Lewisham College

Dame Ruth Silver, the Principal of Lewisham, talks about people's surprise when they discover the spirit behind the doors in this South London College.

She's not wrong. We felt excited and inspired by the atmosphere as soon as we entered the building - it really is electric.

Having been appointed, the first thing we did was spend two days at the college interviewing staff and students to identify the best approach to take for the new site. It was an enlightening and enjoyable time.

All students and staff were unanimous in their agreement that the inspiring, motivating spirit of the college must be communicated in the new site. That we should powerfully promote the real benefits of being at the college.

Having taken on their comments and wishes we began to construct a site that would be focused around customers' (potential students, their parents and their schools) end-goals.

We also designed-in community features including seamlessly integrating the site with Flickr and YouTube in order to accommodate live feeds of student-created content.

We also created a new Social Network, designed to help encourage student and teachers to build on the culture of promoting student work online by creating a space where they could display, and interact with it.

The end result is a site that for potential students, is a doddle to navigate (even with disabilities or language challenges - many students' first language is not English) and communicates the vibrancy of the college. On top of this, it helps current students promote their work too.

We hope that everyone at Lewisham agrees that their new site faithfully captures the spirit of their unique, inspiring community.