Having a website is an idealistic idea for boosting the growth of the website and as the website grows old and it keeps on updating, its popularity and its placement lies under the most influential and ostentatious websites but imagine of the cond
Case study will be helpful for
1. All those who are willing to have a Website for School, college or Institution.
2. Website owners of school, colleges or institutes who are not getting users or visits on their website.
3. Website owners willing to redesign and upgrade their school website, college website or institute website websites.
4. Researchers and Analyst working in domain of Websites, Schools, Colleges, Institutes, learning Centers and other related field of interest in same domain.
This case study is distributed in clearly defined sections and heads
1. Objectives
2. Requirements
3. Analysis
4. Problems and issues
5. Solutions
6. Recommendation
Objectives of Case Study
To Ascertain the key elements involved in Creation of School website, college Website, institute website or any other learning center website and highlighting key components in such websites
Requirements
To Establish the Requirements of development for School website, college Website, institute website or any other learning center website. It can be classified as
1. Branding Based Website Design
2. Upfront Menu items
3. Easy Navigation
4. Segment Segregation according to User Types
5. Straightforward and easy to use Admin Panel
6. Mobile Friendly and Responsive website
7. Proper placement of pictures
8. Compelling design to explore more
9. Dynamically scalable Website
10. Easy to Maintain and Expand Website
Analysis
An in-depth Analysis was done for The elements to be on websites related to School website, college website, institute website or any other learning center website and specialized focused areas were chosen as follows
1. Logo Area
2. Landing Area
3. Banners
4. Menu Bar
5. Search Box
6. Log In and Sign Up
7. Help & Support Pages
8. First Scroll
9. Categories
10. Middle Section
11. Bottom Area
12. Footer Region
13. Analytics
14. User Tracking
15. Photos Section
16. FAQ section
Problems and Issues
1. Logo Placement
2. Institute name size and placement
3. Landing Area size and items to be placed in it
4. Fonts, Sizes and colors
5. Banners Area, Size and information length
6. Menu bar strict category segmentation
7. Items to be shown within First Scroll when there is a lot to talk about
8. Middle page elements representation with pictures vs Text
9. Bottom page elements with Social links and other connections
10. Footer Region with email support
11. Download sections placements
12. Presentation of videos and animations within the website
13. Length of website
14. News and media section placement and highlighting for branding
15. How to strike the right chord among intended user
16. Integrating search box and its placements
17. Single menu vs double menu
18. Depth of website
19. Number of modules
20. Expansions and Scaling up issues
Solutions
1. Landing Area need to represent the elegance and class of Institute with Actual pictures of Facilities taken up by professional photographers so that when website visitors actually visit the facility like School, college or institute then there should not be a gap in his expectations and reality.
2. Logo Placement can be done in Center or left side of the screen; right screen side placement should be avoided unless no other option is left for logo placement.
3. Institute name size and placement should be upfront and must be of larger font size than other data and information on the page. Colors must be carefully chosen as per the logo and website theme colors
4. For Logo and name placements it should be kept in mind that it should not be placed in a way that it leaves a gap or huge white space between top of website and menu bar/ banners. Wasting of space looks unorganized hence design landing area carefully.
5. Landing Area size and items to be placed in it must be in accordance to the projections needed. Its size should not cover the complete area which comes when a user land on the page, it is advised that landing area must accomplish Menu items, Categories, banners, headings, tag lines, contact area, login and quick links.
6. On landing area pictures should be majorly placed inside banners. Outside the banner text is preferable inorder to keep meaningful photos
7. Fonts, Sizes and colors must be same throughout the website, few alterations and relaxations can be done is something off track need to be discussed. Except that, all size and colors must be smartly calibrated with websites
8. Banners Area, Size and information length is first thing which is seen when a user lands on website. Preferably 70-30 ratio is maintained which can be further extended upto 60-40 however it can also take other percentages as per the designed theme.
