According to publishers Condé Nast: Information architecture has informed the new site structure, overlain with the style and character of the Vogue brand, while responsive design provides a device sensitive optimum viewing experience.
Alexandra Shulman, Editor of British Vogue, remarks “The redesigned site offers the Vogue.co.uk user an experience which is closer to that of the print magazine whilst continuing to capitalise on the timeliness, newsworthiness and excitement of the web. The site’s reputation as being the leader for fashion and catwalk news gains from a more elegant visual approach, and is part of the general digital strategy of the magazine to play to our core values of fashion, intelligence, style and authority across all media.”
“Inspiring and informing millions of users worldwide, for nearly 17 years Vogue.co.uk has been at the forefront of fashion online, and this re-imagining is the culmination of all we’ve learnt to date, simultaneously taking advantage of the most sophisticated and innovative technologies available. The visual appeal the site delivers as a result of its expansive and engaging images is immediate. Retaining the unique Vogue spirit and position as the pre-eminent fashion media brand, while capitalising on the smartest innovation going, we could not be in better shape to continue to dominate the sector,” adds Dolly Jones, Editor of Vogue.co.uk.
The new site is built in HTML5 and CSS3 in a fully responsive manner, ensuring it looks good on the small screens of tablet devices, on the largest of desktop monitors, and all sizes in between. The site is also optimised for the new wave of 'retina' screens - Vogue's amazing archive of images will now take advantage of every new feature possible with today's advanced screens.
Jamie Jouning, Digital Director of Condé Nast, comments “The re-imagination of the Vogue site has been 8 months in development. With innovative information architecture at its core and an underlying ambition to make the Vogue brand look as beautiful on the web as it does in print, whilst retaining our dynamic news agenda, the site delivers on every level. Commercially the site provides our upscale clients’ with a bigger creative canvas than anywhere on the web. Full screen, responsive HTML5 ads are available for key sponsors, and our best-in-class gallery experience provides advertisers with the opportunity to run hugely impactful gallery interstitials. In-depth site analysis also guided us towards the creation of bespoke “in-content” ad formats that sit elegantly within the main article experience. This plethora of new and engaging ways to reach the highly sought after Vogue audience sets the benchmark for the industry.”
Commercially the re-imagined Vogue.co.uk site features some groundbreaking advertising developments. Bespoke ‘in content’ ads have been developed by Condé Nast and are exclusive to the site. There are also fully responsive ads, which react to different screen sizes and devices, offering the biggest display advertising positions in the industry. The sites launch sponsor, Ralph Lauren, have taken full advantage of this new technology to showcase their autumn/winter collection to stunning visual effect. Advertisers can either create these ads themselves in HTML5, or use Vogue’s new HTML5 ‘ad builder’ which enables easy repurposing of existing assets. The site also still accommodates standard IAB ad formats including Doubleskys, MPUs and Leaderboards, as well as Billboards, which are new to the site.
Vogue.co.uk has an extensive, rich and beautiful archive of content. The site now introduces ‘topic sections’ which showcase all articles, catwalk shows, Vogue covers, blog entries and galleries, searchable by brand, people or events, providing an authoritative Timeline for inspiration and research. Other editorial developments to note include a left hand browser bar displaying current stories; and the site allows the editorial team to mix images of all sizes with their articles and galleries, and with other content such as videos, music playlists, and quotes. The content always adjusts itself to suit the screen or device being used to view the site. In addition to daily news, topical features, and the cover archive, users come to Vogue.co.uk to explore its huge archive of fashion shows. With that in mind the catwalk gallery experience is even more immersive, allowing the user to explore all aspects of a show at once - what happened backstage, who was in the audience, and of course what was on the catwalk. In 2008, Vogue was first to offer magnification of catwalk images, now Vogue enhances that functionality to give users the most expansive and immersive catwalk visuals on the web.
When the shows are in full swing, the top panel will be broken up to highlight the most recent designer collections and models to walk, while at other times the top image may relate to one large image and story. The site also uses HTML5 pushState to ensure users can browse through sections, timelines and galleries without the cost of reloading entire pages.
Vogue.co.uk currently receives 29,945,632 page impressions, and 1,292,805 unique users, a month (Jan to June 2012 Google analytics 6 month average traffic figures.)
Vogue.co.uk launched in 1995 and since then has won a host of Awards including the People Voice Webby Award in 2005 and the BSME Magazine Website of the Year in 2006.
