It’s an exciting time for Studio 24! Since March 2020 we’ve been involved in the W3C website redesign project which is focussed on a usable, accessible redesign of the famous industry website w3.org.
We’re happy to share the beta website launched today at beta.w3.org. W3C are now testing the beta site and plan to launch the new design on the main public w3.org later in 2023. W3C welcomes community feedback on the beta site.
Our work is documented on the working in the open site. This covers how we started with design, content and technology audits, reviewing who uses the W3C website, what needs to be communicated, and how it’s currently managed (it’s complex!). The work evolved into design, CMS selection, front-end development, user testing, accessibility work, design systems, technical build of the front-end site in Symfony, browser and accessibility testing (with DAC and Zoonou), and more.
It’s important to note the W3C site is huge and is made up of the main, central W3C site and many sub-sites, often managed by different groups and volunteers within the W3C community. We created a design system to help make it possible to re-use the HTML/CSS of the new design on other W3C sites.
Once our main work was finished in April 2022, the W3C team have been hard at work building pages using the design system, writing content, importing legacy content and updating the Beta website. And all this, while W3C has been transitioning into a non-profit organisation and the team have to manage all the normal work that supports the standards process at W3C.
It’s been a huge privilege to help W3C redesign their website and also a pleasure to work with a client that values accessibility so highly. We look forward to the feedback from the community and seeing the website launch live on w3.org in the near future!
You can read more about the project on w3c.studio24.net which includes details on how to get in touch or feedback on the project.
It’s been a fascinating journey which we plan to talk about in a series of case studies in the coming months. You can read the following posts we’ve published to date related to the project:
- Studio 24 and W3C
- What can we learn from the W3C CMS selection process – collaboration with Janus Boye, CMS Critic
- Agency growth: how we made the most of working with W3C
- The irresistible force and the immovable object
- Amplify: our accessible front-end starter kit
- Front-end internationalisation tips
We’ve also talked about the project at a number of events:
- extendsConf: Accessibility in CMSs: What’s stopping us? – Marie Manandise
- Dot All conference: Accessibility takeaways from the W3C redesign – Marie Manandise
- Web Summer Camp: How we grew as an agency by redesigning w3.org – Simon Jones
