Below are some concept wireframes that provide a sneak peak as to how the project is coming along…

For further information around West Thames and their main website project which Pixl8 also designed and built, read the case study here.

1 – Write up some student case studies

Include student profiles and quotes throughout your website.  This provides more of a personal touch and confirms the quality of the college and courses on offer.  It also makes existing students feel special and involved.

2 – Leverage the powers of Social Media

Teenagers are by far the largest users of social media, so this is a great opportunity to communicate with them.  Make sure to monitor and answer ALL social media posts via your Facebook / Twitter accounts.  Tweet interesting college facts and relevant news.  Use Facebook to list upcoming events and display photo galleries from previous college events.

3 – Showcase successful college leavers

Teenagers love to idolise the rich and famous, as much as anyone else!   Highlight previous students who have studied at your college that have now gone on to become successful.  This acts as evidence of the benefits of studying at your college (especially if they’re now doing well in the area they studied in).

4 – Get some promotional videos made up

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth even more.  These should ideally be kept to below 2 minutes and provide an insight into the benefits and fun times that lie ahead if choosing to enrol at your college.  If you offer media related courses, perhaps your students could help you while providing them with another project for their portfolios?

5 – Mash up your content

Include a variety of content types alongside their related subject on your website e.g. student profiles, image galleries and video clips.  This provides a fuller picture as to what each course offers, and is far more engaging than a boring course listings page.

6 – Simplify your forms

Presenting prospective students with long complex forms to fill in can be daunting, and may even turn them away.  Capture as many enrolment enquiries as you can by keeping your online forms short and sweet.  If the forms need to remain long, split the process into shorter sections, with only a few questions per page.  Including a status bar showing completion progress helps to provide the user with peace of mind they’re almost there.

7 – Prioritise website functionality

List out the key functions of your college website, then design and build your homepage around the features required to meet these.  For example, a great looking website that doesn’t allow prospective students to easily search through courses isn’t much use to anybody!

8 - Don’t forget mobile

According to recent statistics from Ofcom, nearly half of all teenagers now own a smart phone, and 70% of those aged between 16 and 24 use their mobile to access the internet.  Based on these facts, failing to consider mobile as part of you digital strategy would be a big mistake.  Don’t necessarily jump on the mobile app bandwagon straight away, research your mobile analytics first and perhaps initially focus on mobile templates.

Wan't to know how we can help you with your college / HE website?  Check out our higher education products and services here.

The jam packed programme developed especially for membership organisations included:

• PARN’s own research into vocational learning
• Case studies surrounding both Ofqual and prior experiential learning accreditation
• A lively debate about whether or not professionals need a degree

Pixl8 will be exhibiting at another exciting PARN event later in the year, find out more about it here.

This epic journey will see Jonathan and his three other team mates who make up “The Adventure Collectors” drive over 10,000 miles. And if the sound of driving all that way doesn't sound challenging enough, they’re planning to include Iraq and Iran in their itinerary too! While attempting to cross a 1/3 of the world's surface, The Adventure Collectors' route will involve navigating through:

• 20 countries
• 8 time zones
• 5 mountain ranges
• 3 deserts

This sounds like a lot of hard work, but it'll be worth says Jonathan, as it's all in the name of charity. The team is aiming to raise £30,000, with all proceeds going to two incredible charities they’ve chosen to support:

• The Children’s Hospice Association Scotland
• The Lotus Children’s Centre

To find out more about the adventure and how to donate, please visit The Adventure Collectors website here.

Also, don't forget to visit and 'like' their Facebook Page, to be in with a chance of winning some great prizes!

 

Following expert advice from a previous employee (Steve who runs World Snowboard Guide) we opted for the resort of Lenzerheide. The accommodation was amazing (thanks Snowmotions) and the snow conditions were equally superb for a spot of skiing and snowboarding. Even the weather was bliss allowing us to enjoy some sunbathing while relaxing in the outdoor spa.

We all had a great time hanging out together, perfecting our turns and practicing our first aid skills, following an unlucky injury sustained on the last day. Fortunately it was only minor, and lessons were learnt about not letting go of snowboards on the slopes!

