CBHS

Two rules: only black and blue, and the main pages in one view.

At Hail · With Stuart Bellon and Headmaster Nic Hill

cbhs.school.nz

The Christchurch Boys' High School home page: an aerial view of the campus with the school crest at the top and a menu button in the top corner. — The live home page. The video behind it is the school's, paused on a view from above with the player's controls hidden. Shot in a tall window so the whole menu shows. The news column was empty on the day.

The open menu on black. On a large screen, one panel with columns of links for Discover CBHS, Explore CBHS and Join CBHS, beside a blue news column. On a phone, one list of the same sections. — The live home page. The video behind it is the school's, paused on a view from above with the player's controls hidden. Shot in a tall window so the whole menu shows. The news column was empty on the day.

Eleven headmasters since 1881. The school set two rules for the website.

The school opened in what is now the Arts Centre and moved to Straven Road in 1926. Its Main Block, a Category 1 heritage building, came through the Canterbury earthquakes intact.

The brief had two rules. Black and blue, nothing else. And a visitor can reach the main pages from one view.

Try finding the school's history.

Two menus side by side. On the left, the old navy menu with nine large items and plus signs, with About Us marked in blue. On the right, the new black menu showing its lists of links, with Our History marked in blue. — The old navy menu in March 2024, from the Wayback Machine, and part of the new one, live. The blue marks are drawn for this page.

The old menu had nine items, six of them with a plus sign hiding more. The history page sat behind About Us, and you had to open it to find that out.

I put the main pages in one panel, with three columns: Discover, Explore and Join. One button opens it. There is no second click to see what is in a section, so Our History is on screen with the rest.

Black and blue. Nothing else.

Part of the home page on black: three blue cards for Join CBHS, International and Explore CBHS, and a fourth blue card headed Our Blue Black Values. White type, with black buttons. — The live home page with its photos and video taken out for this page, so only the colour is left.

The site's values section is called Our Blue Black Values. The two colours carry the whole site, with white for the words.

I started from a blank page and went through the school's past photos and videos. Those are the school's own, and they bring the only other colour on the site.

On a phone

Three columns don't fit on a phone, so the menu folds into one list and each section opens where it sits. Open the menu, open Discover CBHS, and Our History is there.

On a phone

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