- WordPress-based website design and development project for an independent school at Hampton Court House.
- A web service has been developed to fulfil targeted business goals and provide informative functions for staff, pupils, and parents.
- The service also effectively communicates the organisation’s values, culture, and brand identity to its audience.
- The website has been built using ‘mobile first’ and ‘progressive enhancement’ principles to ensure the best usability and user experience.
The project included a range of bespoke functionalities tailored to the school’s specific needs.
While some of these features have since been integrated into the WordPress core, they illustrate the project’s scope and the customised solutions we provided. It is worth noting that the functionalities below were developed in-house without using third-party plugins to optimise the site’s speed and reliability.
Key Features and Functionalities
- Staff profiles and gallery
- Shortcode integration: Simplified embedding of staff profiles and galleries using shortcodes, enhancing ease of use and flexibility for content managers.
- Responsive News feeds
- Optimised for small screens: News feeds were designed to fit seamlessly on small screens, expanding gracefully to larger formats. Implemented using PHP’s DOM Library for trimming HTML documents.
- Contextual navigation
- Relevant item presentation: Implemented a contextual navigation system to present relevant content to users, thereby flattening the website structure and improving user experience.
- Website Diary synchronisation
- Claris/FileMaker integration: Custom script developed to sync the website diary with the Claris (FileMaker) database, ensuring real-time updates and consistency.
- Email publication system
- Seamless email integration: Enabled selected emails to parents to be published on the website from any device with an email client. Email headers are stored in the website’s database and are indexable, while the message body is fetched from the IMAP mailbox on request.
- Open Days event booking
- Simplified form submission: Prospective parents can book multiple Open Day events through a single form submission, streamlining the user experience.
- Admin panel customisation
- Enhanced security and usability: Cleaned up custom types and navigation menus to reduce clutter in the admin panel. Removed certain options to enhance security based on WordPress security best practices.
- Customisable search results
- Improved search relevance: Customisation of search results to enhance relevance. Internally monitored search queries allowed frequently occurring keywords to be assigned to articles, improving discoverability.
- Dual-view sitemap
- Public and private views: Implemented a sitemap with different views for public users and logged-in users, ensuring appropriate access to content.
- Emergency Notice system
- Global emergency notices: Developed a system to easily add or remove emergency notices that appear on every article, right below the main menu.
- Extensive page customisation
- Non-intrusive customisation: Allowed extensive customisation of individual pages without affecting core functionalities or the overall performance of the website.
- Custom media galleries
- User interface compatibility: Built custom media galleries that work seamlessly across different user interfaces, including touch, mouse, and keyboard.
- Bespoke breakpoint system
- Adaptive call to action (CTA): Developed a bespoke breakpoint system to optimise primary and secondary CTA buttons for various device options, enhancing responsiveness and user engagement.
In 2021, Hampton Court House School was acquired by Dukes Education.
View the HCH School website in Web Archive – please use the anti-bot password: hchschool-2019
