We were also asked to write a brief about which links to social media platforms we should include and come up with the tagline. When I was thinking about the tagline, I wanted the tagline to be simple but also I wanted to define Hylands’ image and brand. I came up with the tagline: “dedication and motivation leads to success”. The meaning behind this was the harder the child worked in their lessons and practised outside their lesson the more successful they’d become. For our new website, we used the tagline: “The club where tennis is childsplay,” a tagline which is effective. Many people nowadays use social media and I learnt that adding links to social media as part of the new website, helps to speed up communication, people who are interested in sending their child to the club can read existing customer reviews and having links to social media can help us to track our competition within the local area. After I thought about these reasons I suggested that we should include links to social media as part of the new website, these now include links to Facebook and Instagram, which are the main two social media platforms that our customers use.
The project team were then asked to write a description of what Hylands was and Hylands’ story so far. I learnt that Hylands has a long history dating back to 1990, when Hylands gained a 28-year lease of the 6 tennis courts at Hylands Park in Hornchurch. In addition, in 2000, Hylands contacted Albany School to rent their sports hall to deliver a mini tennis programme and in 2013, Hylands made the permanent move there. Most importantly Hylands value volunteering greatly. Hylands promote volunteering through the Tennis Leaders Scheme, where Hylands trains young people aged 13 and over to become a tennis leader and Hylands promotes volunteering through the Volunteers Involvement Programme. In addition to valuing volunteering, I learnt that their ambition is to grow, sustain and promote tennis within the wider community and at grass roots level, in alignment with the Lawn Tennis Association’s policy of giving children more opportunities to play.
In our final brief, the project team were asked to review the new website. Overall, I was pleased with the new website especially with the homepage. The homepage, features a single image of the tennis courts at the Albany School , now Hornchurch High School, which is appropriate as well as the new tagline. The new website also presents clear information about the club’s history, the link with our feeder club Elm Park Lawn Tennis Club and contact details. The new website features a policies page, which is clear for first-time users and parents, which members must comply to.
From this experience I have learned that when I took into consideration changes that I’d make to the website, I wanted to propose changes which would be realistic as to what the club were able to offer and at a suitable time. I also learnt to keep things simple but effective. For example, this came into consideration whether Hylands should fill their homepage with a single image or use a slide show and also, when I was thinking about the tagline. Finally, I learnt about the benefits of using links to social media, which would enable people who want to send their child to the club to read customer reviews and it would enable Hylands to track competition within the local area.
