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How we developed a website for the Kalashnikov Academy and became laureates of two competitions

When the portal of an educational institution is an electronic representation and one of the promotion tools.

For the development of the educational platform of the Academy, we won two awards at once. One is the bronze of the Tagline Awards 2019 in the nomination "The Best Website for Children / Youth / Youth." Another is the first place in the oldest Runet contest “Golden Site” in the nomination “Best Site in the Volga Federal District”. Therefore, we decided to talk about the creation of the portal, which in the first month alone was visited by about 2000 users.

Goals and objectives of the client


The Kalashnikov Academy is a center for further education, which was established by the Kalashnikov concern. The training is designed for students in grades 8-11 - future engineering personnel for high-tech industries. Children can choose one of the relevant areas of interest: information technology, robotics, industrial design.

The program includes the implementation of joint projects with mentors, the development of communication and presentation skills. In addition, the Academy holds separate events for those who wish.

We developed the site from scratch. In the process of dialogue with the customer, the following tasks were identified:

  • Attract students, talk about the benefits and opportunities of further education;
  • inform about training programs (directions, admission conditions, results);
  • talk about the life of the academy: news, achievements and successes;
  • ;
  • .
  • .


At the start of the project, neither the client nor we had a clear idea of ​​the structure and content: the development was carried out in parallel with the organization of the academy itself and the construction of the building. Therefore, for about six months, we devoted pre-project analytics and only then prepared the terms of reference.

Together with the customer, we tried to simulate the processes in the institution of additional education. To do this, we studied the needs of the client, took into account our experience in developing our own educational project and the website of the association of educational institutions, analyzed the information structure of well-known training sites.



We identified three target groups - each with its own needs.

1. Parents of students:

  • Learn about the center (directions, opportunities and results)
  • Choose a program for the child
  • Get advice from a specialist center
  • Learn the benefits of learning
  • Register your child for the event
  • Learn lesson schedule
  • Learn learning outcomes or events
  • View photos and other materials

2. Teenagers 13-18 years old:

  • Learn about the center, other participants, benefits of training
  • Get event information
  • Register for an event
  • Get event results
  • Check schedule
  • Connect with fellow students and teachers

3. Teachers:

  • Register a group of children for the event
  • Choose a program for students



We placed contacts of specialists and links to social networks where you can get specialist advice and find fellow practitioners.



Interactive design


We were provided with guidelines from the Kalashnikov concern. We focused on them, but the corporate identity of a group of defense enterprises looks too strict for a youth educational project.

We took the blocks from the guideline as a basis and suggested modifying their design and adding illustrations. To do this, they organized a focus group of high school students aged 15-18. They became our main critics in testing hypotheses.

Illustrations style defined logo concept. He personifies the cosmos - boundless, mysterious, unknown space and geometry - a science in which everything is subject to analysis, rules and evidence.



Geometry in the logo symbol gives space for further growth and discovery of future directions. For promotional graphics, direction symbols can easily be animated, creating a transition from one to another. There is a feeling of movement and space.



The color palette was chosen in accordance with the psychology of color, suitable for each direction.



Initially, we assumed that vivid illustrations bring liveliness, give emphasis and are peculiar to the mood of the focus group that the academy is aimed at. The guys broke this hypothesis to smithereens and expressed their wishes. As a result, the illustrations became less contrasting.



Also, each teacher of the Academy team, we identified superpower. We added photos of leaders and teachers to the page “Team with superpowers” ​​and added easter eggs, which can be seen when you hover over. This helped revitalize the photographs and remove the adult / child barrier.





As a result, it was possible to maintain recognition of the guideline of the Kalashnikov concern and not lose the identity of the Academy.

Conversation in Central Asia


When the site structure was ready, a technical task was set up for each block in terms of content and volume of texts. They carefully worked out the style to take the right tone with teenagers - not dry, but not familiar. We wanted the site visitor to see interesting interlocutors, caring mentors, ready to talk on equal terms and share knowledge.



Content helped develop a prototype, consider text blocks when creating a design. The customer could better imagine what the finished site would look like, but we did not have to redo the work several times due to the fact that the text does not look on the page or is not included in the allotted volume.



Platform flexibility


We developed a site on the Symfony php framework, which we chose for several reasons. Firstly, it provides ease of customization. For example, the admin panel of the site was created and configured from scratch according to the wishes of the customer. Secondly, the modular architecture opens up opportunities for the expansion of the project, allows you to adapt to the changing business logic.

Individually configured forms and input fields, SEO parameters, a ticket aggregator is connected.

results


We created an educational platform with flexible functionality and scalability, and developed content and design specifically for the teenage audience. The customer can easily edit data through the admin panel.

The opening ceremony of the Kalashnikov Academy on September 19 was an event at the federal level, in which Russian President Vladimir Putin took part. Therefore, it was very important to launch the site by the date of the official launch of the project. We succeeded, although it was not easy to promptly make all the changes and coordinate the development stages both with the customer in Izhevsk and with the Moscow office.

In the first two weeks alone, the site was visited by more than 1000 users, and their total number over 3.5 months was more than 3600. And this is without investment in advertising - more than 60% of visitors find the platform through search engines and social networks.





The portal played an important role in conducting the admission campaign. He acquainted the audience with the work of the Academy and was a kind of “entrance door” for registering for training: the guys chose the direction, clicked the conversion button and switched to the LMS platform, where they entered their data.

And this project brought us the first Tagline Awards medal in the history of the company. It was very pleasant to receive a high praise from the international jury. This experience will be useful to us in the implementation of other educational projects.



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