Past magazines are almost completely inaccessible and current editions are printed by the thousand and posted out to alumni at great cost to the school and the environment! But with former schoolmates around the world, and knowing that most of our contemporaries are used to reading articles online via their computers, tablets or phones, we believe that this content – past and present – should be made available online to be read from anywhere on any device.

We see the value of being able to search the archive of school publications, to find out about the achievements of family members when at school, or read about major events from the past.

As a response we have recently launched Active Archives (www.activearchives.co.uk) – a magazine digitisation and publication service that includes every step in the process of taking an entire archive of sometimes ancient documents, and making them available online.

We will visit schools to scan their archive of documents, turn them into searchable pdfs that act as a permanent back-up of the archive, and then publish the magazines in our searchable and interactive online magazine platform.

Magazines will be readable from any device, and once downloaded magazines can be saved to a users device to be read at any time, for example on a long train journey or a commute into work.

Re-engaging school alumni is a constant challenge for school marketers, and through Active Archives schools have the chance to reach out to former pupils in a new and exciting way.

If you are interested in this service for your school or organization, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at: info@activearchives.co.uk

Among the various projects that we have produced in this sector, we have recently created a website for Mike Atherton, ex-professional cricketer and England captain, to host his personal work. Since he retired from his cricket career, he has become a commentator, cricket correspondent and columnist for The Times newspaper, and his website gives him a direct route to his readers and prospective clients.

Similarly his colleague Matthew Syed, an award-winning sports journalist and former Olympian came to us for his site which can be viewed here.

But it’s not just journalists we have worked for – we recently launched the site for Fiona McIntosh, a former editor of Grazia and Elle magazines. Inspiration for the site really came from these magazines. The site uses full-screen imagery and a bold colour-palette. Check it out here.

We often choose to use WordPress content management system for these sites, which is very easy to use so our clients keep the sites up-to-date with their work. It also allows easy e-commerce integration so that photography, books or any relevant product can be bought through the site

If you are interested in having your personal website designed by us, please email us at enquiries@thewebkitchen.co.uk for more information.

The Timbergram is a postcard sized piece of wood with engraved personal messages, produced and sent out on your behalf. Timbergram is also a great way of saying that you care about the environment – for every ten cards sold a tree will be planted in Africa.

The Timbergram can be customized for your needs to keep check out www.timbergram.com for more options.

This means that school students, alumni, and other interested parties will be able to read any edition of the school magazine online, and even search the archive for mentions of them or their family.

Having a digitized archive of school magazines online has a number of clear benefits such as:

-       better search engine optimization (SEO) since all pages and articles are indexed by Google.

-       a great opportunity to re-engage the alumni community as past pupils can search and read editions from their time at school

-       marketing benefits as prospective students and parents can see the long history of the school and the range of activities that have taken place

The Web Kitchen is also offering to publish the content of the archive in a special bespoke site for the magazine. This would be linked to the main school site but would act as a special online site showcasing all that goes on at the school. Email enquiries@thewebkitchen.co.uk for more information

It’s a design shop with a twist. The Plinth features just one product for a special price for a limited time.

The first product ‘Timbergram‘ is an engraved wooden postcard that can be ordered and delivered for no more than your average mass-produced greetings card. 

Timbergram is the first product on the plinth. This delightfully different and stylish postcard is the perfect way to tell someone you love them, or just a bit of fun to send your friends. Stand apart from the plethora of cheesy cards and make someone’s Valetines day one to remember. The Timbergram is a carved wooden postcard and has been designed and produced in the UK on Birch wood. (150mm x 100mm). It’s just £3.85 including UK Postage. What’s more, for every ten cards that are sold, The Plinth will plant a tree in Africa through the charity Tree Aid. Simply choose your design, personalise the card, and the rest is done for you. Design your card now.

