I wanted to give you a brief update on our new front page system. Join me after the jump.
We’ve now been up and running for one week on the new system. From long experience I know that no one ever likes redesigns. So I was pleasantly surprised that the reaction from readers was overwhelmingly positive. There were definitely critics and people who say they’re still working on getting adjusted to the change. But again I found this highly surprising since in general initial reactions are so heavily negative.
Some of that is just disorientation. Over time people will get more accustomed to the different set up. But there’s one thing that a number of readers have mentioned that I think is something real. And that is that the new set up has made it harder for some people to get a clear sense of what’s new and what’s not. Beyond this we’re always trying to tell a visual story with the above the fold part of the front page. And we’re still feeling out how to do that effectively in the new system.
What we’re working on are a few ways, both technical and strategy-wise, to give you a clearer sense on first view of what’s new and concentrating newer items more toward the top. One addition will be adding timestamps, which not only say when something was first published but also give other visual cues whether it’s something that is still basically current or whether it’s something older that might still be relevant or good background on the main item.
In any case, as I said at the outset, this isn’t really a new design as a new tool set. With any new tool set there’s some getting used to it involved and finding how we can use it most effectively. All of which is to say that we really want to your continuing feedback. It helps us know what’s helpful, what you’re liking, what seems confusing and so forth.