We’re all now fully rested and ready to get back to our many web and mobile projects :)

Andrew is our new telesales superstar, seeking out fresh sales leads and assisting with website proposals.
Get to know Andrew more here.

Dominic is the newest senior developer here in our London office, bringing with him many years of coding experience.
Check out Dominic's profile here.

Nick is heading up the new business side of things and will be developing our strategic partnerships.
Find out more about Nick here.

Hassan has joined our design team, helping strengthen our design credentials both for our website and mobile projects.
Get the low down on Hassan here.

Jenny is the newest addition to our projects team, assisting with keeping projects on time and to a high standard.
Check out Jenny’s profile here.

All of Pixl8 welcome our new ‘family’ members with open arms and we’re looking forward to working with them, on our many exciting upcoming projects! If you’d like to become a Pixl8r, send us your CV here and we’ll be sure to keep it on file for when an appropriate job opportunity arises…

1. Maintain a professional image
Having your blog URL as part of your existing website domain e.g. www.yourwebsite.com/blog looks far more professional than if it’s hosted upon a 3rd party platform domain e.g. www.3rdpartyplatform.com/yourblogname.

2. Design consistency
It’s easier to control the look and feel of your blog if it’s hosted and developed within your existing website, so using associated templates and style sheets.  This will help maintain design consistency, and in turn assist with your brand awareness and overall marketing efforts.

3. Content management
Managing your blog through your existing CMS means you only need to learn how to use one piece of content editing software.  There’s also no need to log into two separate systems, as you’ll be able to edit both the blog and website content from the same place, using the same login details.

4. Boost SEO efforts
Hosting your blog on a separate platform, thus domain, doesn’t mean you’re doubling your SEO efforts.  You’ll be in fact halving them, as each domain will be competing against one another in search rankings!  Boost your SEO efforts by having your blog and all associated fresh content containing relevant keywords within the same domain as your main website.

5. URL recall
Maintaining a consistent URL structure, and so having your blog as being - www.yourwebsite.com/blog or blog.yourwebsite.com, is far easier for your audience to remember than www.3rdpartyplatform.com/yourblogname.

6. Categorised and related content
The beauty of managing your blog from within your existing website CMS is that it allows you to drop in blog post listings throughout your website.  By categorising your blog posts using the same category structure as other content, allows you to build up related content pages.  For example, by including a blog post listing tagged as “category 1” on a news article page also tagged as “category 1”, is likely to keep a user on your website longer, therefore increasing the likelihood of a sales / member conversion.

7. Cross selling opportunities
Having your blog within your existing website structure allows users to freely navigate between other areas of your site, without getting lost in alternative browser windows and/or navigation.  Integrated navigation promotes your services and products more prominently, and so in turn helps with cross selling efforts.

8. Security considerations
Managing your blog using your existing CMS removes the security headaches that are often associated with running online marketing efforts.  Rather than needing to police access to two different systems, you are able to instead manage all permissions from just one place – your CMS.  This way if you need to remove a user when a colleague leaves, or add one when a new member of staff joins it can be done just once for both the website and blog.

Thanks to this understanding, Pixl8 have developed a fully featured blog module that can be plugged into our WebConnect CMS solution.  A number of our clients are already benefiting from the advantages and opportunities it brings, and we are continuing to research and develop its functionality.

Please contact Pixl8 here if you’d like to learn more about our fantastic blog module or WebConnect CMS package.

The day was a great success, with almost 100 representatives attending from a wide range of trade associations.  Tim and myself were fortunate enough to have lots of thought provoking conversations with a number of the delegates around website design, membership database integration and the benefits of mobile templates.

In addition to the networking with all the delegates, the talks were really something to write home about.  John Piennar, BBC Radio 5 Live's Chief Political Correspondent was a fantastic and very comical event chair person.  Lord Heseltine’s speech was also a real treat, speaking of his opinions around how trade associations should merge to form larger more influential organisations. This way he believes they would have more lobbying powers when it comes to representing their members on new government policies for example.

If you’re a trade association and want get involved with the Trade Association Forum, check out their website here for membership details.