Designing a website to increase donations for South London education charity

Oval Learning contacted me to re-design and build their existing website. I’d previously designed a leaflet for them, and they were keen to work with me again, saying “we really value your skill, perspective and approach”. I was happy to help!

The problems that need addressing

The existing website wasn’t quite sure of who it was aimed at, with a mixture of information only useful to the schools already involved, a little bit of jargon-heavy copy and no real calls to action for anyone who might be interested it finding out more or contributing to the project. It also relied heavily on the – very well maintained! – twitter account, with this being the main content of the site, along with a huge, but out of date photo of a project that made it look like it was a theatre group.

Who does the website need to reach and why?

We worked together to clarify the aims of the website and who its audience is. Oval Learning (the ‘cluster’ has been dropped from all but its official Charity registration, as it sounds a bit medical!) wanted to be able to direct potential partners there, as well as for the content to differentiate them from The Oval Learning Trust which is a Multi Academy Trust) based in Derbyshire.

• To give context and background of the South London area the charity works in, and the challenges / benefits of this
• The independence of the schools involved – ie not academies and how they make up the Steering Group
• Ways to donate either money or services, ie mentoring – and to make it obvious and easy
• To show previous successes with testimonials from teachers, pupils, parents and donors with their experiences

Design and build using WordPress

Once the content and wireframes had been signed off I designed and built the website in WordPress customising a responsive theme with Oval Learning colours and branding. I also went through the process of updating the site with Lucy and provided documentation to cover any questions she might have.

More information
Oval Learning