One of the UK’s leading colleges had its website relaunched and revolutionised with a little help from us. This project has been extra special because our Technical Director, Adam Davis, is a former student!
The result for Runshaw is a user interface that is the first of its kind within the local education market. For our agency, it’s allowed us to showcase our academic website design skills in style.
Adam completed his A Levels at Runshaw College 20 years ago and after progressing to university he went on to work with a number of web design agencies and also provided freelance work. He founded Soap Media with me in 2005.
Reimagining Runshaw College’s Website
The digital agency was selected to complete the work for Runshaw via a competitive tender process that ran nationally. Commencing in August this year, the 12 week consultation, design and build process was project managed by a task group within the college, in close collaboration with the agency.
The unique functionality of the site apparent through the simplicity and ease of use of the navigation and course selection process. We used eCommerce principles to create a simple tick box selection system which refines the choices for potential students. This technology results in users being able to quickly find what they are looking for and is unique within local educational establishments.
The tone, style, and look of the website was a collaborative process comprising ideas from the project team, staff, students, and other stakeholders.
Adam said: “As a former Runshaw student it was a fantastic opportunity to develop their new online presence. I have very fond memories of my time at the college and to see how it has grown and developed was a pleasure. Bringing the website in line with Runshaw’s current position as a leading educational provider was a challenge that we enjoyed and the end result is something we are incredibly proud of. Not only is the site very modern and sleek, it is also very user-friendly, innovative and future proofed.”
Utilising WordPress & Mobile
Runshaw College was the perfect opportunity to show of our web design and development skills. The site has been built on WordPress, the world’s most popular Content Management System (CMS), which allows the team at Runshaw to update the site with ease. We integrated bespoke programming into the back end of the website, including the automation of manual tasks and syncing of data across systems, saving the College’s IT team’s time and resources.
IT Lead, Andrew Gant, who managed the project on behalf of Runshaw College, said: “The new website is of huge benefit to us, not only from an end user point of view, but also from a behind the scenes perspective. Courses created in our Student Information System are now automatically imported into the website upon creation, forming a seamless process. We now also have the ability to syndicate news items and events on the website with our newly developed Communications Portal and our Staff Portal so that staff and parents are kept abreast of the very latest news as it happens. This live news approach to the homepage creates a highly interactive social hub, giving the site a current, vibrant feel that ties in to the culture of the college.”
Another key element of the rebuild was ensuring the site was fully optimised for all devices, as 75% of all users of the previous website were viewing it from smartphone or tablet devices.
A Bright Future for Students
Launching the new site is a big moment for Runshaw and us. Runshaw College’s Principal, Simon Partington, said: “We’re incredibly pleased with the new design and functionalities, which have been very well received by our students, prospective students, staff, and parents or carers alike. The design is current, innovative, user-friendly and works across all platforms, representing us perfectly as leaders in our field.”
The website will continue to develop, with the college having commissioned us to carry out further work to improve apprenticeship application pathways online.
Potential applicants will have the ability to search for vacancies in a similar way to courses and navigate easily between a vacancy and the course element. The team at Runshaw believe they will be the first in the area to do this and that internal processes will be streamlined by the technology.
