Clients: S3
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Success in Shortage Subjects (S3) is a charity that aims to advance the education of the public and raise teaching standards in schools – particularly the teaching of science, mathematics and modern languages. The charity, set up by former Heads and Governors of secondary schools, will initially focus on improving how physics is taught at Key Stage 3 and 4. By visiting schools to help with experiments and demonstrations, supplying science apparatus and offering access to the S3 Physics website, the charity hopes to provide teachers and pupils with a range of enjoyable hands-on experience.
S3 needed a website that would provide a large, online, searchable library of experiments – each with associated text, documents and images. The S3 team needed the tools to manage this large amount of data efficiently and without any specialist tech knowledge; they also needed this to be only available to users with a valid username and password, and for this same login to allow access to forums, where each experiment could be discussed.
Trevor Huxtable, S3’s coordinator, approached Sound in Theory to create this website for S3 Physics. S3 had originally had been quoted over £60k for the project, despite their entire specification only consisting of an A4 page of text. Sound in Theory worked with Trevor to define a clear and detailed specification of the work that was required, thus forcing S3 to be sure about what was needed, and trusting our advice where they were unsure. At the end of this process, we reduced the website cost to less than one-third of the initial quote S3 had been given.
When budget constraint became an issue, we worked closely with Trevor to help him decide how to use the budget they had. A compromise was reached, with costs and functionality that allowed S3 to achieve what they needed to in the short term, without jeopardizing the long-term success of the project. Sound in Theory also provided S3 with a comprehensive guide to using the site, so each website user can manage the large amount of data in the website, without needing to return to us.
The resulting site is clean, elegant and very usable. The back-end systems used to control the data is as simple as it could be, very robust and is being used daily with great results!
Client Testimonial
The entire process of acquiring a website from Sound in Theory has been very efficient from the start of negotiations to the completion of the project. After a two hour meeting to discuss the functions and purpose of the website, a detailed and clear specification, including costs, was produced. The changes that were needed to be made were entirely down to the finance available and not to any design errors.
A working website was produced, at short notice, to demonstrate to pilot schools the aims of the S3 project and how the website would help to achieve them. Subsequently the functionality of the website was completed and the website will go live after the next S3 meeting. I have been able to observe progressive stages in the website and to comment as the website developed. Any technical issues have been resolved competently.
The production of a dedicated website could, I am sure, be fraught with problems and concerns. Anyone reading this statement should be left in no doubt that the acquisition of a dedicated website from Sound in Theory has been a professional experience, in terms of design, construction, costings and timeframe.
Trevor Huxtable, Website Coordinator | S3
Responsibilities for S3