9. Menu bar strict category segmentation is solution for untraceable categories and items. Logical segmentation must be done and priority to most searched items must be considered while designing and placing the menu bar items.
10. Items to be shown within First Scroll when there is a lot to talk about is the problem majorly faced by almost all website designers and clients. For this thumb rule is to show those items and modules which you know is being searched or used most on the website. It can also be used to represent your distinctive features from others so as to show that how your band is different from others.
11. Middle page elements representation with pictures vs Text has to be taken care off very seriously. Most of the website designer get confused as of how much pictures and text must be deployed for representing the facts and information. Pictures are always preferable to make website look good however text makes the items more explainable hence mid to small size images must be used in the ratio totally contrasted by what you have used in top or bottom of this section. This will give highlighting to this section.
12. Bottom page elements with Social links and other connections create a look of just like thrown and random placement. This is important part where you can appeal your visitors to join you or bookmark you. Hence for this particular sections, use small images, links but all the sections must be positioned in groups so that user can identify which part belongs to which category.
13. Footer Region with email support is the most usable section when you need to ask for registering and display why user should register to your websites news and letters, magazines, classes, Moocs and other offerings. For this the best solution is to keep items size small, do not use pictures and keep all links active. If section is growing to larger length then read more, explore more type of buttons can also be used.
14. Download sections placements is always an issue because you don’t know who the visitor is and what he is looking for. To solve this problem website designer can make a separate head of download section where all the categories of downloadable items can be positioned according to categories. Login controls can also be provided if downloadable items are need to be segmented and controlled.
15. Presentation of videos and animations within the website must be taken seriously because these sections are the heaviest section which takes time to load and if touched then a lot of bandwidth is wasted if user just scrolled anywhere else on the website. Such sections should be placed in middle or bottom of pages where its activation and deactivation controls should be depended on mouse event combined with control buttons.
16. News and media section placement and highlighting for branding will allow website owners to brand and market themselves where as to accomplish this most of the websites gets loaded with lots of news and media reports on landing pages. Overly loaded sections actually put off the other intended users of the websites hence it is important to keep it upto 10% of total page even if you have a healthy marketing. Unless institute is all about marketing and branding then it can be obviously different.
17. How to strike the right chord among intended user can be a problem if your website is being used my larger section of people. Where young, mature, aged people, professionals, parents and alumni are in the list of users. In such cases the best method is to stick to your prime domain and all other items must be given separate head. If website dynamic nature allows user to configure their panels then profile area must be equipped with such service after login to website. This customization with login can solve a larger section of problems but it will be costly affair to build.
18. Integrating search box and its placements is important because 30-40% people who are not use to your navigation still can get confused. For their rescue search bar it highly important. Size should be small to normal whereas it can be placement should be anywhere on homepage where it can be seen and identified separately.
19. Single menu vs double menu can be a problem is you have more number of menu items to be shown which cannot fit into one menu bar. In such cases divide menu bar according to functionality and place it separated to each other. Look of menu bar and landing page will get impacted however it will entirely depend on theme designed.
20. Depth of website is the most controversial issue as it is dependent on items to be covered and focused on. Ideally 4-6 scrolls are good however if it is not getting covered in such scrolls then move section to head and keep it expandable.
