Easy access and administration for performing arts classes

This website gives parents control and autonomy for booking activities, and gives administrators smart, simple tools for management

Project launch: December 2021

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Services

Website design

UX & digital product design

Booking & payment system

Administration & reporting tools

Technologies

About the Client

Funstar Education provide a wide range of performing arts classes and workshops for young children. They work with schools and parents to provide extra-curricular activities, building children's confidence, communication skills and having lots of educational fun! But administration for all these classes took a lot of time and effort. They needed a website that could simplify those processes.

New, fun, engaging website design
Online booking and subscriptions
Class management system
SMS and email update functionality

The Challenge

Much of Funstar’s admin time was spent chasing payment, updating class lists and keeping in touch with parents, and it was getting more complex as the business grew. They needed a system that helped simplify their admin burden, but that also gave parents power too.

Online schedules and booking

One area where an online system would really help, was through enabling online booking. However, Funstar classes aren’t single event bookings, they are a course of activities - and not just anyone can sign up, you need to be registered with Funstar.

Working together, we developed a registration system where parents could add their children’s details, then sign up and pay for classes for each child.

Updates and notifications

Another pain point for Funstar was communication. Not only was it difficult to get the word out when new courses became available, it was even more difficult when classes needed to be rescheduled or cancelled.

Building a notification system into the website was a great way to automate that process, providing email and/or text alerts to parents to let them know of changes to the schedule.

Reporting and class lists

The new system also provides Funstar with class lists and schedules, so that teachers can easily download registration lists and keep track of the children in their classes.

Another key feature is that the system provides reports for Funstar that enable them to easily see key data, such as booking numbers and course availability. This gives them the ability to manage classes more easily, seeing which are most popular, and enabling them to confidently take the business in new directions.

A dependable architecture

The platform is built as a single monolithic web application that sits at the centre of all activity. End users such as parents log in, manage their accounts, and book classes through the same application that staff use to administer workshops and communication.

All core data is stored in a structured MySQL database. Stripe manages payments, while Twilio and SendGrid provide SMS and email notifications. Google Sign-in supports simple, secure authentication.

For class registers, the system automatically generates spreadsheets using Google Sheets by leveraging the Google Sheets API. This gives workshop leaders an accessible and familiar register format without adding manual admin burden.

This unified setup delivers a dependable backbone for the product. It is straightforward to scale, keeps sensitive data tightly controlled in one system.

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Meet the Team page
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School page
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Call-to-action
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Login to Parent/Teacher portal
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Workshops
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Registration form
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The outcomes

Funstar’s new website has provided parents with a lot more control over how they book and pay for classes, making the process less stressful and much simpler.

For Funstar themselves, not only are administrative processes easier and more intuitive, they also have a much clearer picture of how the business is operating, giving them the ability to expand and grow with confidence.