From WhatsApp group to website

Until recently, IEP José Félix Ribas, a private school in Nirgua, Yaracuy, talked to families through social media and WhatsApp groups. It worked for day-to-day matters, but it was not a place of its own.

What the board asked for

The board wanted a more trustworthy presence online, not just social media accounts: a place of its own on the web. The school had no website, so the work began before the design. With the team at Drakkar, the agency I run, we advised them on buying the hosting and registering the domain.

Seriousness before novelty

The hardest part was not the design but the tone. A school lives on parents’ trust, and the site had to look like a step forward in the school’s evolution, a modernisation, not a change of personality.

That is why we kept its visual identity and took the site’s colours from it: the blue and green of its crest.

The school publishes on its own

A site like this is no use if every news item depends on the agency. The school’s own staff publish it, with our team supervising and advising. We gave them in-person training on how to do it, and the learning curve was quick.

The news categories, such as observances, events, FAQ and requirements, were chosen and set up by the school to suit its needs. It is their site, and it is organised the way they work.

What has changed

The owners and staff are very happy, and they have received good word of mouth. Parents tell them they keep up with the blog posts: news that used to travel only through WhatsApp now has a place to come back to.

The IEP José Félix Ribas case study sums up how the site is organised.