It not only needed a face lift, but the navigation needed to be overhauled. A lot of people think a website just needs to look good, but the most important aspect is ease of use – not for the client but the client’s end user.So, we started by understanding who that end user was. For Trinity, it’s the current students, their parents, as well as potential new families looking for a parochial or private school. Working directly with the principal, vice principal and director of admissions, we reviewed their competitor’s sites to see what worked well and what did not. We created a navigation hierarchy and then fine-tuned it. Then we searched for premium theme templates that worked well with their branding.
After working closely then testing the site with real end-users, we took it live just before the new school year. I even taught the teachers how to post a blog for their weekly class notes which can now be found on the site.
By adding a Google calendar plugin, parents can see what events are coming up in real time as the office updates their calendar. Little things on the new site are making a real difference. We are getting positive feedback from our current families and now will start on phase two of their marketing needs. Check out the site at trinityli.org.