Overview
When a private institution is trying to set up a website there is a deep and through investigation that needs to happen to assess the needs of said institution. In the case of privates schools those needs are for the most part common and consistent. Silverpoint pioneered taking that extensive research and building a common structure that most schools could utilize if they had a need for it, be it things like departmental sections and activities calendars for things like sports and extracurriculars. The job of us designers was to capture the essence of the school and make that common framework shine for each and every school so that they felt we built a customized experience for them.
Goals & Challenges
It was ultimately the choice of the school to decide in which direction to go, and often their goals were mixed and unfocused. Most of our efforts were not only providing a design that was compelling, but to help the rally around a common primary set of goals for the website so that their message could be complete.
The other aspect that we had to address was how to bring many administrators who were not overly tech savvy to embrace certain technologies and choices. In some instances having to build certain experience in order for them to see the potential outcome.
Styling Common structures
The power of the common CSS structure meant that we could look at the basic site and quickly and widely establish design patterns
Navigation
As designers we would create unique treatments for navigational elements of the site. Choosing appropriate colors for mouse-over and drop-down effects, ensuring that the way the navigation functions suits the overall design of the site.
Text Treatments
The way text appears on the site - its relative size, font, color and other stylistic attributes - is another design deliverable that, done right, helps unify a design right down to the words on the page. The treatments extend all the way down to the look and feel of tables, bulleted lists, and block quotes.
Photo Treatments
Because the photographs and other images used on a schools site are such an important element of the overall look and feel, we took special care to highlight the images that really gave visitors a sense of the unique character of the school.
Multiple-column Layouts
Multiple column layouts was one of the main things that allowed the structure to have not only fluidity but variety. It would also provide hierarchy as to the information that was being presented. A one column layouts used for a detail of a news article or multiple columns for supporting info.
