Redesigning The University of Chester
Check out our latest Drupal powered site...
The higher education sector is an exciting one. In fact, it's one of the most exciting spaces that we've worked in. And, it's not just the big name universities like our client Oxford University that are doing interesting things. Actually, some of the newer universities are doing the most interesting things online.
One of the things that can make University sites strong is their ability to lean on the content that their students create as part of their courses or with the expertise that they pick up studying. For example, many universities are furnishing their sites with rich media content produced by their media students. And, those universities that are doing it well are really pushing the sector forward.
A couple of month's back we launched the second University site that Torchbox has built, this time for the University of Chester. It is aimed at school leavers who could be considering Chester University as a further education option.
In the course of the development, we did a thorough job of reviewing and evaluating the competitor sites. Then, we ran these sites past a couple of groups of final year school kids - who needless to say had a few different opinions to us - as ever, this was very enlightening. We took this feedback on board, and were pleased to say that when we showed the school kids the designs for the new Chester University site they totally endorsed it; they felt it definitely hit the spot. We're really pleased with the site too and it has drawn very nice remarks from the Drupal community.
The work that we have done with Chester has given them the solid foundation that they need. Now they are going to be one of those Universities pushing the boundaries of what is being done online. It is a fascinating sector to watch and even more so to be involved in, and we hope to do more work in it soon. in fact, what we would really love to do is a buzz generation project aimed at recruiting new applicants. The make-up of the audience suggests that a powerful viral, or social media campaign could have real success. If this interests you, do give us a call.
