(Almost) 20 years of the University of York homepage

Last week we launched a new homepage and refreshed the design of core pages of the site. In the next week or so we’re planning blog posts that will give a behind-the-scenes insight into the recent changes and reflect on feedback and site usage since launch. But we thought we’d start with a longer-term look back at the homepage to see how far we've come.

1994: launch

The very earliest version of the homepage went live in 1994, just three years after Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web and at a time when the total number of websites in the world could be counted in the thousands.

One of the earliest versions of the University homepage,  this capture from 1997

It seems unlikely that anyone at the time really expected the web to become as ubiquitous as it now is, but it was a big enough deal for a reporter from Radio York and a photographer to cover the event.

Members of Computing Service (now IT Services) launching the new website (quite why the photo is black and white, we're not sure - it wasn't that long ago!)

• See the original homepage design, as captured in 1997 by the Wayback Machine

1997: design

The original 1994 homepage was pretty straightforward; text and links, top to bottom. By 1997 things had moved on a bit and the homepage had its first proper ‘design’. The colours and buttons look a bit primitive by today’s standards, but back then this would have been pretty advaned.

Homepage circa 1997. New in this version: news on the homepage and search to help track down information amongst the growing number of pages

• Visit the 1997 redesign on the Wayback Machine

2002: modernising

In November 2002, it was out with the blue and in with a cleaner and more recognisably modern style, plus photos on the homepage for the first time.

Homepage circa 2002. Information for prospective students is now the first link on the page; by now it was clear that the web was a key part of the decision-making process of university applicants.

• Visit the 2002 redesign on the Wayback Machine

2006: going green

In early 2006 the homepage was updated to a style that many of us have been used to ever since. More imagery, more colour and a stronger expression of an identity were key here.

Homepage launched April 2006

• Visit the 2006 redesign on the Wayback Machine

2008: focus on key audiences

This update was designed to help key audiences get to what they needed faster, in particular prospective students who now get 9 links to choose from (up from 1, in third place in a list, on the previous version).

Homepage launched April 2008

• Visit the 2008 redesign on the Wayback Machine

2010: menu bar

We introduced a horizontal menu in 2010 to provide a more standard way of getting to core audience- or topic-focussed sections of the site. We also introduced our first carousel at this point (see our recent post for some reflections on carousels) and added a subtle link to a listing of our social media accounts.

Homepage launched late 2010

• Visit the 2010 redesign on the Wayback Machine

2013: course search

Early in 2013 we added course search to the homepage to save prospective students having to click through to the study area to find it (better late than never, some may say!) The site handles up to 20,000 course searches per week, so putting it front and centre makes sense.

Homepage launched early 2013

• Visit the early-2013 redesign on the Wayback Machine

2013: redesign

While we’ve evolved the homepage a few times since going green in 2006, it had been over seven years since the site had a major redesign. The green had served us well, but it was time for a change.

We’ll cover some of the details of the new design in another post, but hopefully we’re hitting the right buttons: attractive and modern; clear navigation (this is the first time we've had global navigation across the core site; an important step towards us running one website rather than a loosely connected collection of sites); prominent course search; and plenty of space to tell the story of what makes York unique.

• Visit the 2013 redesign on the Wayback Machine (or, at the time of writing, the live website!)

The (near) future: responsive

As big a step forward as we feel this week’s changes are, there is much more to come next year. High on the list is making the site responsive so that the user’s view of the page is tailored to the device they’re using, whether that’s a desktop PC, tablet or mobile.

Watch this space...