UX | Web Design | Web Development | Hosting | Ongoing Support
Darllen Co.
Bespoke online reading resource for school children and teachers in Wales.
Brief
There is nothing we love more than a challenge, and this project certainly provided us with that opportunity. With the aim of ensuring every child in Wales has access to inclusive, quality Welsh language books, working with Darllen Co to create an online reading resource to achieve that aim was an exciting prospect.
The goal of the project was to create a simple and intuitive reading resource that children and teachers could log into and utilise as a part of their day to day learning. The teachers needed to be able to set assignments for their students and then have access to the relevant tracking and analytical data. The students would then log in and complete the corresponding assignments.
Alongside the reading platform, a customer-facing website was required to showcase the features of the platform and the quality of books being developed, with the main aim of driving sign-ups. There was a need for both elements to be bilingual, as well as a flexible, easy-to-use content management system that would allow for easy management of various elements of the reading resource.
Design
For the supporting website, the aim was to portray a professional, yet playful feel that aligned with the brand. This was to ensure that the fun element of learning and reading, in particular, was highlighted.
Despite the broad demographic of users, the reading platform is primarily aimed at students. Therefore, it was crucial that the design was intuitive and simple to use for younger users.
Keeping the interface clean with an effective use of white space ensured it was easy to read and follow for both students and teachers. In addition, the use of brand colors and illustrations maintained an engaging and fun aspect for students.
Development
Once the design system was established, we moved onto development, first establishing the tech stack. Given the potential number of users and content that could be on the reading platform, we opted for a headless approach, using Laravel's powerful Blade templating engine. Utilising this technology will help to ensure the site can load fast under demand, providing the end user with a smooth experience.
To meet the key requirement for both the reading platform and website to be easy to maintain and access, we opted for WordPress for the CMS aspect. We then utilised the Advanced Custom Fields plugin to build a bespoke user interface.
“David’s passion, experience and knowledge were clear to see from the start and have made the process of developing a complicated website easy for a non-techy person like myself.
David responds quickly to requests and is always on hand to support with anything outside of development too. Great to collaborate with, professional and get things done on time, every time.
Would highly, highly recommend!”
— ALEX KNOTT, FOUNDER