University College Oxford Blockchain Research Centre website
WordPress website design and build
University College Oxford Blockchain Research Centre in an initiative of an Oxford University college, looking into blockchain and related technologies and how they can be used to create a "securer, fairer and more transparent decentralized society". It is led by Professor Bill Roscoe, a fellow of University College Oxford since 1983 and former head of Oxford University's Computer Science department.
The Research Centre asked me to redesign and rebuild their website, and so to improve its appearance, functionality and clarity. The previous website was based around an off-the-shelf WordPress theme, which was visually rather plain, and very limited in scope for enhancements or creativity.
The new website runs on WordPress, but with a completely custom theme. This was coupled with bespoke, Gutenberg-based content editing functionality, allowing pages to be quickly and easily created using consistent, tested and robust content building components. A pre-build design phase included the creation of a simple, but essential, design system, which in turn increased the speed and efficiency of building the site theme.
The website has a strong visual personality, with a bold two-colour palette at its core. As the website is largely content-based, focus was placed on making text readable and clear, without becoming dull.