The company
Red Star Education provides financial courses and workshops for young and aspiring football players, as well as for the wider community. The company is owned by Kristen Cunliffe, whom I have known for over fifteen years. During this time, I have had the pleasure of creating and maintaining her website, alongside her main site, Red Star Wealth.
The aim of Red Star Education is to ensure that young people gain the knowledge and practical understanding they need to confidently handle financial situations in their future lives.
Kristen has been looking to expand the website for some time. Previously, its main focus was on educating young footballers within football clubs. More recently, she has been keen to broaden its scope to include additional areas of expertise within financial education.
The Requirements
As this was an existing website, the focus was on improving access to the main areas of the business directly from the homepage.
The site needed to clearly highlight all key areas, including Sport, Online Courses, Individuals, Corporate services, Financial First Aider Training, and Case Studies.
The existing layout and homepage structure were retained to ensure consistency across the business.
Usability was a priority, with each area of the business having a dedicated page explaining its services.
The website was required to work seamlessly across both desktop and mobile devices.
Brand consistency was maintained through the use of Red Star’s colours and typography.
A blog was included to support regular content updates, alongside video and imagery to create a modern, engaging experience.
My Process
I began by researching design inspiration from websites such as SiteInspire, using current trends and styles as a starting point for the creative process.
After the research phase, I created a mood board and sketched multiple layout ideas with pen and paper, refining each version until it met the project brief.
I then moved into Sketch to produce low-fidelity designs and shared several mock-ups with Kristen for feedback. Once approved, I refined the designs and built the website.
The existing layout was retained and adapted for each section of the business. The final work was shared with Kristen for approval before the site went live.
Retrospective
This project was a great challenge, finding a way to guide users to each area of the business without the homepage feeling outdated. In hindsight, building the entire site within the CMS from the start would have given the client full editing control, but overall the project successfully balanced usability, design, and budget.
