Background
About the project
Primavera Online School is an online school serving students, parents, and teachers. Its website was the first stop for families deciding on enrollment and a daily destination for current and future students. I led the redesign and handled part of the front-end development, working alongside another developer.
The Problem
What wasn't working
The old site was dated, slow, and hard to navigate. Parents had to dig for enrollment and curriculum details, students had no clear place to find their learning resources, and the design didn't reflect the quality of the school. It also needed to work better on mobile and for visitors using assistive technology.
The Solution
The approach
We rebuilt the site on WordPress with a fresh, approachable design and a simpler structure. I focused on clear navigation, consistent styling, and fast load times so the site felt easy for a parent on a phone or a student on a school-issued laptop. We also added a dedicated Education Hub, a single page where students could find tools and resources.
Tools & workflow
Process
How it came together
I started by looking at how other prominent online schools organized their sites, then used that to shape the homepage, which set the visual direction for everything else. From there I built out reusable styles and components so new pages stayed consistent without custom work each time.
Challenges
Bumps along the way
The biggest challenge was designing for three audiences at once. Parents wanted answers and an easy enrollment path, students wanted quick access to their work, and teachers needed the site to be an asset to them. Keeping the site fast while still using friendly imagery and design elements took some care, as did making sure accessibility was built in from the start instead of patched on later.
Final Product
The finished site
The finished site was faster, cleaner, and easier to use on any device. Enrollment and key information were easy to find, forms were simpler to complete, and the Education Hub gave students and parents a clear home base. The site has changed quite a bit since launch, but the core design still holds up.
Learnings
What I learned
Designing around real user groups made decisions easier, because every page had a clear job and a clear audience. Performance and accessibility were much cheaper to plan for at the start than to fix later. A solid set of reusable components also paid off quickly, especially with two developers working in the same theme.