Research - User Interviews, Secondary Research (Gen Z students & Gen X parents), Information Architecture (Tree Sorting), Stakeholder process review, Google Analytics Review, Content Audit
Design - CMS Creation, UX Writing, Marketing Messagin, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Visual Design, Brand Design,
Treven Holcomb
Justin Neely
The Life School is a startup High School that takes a student's passions and interests and designs a curriculum around it. When I was a child, this is precisely what I wanted, so I joined the board of trustees the summer before the launch.
During the school's second year, I took on a project to update the website, brand, and messaging to help increase enrollment and promote the school. To do this project, I brought on two other designers that I have taught in the past to truly dive into the research to get to know both students and parents.
We kicked off the project with interviews of the current students and parents. We wanted to find out:
1. how they found out about the school,
2. what messaging about the school stuck with them, and
3. what was the turning point to go from searchers to enrollees.
The research revealed a lot and helped paint a picture of the Life School student.
We then worked to simplify the messaging and speak directly to the Life School parent and student. We took a content-first approach to design the site to figure out the exact conversation we needed to have with site visitors. This approach also allowed us to simplify the navigation structure and limit the number of pages to the essential information.
After developing the content, we focused on wireframing and branding. It was essential to find the right colors and type to speak to these students while maintaining their desired brand voice.
We delivered a full-featured website and CMS on Webflow. The website has 5 primary pages that focus on helping parents and students learn more about the school and get in touch with school administrators.
Additionally, the site allows school administrators to easily add events, articles, resources, news features, and banners for timely information.
