Urban Dictionary
Updating a legendary website.
Overview
Founded in 1999, Urban Dictionary is a quintessential Web 2.0 platform, using crowdsourcing to define slang, cultural phrases, memes, and other items not found in traditional dictionaries. For a long time they had a very homespun, made-in-a-dorm-room aesthetic, but as the platform grew they needed to evolve the brand and the website, without completely losing the sense of originality and internet-cool.
Our Role
- UX/UI Design
UX/UI Design
Modernizing the design
We preserved the logo to maintain the brand’s attitude and spirit, but modernized it by simplifying and flattening to white and yellow. Secondary colors were added and the user-interface was redesigned to create a greater sense of energy and variety. We streamlined the content, created some new ways to explore, opened up the page layout, and made creating and submitting an entry super easy.
The updated design made UrbanDictionary feel a bit more grown-up, without being too slick or too corporate.
We also introduced alternate revenue streams and additional content, including word-merch and advertiser information.
