Monday, November 23, 2009

Evolution of Harvard University's website 11-23-09

I have started searching for possible design journal ideas on archive.org, because its Internet Wayback Machine can show how certain websites have evolved over the years from 1996 to now.

The first entry of the series will be on Harvard University's website.

Harvard's website 1997


At its beginnings, the Harvard website was simple and only had the links categorized in alphabetical order. It may be organized, but it wasn't as organized as it could be. It seemed that back then, they didn't think to condense everything into general topics.

Harvard's website 2008


Eleven years later, this version of the Harvard website is more condensed and slightly more complex in its design. The Harvard logo and its official color, Crimson, are now visible on the website, along with other photos.

Harvard's website 2009


In 2009, the website was redesigned, and it is even more compact than the previous design. To me, this is for the best, because it makes navigation around the site feel the smoothest of the three. It also uses the gestalt principles of organization, including proximity for the "Harvard and the World" links and the links in the banner.

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