Working in the open to redesign one of the longest running websites in the world

During 2020 and 2021, Studio 24 has been working with the iconic W3C on the redesign of their website.

About the client

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was founded by the inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, and is responsible for key standards that make the World Wide Web work (such as HTML, CSS, accessibility, web payments and more).

W3C and Studio 24: a shared vision

Studio 24 has always believed in building a better web, using standards to make sure the sites we build are accessible to all regardless of who you are, what internet access you have, what device you’re using, or any disability you may have. We even have our own Accessibility Lead Developer in the team to help move this forward. In this regard Studio 24’s beliefs are perfectly aligned with W3C’s mission in making a ‘Web for All’.

Project goals

W3C is redesigning its website and revising the information architecture to:

• Show the world who they are and what they offer.
• Improve the organisation and usability of the website for key audiences.
• Communicate the W3C brand more effectively.
• Motivate people to participate in the organisation.

Project challenges

In March 2020 we started the website redesign for W3C. This is a prestigious, exciting, and challenging project. The redesign needs to communicate what W3C does with a modern, inclusive, usable website. Because of the age and size of the site we have some unique challenges to address.

• Content strategy: the W3C website is one of the longest running websites in the world. As it has grown organically over time, does the site meet its purpose and is it easily understood by users?
• URL strategy: with a massive 2 million documents, the web page addresses are the backbone of the website.
• Technical strategy: the W3C was founded in the early days of the web in 1994, which means they will have a variety of different systems and ways of managing web pages.
• Working with stakeholders: some stages of the project require a lot of time to gather appropriate feedback.

And, of course, 2020 had all the disruption caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. Not ideal when you are trying to work on your dream project!

Keep up to date with the project progress

One of the key elements of this project is that we work in the open so all the decisions we’ve made can be understood by the W3C community. At the start of the project, we set up a website to share our progress, key documents, and learnings.

We will continue to document progress on the working in the open site until the launch later this year.

Key decisions from the timeline that you may like to read about include:

• CMS Platform selection
• Headless CMS approach
• Internationalization approach
• URL strategy

Please browse the timeline to see the full scope of the work.

We will announce the launch later this year. Be the first to hear about it! Follow us on Twitter, follow us on Linked In, or sign up to the Studio 24 newsletter.