Design study · K-12 charter network · Washington, DC
Nine schools, one Friendship
A network redesign concept where the central problem is that nine campuses need to feel like one organization without becoming interchangeable.
Concept only, responding to a Website Design Services RFP. Facts come from the network's published site and DC PCSB records; this is not the official Friendship Public Charter School website.
- School website design
- WordPress theme
- Multi-campus
- School finder
- Ask surface
- Real campus photography
Friendship Public Charter School — open the working site
Case study overview
The problem
A charter network has a structural tension its website usually loses. Run nine separate campus sites and the network has no identity and nine maintenance burdens. Run one site and the campuses blur into a directory, which fails the actual decision a family is making — which of these schools, specifically, is right for my child and near enough to get to. Generic stock photography makes it worse by making every campus look like the same school.
The approach
One shared WordPress build serves the network homepage and all nine campuses, so the identity and the maintenance stay unified. The differentiation happens in the finder: Find a School filters by grade band, ward, and program — International Baccalaureate, early college, Reggio Emilia, robotics and STEM — against verified addresses and principals, which is the real shape of a family's choice. Every campus card carries real Friendship photography of that campus, so the schools stay distinguishable. Ask Friendship provides an answer-first surface and deep search over the network's real enrollment, families, results, and policy content. The world is storybook meets college prep, in Alegreya and Plus Jakarta Sans with a pennant motif.
The result
Twenty-one routes on a real WordPress theme covering the network and nine campuses, with a verified school finder and deep search across enrollment, families, results, and policy.
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