Beechwood Hall & Rural Park
The Brief:
The project:
Project Summary
Beechwood Hall and Rural Park is a primarily community orientated space in the village of Cooksbridge, near Lewes in East Sussex. With a large playing field, fantastic children’s playground and a modern hall available for community use and private hire, there’s something to suit everyone. That’s without mentioning the views across the countryside to the South Downs, or the fact that the hall is powered almost entirely by renewable energy sources.
I was approached by the Secretary at Beechwood Hall and asked to work on a new website for them to promote and market their facilities, both as a community hub and a venue for hire. The site was to replace a small section that they had previously on the local community website which was looking dated and was too small to show off everything they had to offer.
After a meeting with the secretary, I began work on the new website. I provided the domain, hosting and the website itself, featuring a clean and fresh layout and a green/brown colour scheme based around the existing logo and the rural location of the Hall. The website is designed to offer all the information you might need, whether you’re looking to hire the hall, visit the park or go along to a community event. On top of the pages shown to visitors, there’s also a ‘Trustees’ section, where documents such as meeting minutes, agendas and policies can be uploaded and shared securely with the Board of Trustees. I also provided the photography featured on the homepage.
Project Summary
| Project type: | Web Design |
| Client: | Beechwood Hall & Rural Park |
| View live project: | www.beechwoodhall.org |
A website is never really ‘finished’. Once the design and build process has been completed, you’re most of the way there – but there are likely still to be times where something needs changing, modifying or adding to. Whilst you’ll have access to edit your website’s content yourself, it’s never nice to be left on your own – so I provide a support service to help out with small changes and tweaks as they become necessary. I’ll periodically install the latest feature and security updates for you, and if anything ever goes wrong or if you just need a hand – I’m only an email away.
I build all my client’s websites in WordPress, an open source content management system. WordPress is the software that runs the site, allowing for much more complex features than a static site. It allows you to login, update content easily and make changes without coding. Over 70 million websites are using WordPress, and because it’s open source it’s constantly being added to, updated and developed. This means that it’s very secure, stable and well supported.
The WordPress CMS platform is incredibly powerful. There are thousands of extensions and extras that can be added to your site to give it extra functionality, and it means that your site is always easy to extend. On top of unlimited pages and content, I can incorporate more advanced functionality into your new site, such as contact forms, image galleries and even E-Commerce Systems.
Websites are now a crucial part of running a business or organisation – making it easy for people to find out who you are, where you are and what you do is hugely valuable. What doesn’t look so good, is a website with outdated content. I make editing and updating your website really easy, since I use the WordPress Content Management System. All you have to do is login, edit a page as though it’s a word document, and save your changes. All done. Finished. Simple.
You’re unique, and I believe that your website should be too. I don’t use pre-built templates, and instead I create a design and layout that fits your business/organisation more personally. Not the same as anyone else’s website, but designed and built just for you, using your logo, images, colours brand and style. If you’ve got an established ‘brand image’ then I’ll work within your guidelines, or if you want something new then I’m always happy to get stuck in and create something fantastic.
Your website visitors won’t just be browsing your site on a desktop PC or laptop. They’ll use all manner of different phones, tablets and other devices, and it’s important they’re all kept happy. That’s where responsive design comes in. It allows a website to scale nicely to fit the screen size it’s being viewed on, optimising the layout and content for the device. No more zooming in and scrolling to read text – just a smooth, well designed mobile browsing experience.
