Oasis Skateboard Factory
Creating an alternative school’s first website, by getting to know it’s teachers and students.
OVERVIEW
Services
UX Strategy, UX/UI Design, Icon Design, Wordpress Build
The Problem
Oasis Skateboard Factory (OSF) is an alternative secondary school program, part of the Toronto District School Board. They needed a more professional web presence to replace their Blogspot.
Results
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A mobile-first experience that appeals to their youth audience
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Pages that answer certain key user questions, thereby reducing the teacher’s time answering emails
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An aesthetic that is cohesive with existing brand guidelines
PROCESS
UX STRATEGY: Learning the client’s needs
Since this was their first website I was able to create the UX strategy from scratch. I spoke with the teachers running the program to understand their needs: we determined who their target users are, and what they hope to achieve with this website.
Prospective students (ie. teenagers) were the main audience, which fuelled the decision to use a mobile-first approach with copy and visuals that appeal to a younger audience.
Teachers told me they were frequently emailed the same questions from prospective students. I ensured the website answered certain important questions, thus allowing the teachers to spend less time responding to emails.
Client's existing artwork
My artwork, designed to match the client's style
DESIGN: Working with an established brand
Oasis Skateboard Factory had existing branding, including logo, colours, fonts, and graphic style. While they already had some graphics I could use on the website, I also created some new icons using their style, to correspond with the desired message.
BUILD AND BEYOND: Keeping the site fresh
It was important that the website remains current, without the expense of additional updates to the design. To achieve this, I used the following approach:
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Embed their Instagram feed, to effortlessly bring in new content from their social media.
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Easy content updates for the client: I built the site using a visual editor and provided the client with a custom user manual. This has allowed the client to do some basic updates on their own, like editing copy, updating photos, or adding new links to their media page.