Overview
Pacific Intnernational Academy came to me after a thorough rethinking of their site. They’d created a new logo, and their current look and content were out of date and didn’t function on mobile. Their staff had gone through and thoroughly updated their content, and now they needed a new site that looked great and got their point across quickly to their target audience.
Challenges
PIA’s biggest challenge was that their target users were, by definition, poor English speakers. So communicating the application process and various bureaucratic tasks clearly and concisely to non-native English speakers was an integral piece of creating a successful site for them that integrated responsive web design techniques.
Solutions
I took the artistic direction of site from their new logo, integrating their primary colors in attractive and understandable ways. I used their red as the ‘activity’ color, highlighting areas and components of the site that users could interact with, and used the blue as the static color, connoting headlines, page breaks and other static site elements.
To help simplify the application process I created a numbered design element that used numbers in combination with instructions to quickly and clearly state the order of the steps, how many steps there were in the process, and how easily the process could be completed. This motif was used repeatedly throughout the site to create familiarity with the theme and simplify what might otherwise have been seen as overwhelming applications processes.
The pattern was created using pure CSS, which made it translate incredibly well to mobile phones and tablets, as well as looking great on desktop computers.
Additionally I was able to craft CSS for their third party application submission site to match their site design, improving brand consistency and user trust when visiting an off-site application.
Results
PIASchools.edu is a clear, easy to navigate website that displays a lot of content in an attractive and fun to use way. Their processes are clearly delineated, and though international application is never an easy thing to do, I was able to represent it clearly and concisely for all of PIA’s users.
