Thursday 15 September 2011

Preliminary task: conventions of school websites 1

Today we were told that our AS project would be to design and produce a website for a campaign. Before we do this though, we need to develop our understanding of websites and build our skills in photoShop, photography and iWeb. Today we started by researching 3 school websites because our first task is to design the home page and the media studies page for a school site.

Ravens Wood School
The starting point was to look at our own school website to find the normal conventions of layout, the colour scheme, the text and the language, photography and the overall branding of the school.
Layout: Logo is top left and the logo is the school badge, the school name is to the right with a tagline to explain the school mission statement. a three-column structure is used to arrange the contents and keep everything in order. The columns to the left have links to announcements, the middle column has a welcome statement from the headteacher and the right column has the latest news from the school. At the bottom of the page is the legal references such as disclaimers, copyright and quick links to associated companies.
The colour scheme used here is the school colours of green and black. They haven't gone for a blackground though because it would look too much like it was aimed at teenagers when actually they're targeting parents. Green has been used for the banner area, the VLE login and it is picked up in the PE vests in the main photo.
There is a lot of text on this page but mostly they are text for links apart from the main message. The mode of address is formal and persuasive - they are trying to persuade parents that this is the right school for their child. Words like, "excellence", "committed" and "innovation" are used to try and set them apart from other schools.


The photography for this site is all of the students. It represents the students at RWS, how they behave, how they dress, how they are a community and how they concentrate on their work. The main photos are in a Flash programme which makes them change every few seconds.
The branding of the school is very much to associate the RWS brand with success and commitment and excellence.

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