Aurora Cultural Centre
A not-for-profit community cultural centre and museum created from an historic building that was once a primary school in Aurora, Ontario, Canada.
This centre required a way to conveniently convey information, post signups for classes, and sell tickets for events and fundraisers to help the centre continue to build new programs. A fun and interactive website was created for the centre using a framework as well as custom and curated additions to provide all of the required abilities without the bulk and weight.
A scheduling plugin was created for offered classes as well as upcoming events to allow visitors to sort and select based on a variety of criteria with interactive PHP and JS loading. The code was tweaked to customize various elements, and the CSS was customized to stand out yet blend in with the rest of the site. A colour scheme was created to flow through the rest of the site as well. Once a visitor’s choices were selected, the visitor could checkout using the offered payment portal or payment options as listed. This created a simplified and seamless process which was a major improvement over the previous system of cash in hand and in-person only ticket purchases.
Interactive seasonal and limited exhibits are rotated through providing fresh options for patrons of all ages. A taste of each show is able to be showcased on the site with large images that scroll based on set times or at the click of a button. Descriptions overlay the images so as to be visible, yet not obscure the images behind them.
Responsive and adaptive design was also employed to ensure function on devices of all types – from the most basic of smartphones to tablets, laptops, or desktop computers. It was tested and tweaked using a variety of browsing and operating systems to be sure all of the elements would function in any possible environment. SEO tags and metadata were added to each and every page allowing for easy searchability in many of the top search engines. Though a daunting task at the outset, the complete creation and implementation of all aspects of this site was a fantastic learning experience. Installing, migrating, and completing this site aided in the preservation and restoration of history and community for this growing town.