Welcome to the UW Theme
The UW Theme is the university’s official WordPress theme. It’s free and available to anyone who has a wisc.edu website. By choosing to use the theme, you’ll have access to UW–Madison branded website components, colors, layouts, settings, and more. Creating and updating pages through the page builder is quick, simple, and powerful.
For a more basic WordPress theme, the UW Theme Lite is also available. It’s well-suited for class blogs, simple sites and for developing a child theme.
Announcement: Refresh of UW Brand Fonts
Red Hat Text and Red Hat Display are replacing Verlag and Vitesse as the UW’s brand fonts. If your website or web application uses the Verlag or Vitesse web fonts, you or your web developer will need to replace them with Red Hat Display and Red Hat Text by June 30, 2023. For more information, see University Marketing’s detailed guidance on how to update the fonts on your website.
Note that if your WordPress website uses UW Theme or UW Theme Lite but is not hosted on WiscWeb, you will need to update to the new versions of the themes by June 30, 2023.
1,700+ sites at UW–Madison use the UW Theme
Explore a few examples of sites that are built using the UW Theme on the WiscWeb WordPress service, a free campus service for creating and maintaining UW branded websites.
University Marketing recommends using the UW Theme on WiscWeb for most university websites to meet UW Brand’s minimum web standards. Sites on WiscWeb range from labs, research projects, resource websites, blogs, events/conferences, and more.
Key features
Mobile-friendly
Over 16 mobile-friendly page components, and five flexible column options for designing rich page layouts.
Google integrations
Integrations with Google Analytics, Custom Search, Tag Manager and Search Console
Accessible
Browser tested across devices, including assistive technologies to meet campus web accessibility standards and policies.
Actively supported
Ongoing support by University Marketing and WiscWeb with regular testing and updates.
UW branded
Built-in UW–Madison identity, colors, and type, plus a basic header, menus, and footer.
Browser compatibility
Browser compatible with Microsoft Edge, FireFox, Chrome, and Safari.
Get started
While customization is an option, to ensure continued compliance with campus web standards and accessibility policies, using the UW Theme on WiscWeb is recommended for most websites.
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WiscWeb (recommended)
Advantages of using the UW Theme on WiscWeb include:
- The WiscWeb team manages WordPress and plugin updates, reducing the amount of work and technical experience needed to securely maintain a site
- Sites using the UW Theme provide users with a consistent visual and interactive experience
- The UW Theme is regularly tested and kept up-to-date with the current version of WordPress, web accessibility standards, and UW Brand
- Any issues found with the UW Theme are addressed as quickly as possible and typically added to the next release of the UW Theme
Develop your own child theme
If you plan to develop, use custom code, or are working with a third-party vendor, you can use the UW Theme to create a child theme and build your website. The UW Theme Lite is helpful for those who want a more simple version of the theme to start with.
DoIT Shared Hosting is recommended if your department’s IT does not provide hosting services. While some hosting options have a monthly cost, DoIT Web Hosting provides database and Secure FTP access and allows you to fully customize CSS and install plugins (beyond the WiscWeb plugin).
For custom sites on campus, the unit that develops a custom design is responsible for maintaining it from that point forward, as well as ensuring continued compliance with the university’s minimum web standards.
Visit the Website Publishing Options guide to compare the differences between WiscWeb and DoIT Web Hosting.
Need help?
Email our team with questions, comments, ideas, or feedback. We’d love to hear from you.