Westfield High School web design students Brandon Barnes, Brock Connors and Alec Piepergerdes work on a website for a client.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
WESTFIELD — The Westfield High School Free Web Clinic is seeking two to three more website clients for its spring term.
Bram Moreinis, WHS web development and programming teacher, said the Free Web Clinic is for small businesses and community organizations that are looking to redo or create a website.
The free website design is created by web development students at Westfield High School. Moreinis said he has six teams of two to three students ready, and three websites that have already been selected, including the Westfield Education to Business Alliance website. Case studies of other websites the students have published are available to view at freewebclinic.org.
Moreinis said new businesses that are serious about what they’re doing and don’t have a website, ones who have a website but have done nothing with it or the person that put it up is no longer available, may fill out a free consult form on the site to apply.
“We move it on to WordPress, which gives you a site that you’re not going to get stuck with. You’re always going to get more done with it and always find people to help with it. It’s open source; the site technology is going to be free, (you) will have to host it somewhere, that’s it,” Moreinis said.
The timetable for the project begins in January, when students help prospective clients identify needs in “pre-consult” forms. In early February, teams are matched with good fits, and hold a “free consult” discovery meeting with clients.
In February to March, students create a scope of work and start a user-based design process with client support. In March to April, they finish the design document, including user profiles, stories and flows, site map and wire frame layouts, and start theming.
In April to May, students develop content and configure functions, or plug-ins. May to June is an Alpha-test, when they present to the client for initial feedback, and beta-test with the client and their customers.
June is the “Go/No Go” and transfer of hosting to a live or a staging site if the client is not ready to go live.
Beginning in July, students are available for ongoing development and support of the site at $20 per hour.
“We will be collecting free consult forms for the next three weeks, and will go over what we have, to see what is the best match for us. We see who is the best fit, and reach out and do a discovery meeting with them in early February,” Moreinis said, adding that if people need help filling out the form, students are available to help.
Moreinis, who is in his third year teaching at Westfield High School, has been running Free Web Clinics since 2014. In addition to web development, he teaches programming and AP classes. “I love Westfield,” he said. “It’s an incredibly close-knit and supportive community — very, very warm and generous people.”
Moreinis said he is also trying to organize a Westfield Hackathon, where coders from other schools get together for a weekend to code and learn from each other.
“Hackathons are an international phenomenon — let’s all get together and help each other finish our projects; developing patterns and relationships that can help sustain you,” he said, adding, “It’s a communal, fun activity.”
