UK School Trips

CASE STUDY

UK School Trips, a leading platform for organising educational trips, came to Opace with the need for a full website overhaul. The previous Joomla site was not only outdated but also posed a security risk, with support for the platform set to end. The client wanted a fresh, modern website that could better serve their users—teachers, youth leaders, and school trip organisers—while enhancing the overall search and booking experience.

Opace started by migrating the site from Joomla to WordPress, a move that offered more flexibility and long-term security. With the help of Advanced Custom Fields and the Elementor Page Builder, the new site was designed to simplify content management while providing an intuitive user experience for site visitors. The project also involved transferring around 1500 pages of content, ensuring SEO best practices were followed during the migration.

The design phase was based on reference sites like Emirates, Rightmove, and Group Accommodation, and involved creating custom mock-ups for the homepage, category pages, and product listing pages. These designs were tailored for both desktop and mobile, ensuring consistency and ease of use across all devices.

The new website features an improved search function, allowing users to search for trips by radius and various other criteria. This has made it significantly easier for teachers to find suitable trips, whether they’re looking for day trips within a few hours of travel or longer residential trips. The addition of a functional map on the homepage further enhances the search experience, responding to common requests from users who prefer searching by distance or region.

Additional features, like a working banner for advertising revenue and the ability to create custom landing pages, were incorporated to align with the client’s goals for improving site monetisation and user engagement. The favourites button was also redesigned to be more visible and user-friendly, with a star icon making it easier for users to save their preferred trips.

Extensive testing was carried out before the final go-live, with both user-flow and mobile responsiveness tested across multiple devices. This ensured a seamless experience for all users, whether they were browsing on a desktop or mobile device.

The Result: 

The new website went live in March 2024 and the client has already expressed satisfaction with the improved usability and search capabilities. With the new platform, UK School Trips is well-positioned to offer an enhanced user experience for educators and trip organisers, with a more future-proof and flexible website that can evolve with their needs.