In 1998 I sat in a call centre, printing out the HTML 4 specification. My employer of the time realised I had web skills, and had asked me to build an intranet to help organise things at the call centre. So I took the opportunity to print the entire spec for HTML to help me build it! Possibly a bit over the top (it ran to over a hundred pages), but it helped me learn.
The W3C has been part of my professional life since the start. The 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, accessibility, web payments and more).
I’m proud to announce Studio 24 has won the contract to redesign w3.org and will be working with W3C to more effectively communicate what the organisation does with a modern, inclusive, usable website.
Coralie Mercier, Head of W3C Marketing & Communications, explained: “I am delighted to partner with Studio 24 as we embark on this project. We haven’t done a website redesign in a very long time. In fact, in the 21 years I’ve been with the W3C, I remember only 3 different designs, the current one being from a decade ago. Redesigning our website is crucial to improve the overall experience of those who depend on us for our Web standards work. As W3C makes the Web work for everyone, Studio 24 will help make our website work better for everyone.”
A few things made the team especially excited to be working with the W3C.
We’ve 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. This has always been a value of Studio 24, and we even have our own Accessibility Lead Developer in the team to help move this forward.
Content strategy is going to be an interesting area for this project, there is a wealth of content on w3.org. While the project is focussed on higher-level pages, we’ll need to review how the site content is organised, making sure it meets its purpose and is easily understood by users.
URI persistence is an interesting and connected topic. Web page addresses (URLs, which are also URIs) are the backbone of the web and it is W3C’s policy not to change them.
Technical strategy will also be a fascinating area. 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. Coming up with something modern and manageable will be a good challenge!
Over the past 3 years we’ve worked with an increasing number of large organisations including Heathrow Airport, HS2, Crown Commercial Service and UK Parliament. It’s exciting to be working with the W3C: an international organisation with staff in USA, France, Japan and China.
If you want to learn more about the project the W3C have a public RFP document. We’ll also be creating a website to help communicate and share progress on the project which will be online soon.
The team are really looking forward to getting started with this project. In the 20-year history of Studio 24, it feels as if we’ve been leading up to a project like this. Our company mission to bring together human-centred design and open source technology is ideally fitted to a client such as W3C.