Date: August 2016

Truro and Penwith College has a strong reputation as one of the best tertiary colleges in the UK.

Its innovation and excellence in the Learning and Skills sector has led to the college being awarded rare and prestigious Beacon status. High quality and impeccable standards are at the heart of everything it does, creating the need for a website that will uphold these values.

A collage of work for the Truro and Penwith College website, including information architecture, user personas and card sorting.

User experience

Because of the large amount of information held on the Truro and Penwith College website, we needed to find a way to organise it that was intuitive and user-friendly. We appointed our UX (user experience) team to the project in order to get to the heart of what audiences really wanted and needed.

We carried out an extensive UX process involving user interviews and testing, competitor analysis, content sorting workshops, planning and prototyping. This allowed us to generate designs that were based on user needs and would guide the user through a pre-determined pathway to a set end goal; promoting a beneficial interaction between audiences and the college. 

Wireframes for the Truro and Penwith College website.
The Truro and Penwith College homepage mocked up on a mobile phone.
The Truro and Penwith College website navigation mocked up on a mobile phone.
A page from the Truro and Penwith College website mocked up on a mobile phone.

Mobile first

With a target audience that ranged from prospective students to their parents, the website had to function on mobile devices primarily. We both designed and developed the website to work seamlessley across platforms but have ultimate ease of use in both mobile and tablet.

The course search from the Truro and Penwith College website mocked up on a tablet.
The course wizard from the Truro and Penwith College website mocked up on a tablet.
A repeat pattern showing doors opening.
A repeat pattern of arrows pointing up.

Telling a story without imagery

With over 900 courses to show, we knew that tracking down imagery for every subject was going to be a real challenge. Instead we opted for a suite of patterns that summed up the experience of education. This kept pages fresh and exciting where visual content was minimal.

The fine art course page from the Truro and Penwith College website mocked up on a tablet.
The pottery course page from the Truro and Penwith College website mocked up on a tablet.

Website design

The final design is user-centred, fully responsive (displaying perfectly on any screen size) and consistent with the reputation of Truro and Penwith College. Additional brand cohesion has been achieved through creation of a company tone of voice and style guide, which ensures that communications are representative of the college’s values and personality. 

The Truro and Penwith College website homepage.