Hogeschool
van de Kusten
Utrecht
1997
The first site is from the very early days of the internet. It still uses the very old school graphics, which were hip for the time and it is clear, that they had no clue yet how to structure a website.
1999
A bit more structure was brought into the site. The site has been made by students, this gives the feeling that HKU didn’t really take the media serious yet. It is a huge improvement over the 1997 version.
2000
Bit more structure and a lot information on this site. It seems that in 2000 HKU started to realise they should use the web as a promotion media.
2003
A bit more modern take on the website. Moving out of the translation from paper straight on to the web.
2007
This site looks very much like the one we have nowadays. Starting to get a bit more modern, with hipper buttons and a way better structure, but it also lost the experimental feeling the 2003 version had.
The site changed from a 720px grid, to 960px. Here we see the introduction of the gradient buttons, which were in that time very outdated for websites.
2012
2013
Here we see the introduction of the new logo. I’m shocked to see that the site has hardly changed in the pas seven years. Especially if we take into account that the HKU has just updated their identity. The logo may live more in a digital realm, but clearly the site shows that the HKU hasn’t taken the importance of web development into consideration.
Strangely, the UAL first site only appeared in 2004. It is not the most modern looking site for the time. The images on the page, show a way more focuses on analog media’s.
2004
Univerisity of the Arts London
2005
In a year time, UAL changed the background from blue to white, making the text easier to read.
2006
In 2006 the site was change to a more business looking site. The site has better improved buttons, but the images still show only analog media’s.
2008
The site broke out of this business feeling. We also see that the designer of the site, started to experiment more with breaking out of a typical web box structure.
In 2009 the site started to use image swipers and we see opacity being used for the first time.
2009
The site was updated a little bit in 2012, to get a way more modern feeling. Once again we see metro design influence appearing in the design.
2012
The very modern site, which they have now, was introduced in 2013, along side the new logo. The site image still depict way more “analog media” than digital. This is strange, because the site suggest that UAL finds the latest advancements in the digital realm, very important. Yet, they choose to depict more analog mediums, when promoting their school.
2013