21. Number of modules can actually very be depending upon the area to be touched. It can actually grow to N number but keeping all the relative modules with respect to website and domain is important. For any other module you think it might be of some use or users may be interested in then such sections should be placed in separate header with a link to access it must be represented in suitable category
22. Expansions and Scaling up issues can be dealt if the developed platform consists of non-restrictive design for development. The interdependency of modules should be avoided in terms of design and style controls. Functions must be kept independently and admin control should be separate for all items. It is also recommended that rather than using a platform use the fully controllable custom coding so that all parts will remain scalable and modifiable whenever needed
Recommendations
1. Do not over play with photos
2. Animation should be used to the minimum
3. Videos must be placed but either on landing area or in smaller sections at middle or bottom region
4. Videos must be hosted outside the web hosting otherwise the bandwidth issues can cause serious drain in bandwidth limit
5. Videos and photos must be optimized according to internet speed and bandwidth of website visitor
6. Do not clutter the elements and information without proper segmentation and categorization
7. Website length is taken well if it covers most of the parts in 4-5 or may be 6 scrolls however it is not hard and fast rule, it can be even less or more depending upon the theme designed
8. The number of modules and functions can be endless however stick to the thumb rule of display only what should be displayed or speak about your brand
9. Such websites can do a lot more than just information delivery hence it is always advised to connect it or expand it with other modules which runs at backend (no public access) such as Accounting, ERP, CRM, auto emailer attached, reporting etc.
10. IT is recommended that such websites must hold a place where it speaks about credentials, Awards, recognitions, Achievements and success stages and other important facts and elements which add up to the reputation of such school, college or institution
11. For extended usability Almost all such websites can include modules like online examination, subject papers, help/ key points on topics, form filling, application for job/guest faculty and other relevant items.
12. Almost all such domains have a lot of information to share and spread, which certainly spread a good word in market or industry about their presence, work and achievement hence it is advised to design Moocs on such topics and attach it to website. It can further be expanded with community library for online reading and relevant articles and publications in due regards
13. Parents interaction Zones are most of the top list in such websites due to the fact that parents always want to know what and how their child is progressing. To cater such requirement, it is recommended that such websites must include parent’s interaction zones by providing login access, notice areas, emails and other communication methods based on web
14. Magazines and newsletters sections are always hit among those who are genuinely interested in understanding the quality of school, college, institute etc. such sections must be placed either at the bottom or in the profile regions. If publication is regular, then placing in middle section will also be a great choice.
15. Upcoming events are recommended if they are frequently conducted. The size should not be bigger than other items and must be placed either at top or in middle sections. It is also good to provide such information in login section/ profile area as this motivates users to login into their accounts once a while to remain updated and increase the interaction rate with websites.
16. Calendars are highly used due to its objectivity and conclusive reporting of events. It by analytics you have uncovered the fact that event and calendars are the most searched items then you know how much drastically it can be deployed at any section in the website.
17. Faculty and their expertise richness is always a big marketing point; this can be used to display by creating separate section with adequate focus. Modules should be used like “Connect with faculty” so that users can read about them as well. This is always a branding and marketing point hence it is recommended to be used with great care.
18. For Gallery Section there is no set format and you may use any nicely organized patter of your choice which should go with the designed theme. Most of the time animations are used which obviously work best if it can handle the picture size and dimensions.
19. Alumni are great resources and always helpful whenever needed. Hence it is always advisable to provide some profile region to them and a section must be developed where they can remain interested about latest things for Alumni. This helps in developing multi-purpose and multi utility websites where it helps in increasing the website visitors, hits rate, longer duration on websites, different regions hits and much more Digital Marketing benefits which are all round help to website
20. After the website has become popular among the users and Analytics should credible amount of users are using website then it will be very beneficial to get the services of Business Development consultants and Digital Marketing Company where they will be extremely helpful in Re-structure business processes, Re-design the website, design and develop more on elements which focus more on customers and services, Re-calibrate the budgets and expenditures, Re-write the business plans and targets as you scale up with the help of business development experts to keep up with the organizational goals and growth
21. Consult Digital marketing services for increasing users on websites, understand how users interact with website, how the analytics can help in further increasing the ranking, prestige, branding and marketing of the business and website.
The above case study will allow users to understand several key zones related to fashion, clothes, online apparel based shopping Website and other websites in the same domain, however It may or may not apply to your website hence do consult specialist before implementing the above stated points or you can contact us for further and accurate analysis of your website and support. We recommend users should Use the information with caution and at their own risk.
