La Maison des Langues

La Maison des Langues is a language school for children and seniors founded in Rouen, France by Ula and Thomas with whom we had the pleasure of working before on the LABAS project implemented in Drupal.

The purpose for this WordPress multilingual website of this particular project was to provide general information in a manner which would be attractive for all ages. A playful, yet not a childish website which would be easy to further configure whenever needed.

WordPress theme adjustment

Since a lot of effort and resources had to be put in establishing the language school, the first task we were faced with was to find an appropriate way of implementing an attractive and functional website while sticking to our client’s fixed budget.

We started by narrowing down a selection of WordPress templates that were fitting the a playful educational profile and eventually decided on the current theme. However, since templates rarely meet the demands in the project brief, we began adjusting the theme.

WordPress Multilingual Website

Since we were dealing with a bilingual website, we first had to integrate a WordPress multilingual plugin in the current theme, configure and optimize it, then handle the appropriate layout integration which the theme wasn’t initially designed for.

The plugin now allows the website editors to insert content both in English and in French through additional language fields which extend the standard WordPress content editing interface.

Custom WordPress Menu

The custom menu was adjusted so that it wouldn’t overlap with the newly integrated language buttons, neither in the French version, nor in the English one. Similarly, we needed to adjust the display of the standard small-caps font used in the theme’s headings. Additionally, the menu structure required some buttons to be inactive (such as Methodology) — a quick fix with the help of a dedicated plugin.

WordPress Sidebar Widgets: Image Galleries and Google Maps

In order to make good use of the website’s design and structure, we decided to integrate the photo galleries in the sidebar. The NextGEN Gallery sidebar widget proved to be a good choice, just as it was for the other WordPress presentation websites, only this time we also adjusted the gallery frame so that it would fit the slider on the home page.

The image galleries brought an additional challenge, as different pages had to display different photo galleries in their sidebar. For example, the Contact page had to load a map that would pinpoint the location of La Maison des Langues. The solution we went for was to integrate a plugin which allowed us to configure widget display contextually by page. This is why the Lessons for Children page loads a photo gallery in its sidebar, while the Contact page loads a Google map in the sidebar, following a Google Maps plugin integration.

Dream Production has developped for us a very straightforward and easy-to-manage showcase website. Their sensible advice and responsiveness contributed a lot in our website’s success. Visitors love it and they come back!

– Thomas Divier, managing partner La Maison des Langues

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So there you have it. A budget solution for a presentation website that actually looks great! All this because we know what’s the most efficient way for our clients to fulfill their dream projects. If you have a project you want to put on fast forward but have a tight budget to work with, just drop us a line and tell us more about it.