During the Thanksgiving weekend, University IT (UIT) launched the new UIT website (uit.stanford.edu) on Drupal 10. The site was previously on Drupal 7 — a version that will no longer receive security support in January 2025.
What’s different?
With this launch, you won’t see many drastic changes yet. However, you will likely notice the new homepage banner with a search bar and buttons, the updated footer and menu navigation, minor style and accessibility updates across all page types, and a fresh new interface for content editors.
How did UIT land here? Last year, the UIT Communications team partnered with external web consulting agency, Dev by Design, to conduct user experience research and develop design templates. Several dozen site users, including IT and non-IT staff, faculty, students, service owners, (and many of you!) expressed interest in participating in UX exercises and testing. Based on user feedback, Dev by Design produced a collection of design mockups to help us assess and prioritize enhancements and new feature builds.
For this initial upgrade, the priorities were the following:
- Building out the site infrastructure on the new Drupal version
- Cleaning house: Retire or archive out-of-date content and move the rest (4,600+ pages) off Drupal 7 before the 2025 end-of-life deadline — an effort that has reduced the number of site pages by 32%!
- Accessibility updates: Headers, font size/weight/contrast, spacing, navigation
- Style improvements (based on user research): updated service catalog, new homepage banner, refreshed styling on service pages, etc.
- Standardizing the content editing experience between the UIT website and other sites, such as the IT Community website
Additionally, the site is moving away from individual page customizations and will follow a consistent, standard look and feel for each page type (e.g., service pages, program/project pages, guides, news). This means icons, colors, imagery, layout, and logos will have a unified theme and style, in alignment with the Stanford UIT brand identity.
What other changes are coming?
Within the next year, UIT will continue onto the next phases of the upgrade, which will involve building and implementing more exciting features and functionality. This includes:
- Team pages: New content type to accommodate and standardize a common request in UIT; client-facing page to showcase a team/group’s services and team members
- New card styles
- More content layout/organization options
Help report bugs
UIT asks that you report any issues you notice on the new site to the UIT Communications team through their Help request form: uitcomm.stanford.edu.