We’ve compiled our ten-point list of benefits of mobile website design compared to apps:

1. Users don’t need to download anything. It’s especially annoying to have to download something if you want to see it once.
2. Exactly the same User experience can be created using a mobile website as an App.
3. Users can bookmark a mobile website to their home screen in just the same way as an app
4. The experience can be so similar to using an app, that your users will probably think it is an app
5. Mobile web works on all smart phones – so you don’t need to develop and maintain different apps for Iphone, Android, Blackberry, and Microsoft.
6. Indeed using responsive web design, your same mobile website can be optimised for tablet devices
7. A mobile website can use the same Content Management System and content as your main website, so you only have to update content once
8. Mobile websites can be updated instantly, so you don’t need to wait until you’ve developed a new version of the app
9. Mobile websites are independent of App markets – so you can commercialise your own site without paying a share to the market
10. Mobile websites are cheaper – did you need another reason?!

Incorporation of Social Media

Universities generate a huge amount of social media. We would recommend that as well as generating strong communities within various social media sites, it’s important to bring the best of this content within the University website itself. As well as showing which bits of its own content are gaining traction via retweets, facebook likes, and google plus, Universities can pull social rich content into its own site.

Interaction with University Computer Departments

Universities are often well resourced with computing staff. We seek to work with departments to make the most of their infrastructure, and to deploy websites that are easy to manage and fit in with current structures.

Strong and well structured layout

School websites are large and dynamic. It’s imperative that they look good whatever content is uploaded. Using a strong and structured layout keeps it looking clean and clear at all times.

Audience Groups

School websites attract a number of different audience groups – prospective pupils, prospective parents, current pupils, current parents, staff, alumni and outsiders. It’s important to create user journeys that reflect these groups.

Easy Management of the website

With so much content, and with time pressured environments, it’s crucial that management of a school website is easy and quick. We always seek to design school websites with a view to easy management.

Relevant News and Events across website

School websites generate a huge amount of news and events. To show the depth of what a school has to offer, and to avoid dead-end pages, we normally recommend that relevant news and events are fed around the website.

Strong use of imagery and video content

Users are much more interested in impact images and videos than long boring pages of text.  Videos are especially good at putting messages across. In the same way as news and events, we suggest that relevant videos are fed throughout site as well as kept in media repository. Images should be big, but not at the expense of content.

Responsive design

With so many different devices these days, it’s crucial that a school website adapts to the device through which it is viewed. Read more here about what makes a design responsive, and how this can work for a school website.

Let us delve deep into understanding what Social Network is all about.

Social networking of late has become purely web based and through this platform it has become easy to connect with people across the world that share similar interests as well as activities across the political, geographical and economic borders.

Online social network has become the order of the day and online business owners have figured out assured ways in which they can reach out to a wider customer base and garner more business for themselves so as to see an increase in their revenue. In fact, this has become the best platform to attract potential customers which would indeed make a lot of positive impact on their business.

Social Networking sites

For instance, it we take the social network site Facebook, it provides live feed wherein the activities of the users are streamed immediately after an action takes place. If there is a business XYZ and a person happens to ‘Like’ it, this input is given on the profile page of the individual who has liked it. Curiosity gets better of the visitors and they too chance upon the website or the business and in case they too like it, they click on it and like the same. So, when the number of people liking your website/profile increases, it becomes easy for more people to visit your website.

People have realized that this latest technological finding has proved to be a boon for businesses. Companies have identified this medium as an ideal way to establish their brand image. Here are top uses that businesses get out of social network websites.

• They can easily establish a brand image and create brand awareness
• Use it as a reputation management tool
• Use the platform for recruiting people
• Get ideas regarding the kind of action that is happening on the competitor’s website
• A tool that would greatly help in intercepting potential prospects

The ultimate aim of these businesses is therefore to drive more traffic to their individual websites and encourage their clients and customers to participate in discussions on various ways in which the services could be improved.

So, you could ideally create profiles in various social networking sites and make it work in a systematic and strategic manner such that it facilitates more business.