19 March 2015 – A revamped United Nations website was launched this week after a year of design, consultation and testing, making it easier for users to view the gateway to the world body on mobile internet devices.

“You may have noticed that we have a new, modern, mobile-friendly UN home page,” spokesperson Farhan Haq told a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York, adding that the new look reflects the results of extensive discussions. “We have tested it for some months, conferred with content producers to iron out kinks and to ensure functionalities work.”

Most large organisations looking to renovate their web presence would be looking at using a budget of around $10 million to do so. However, in a time of budgetary restraint, the UN completed its project “within existing resources,” relying on the design, technical and linguistic talents of internal staff to launch the new page.

The UN Department of Public Information (DPI) handled the building of the new site, which has been completely restructured to give a more intuitive, visually arresting and dynamic user experience that reflects a forward-looking UN as the Organization celebrates its 70th anniversary.

“With a single click, journalists can access a dedicated section where they will find important resources, such as ‘Media Accreditation,’ ‘Spokesperson of the Secretary-General,’ ‘United Nations News Centre,’ ‘Meetings Coverage,’” said Mr. Haq, “as well as subscribe to UN documents and receive e-mails or RSS feeds.”

The website is also a ‘mobile-first’ design, meaning that it is designed to function firstly as a website viewed on mobile internet devices. In 2014, global mobile internet use surpassed desktop and the new website will adapt to either form seamlessly.

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