348 (Ilkeston) Squadron RAFAC

A family friend who is involved with the 348 (Ilkeston) Squadron RAFAC was aware of my web development work and contacted me to enquire about a full website redesign of the squadron's existing website.

The client wanted a cleaner, more modern website and provided me with some examples of other squadron websites that included more content and functionality. As part of my research, I reviewed the official Royal Air Force Air Cadets website to gain a better understanding of the RAFAC branding, so that I could tailor the client site to this branding.

I designed a few pages on Figma, so that the client could visualise the general layout and branding of the new site.

Once this design was agreed, I began building the site using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I used Astro to build reusable components, page structure and routing.

The client had requested a contact form, as well as a form for people to register their interest to join the cadets. I researched some different solutions to implement the client's requested forms, and decided to go with Web3Forms. After reading the documentation and experimenting with different configuration settings, I successfully implemented the contact form into the website, before applying the same approach to the second form.

This allowed me to provide the client's required functionality without having to develop and maintain a custom backend.

This project was extremely useful as it was the first time I had experimented with third party integrations without senior developer support. It gave me a lot of experience with dealing directly with stakeholders, and taught me how to pick apart non-technical requirements, and turn them into something I could use to build a website around.

The client was very happy with my work and has since passed my details on to other squadrons. I learned a lot during this project and hope to be able to work with more Royal Air Force Air Cadets Squadrons in future!