Why do we like this site?

The Rannoch School, a co-educational private school for boys and girls ages 10-19, is located in Perthshire, Scotland, on the Highland shores of Loch Rannoch. With its streamlined design, easy access to information and quick loading, we felt it was also the perfect school to showcase during this, the month those of us in the northern hemisphere spend going back to school.

The first thing which catches the attention of any viewer of the Rannoch School is its quick download. Compared to other sites which are, from an American perspective, overseas, it loads very quickly. This is accomplished first by keeping the text-to-graphics ratio high, and the graphics themselves contained to those which add to the site without gratuitously wasting bandwidth. Another factor is that many of the apparently separate images are combined into two imagemaps, meaning only two HTTP connections need to be opened for them rather than twenty. These are small points, but important ones in making a site efficient to browse.

Another factor which attracted us to the site was the tasteful design. The Rannoch School employs its colors, white and gold, with black text, to make the site easy on the eyes. Nothing can spawn a headache faster than an all-neon website, which the Rannoch School deftly avoids.

Third, and most important, is the well-organized and easily navigated information structure. The image maps on the main page lead directly to the information one is seeking on a variety of topics for a variety of audiences. At no time was I taken any further than two clicks from the Rannoch School site's main page, making it quick and easy to get back to where I started. If information has been newly added, it's also plainly labeled on the front page; no sifting through old data to find the new.

In the end, the Rannoch School site is a pleasure to view and use, with genuinely useful information (right down to an on-line form to request a prospectus if your student is interested in attending their school). If every school website were this good, we might well find ourselves out of a job.

Who are the people behind this site?

The Rannoch School site is maintained by a team of students led by a staff webmaster.