Today’s Paper page is improved and ready for more
We’ve had a link to “Today’s Paper” on our home page since we redesigned last October.
I thought today would be a good day to bring more attention to that page because we’ve recently focused on improving the experience once you are there and the experience of actually getting there.
If you are a daily newspaper reader, you’ve likely seen more notes in the newspaper driving our readers to the Today’s Paper page. Those notes have begun appearing more frequently because we’ve done some development work behind the scenes to make sure the experience on the Today’s Paper page is a good one.
Basically, the Today’s Paper page is designed to showcase articles from that day’s newspaper in a simple way. It’s also designed to showcase the multimedia elements (related links, videos, podcasts, slideshows, documents, etc) related to the articles in that day’s newspaper.
We want this page to be a destination for users wanting a simple experience to see what was in the newspaper. And we also know that many people look for articles on NewsOK.com after getting word that it was in yesterday’s newspaper. Those stories can sometimes be hard to locate on NewsOK, but they are pretty easy to find on the Today’s Paper page. The headlines all appear just as they did in the newspaper, and the stories are organized based on the sections and in order of the pages where they appeared.
If you know there is a document or a video that went with an article in the newspaper, we can now confidently guarantee that you can find it on Today’s Paper, a link that it always found in the sub-navigation of our home page.
NewsOK launches more active navigation
If you use NewsOK.com often (and we hope that you do), you probably noticed a change to our navigation in the last week or so.
Now, as you mouse through the main navigation items — HOME, NEWS, SPORTS, BUSINES, LIFE … — you see the secondary navigation change as well.
We have dozens of pages underneath each of our main navigation items, so we thought it was important to showcase those more by having them appear as you mouse through the navigation
That means it’s now just one click to get to the OU page under the SPORTS navigation. And from there, it’s just one more click to get to the CELEBRITY WATCH page under the A&E navigation. And from there, it’s just one more click to get to the TECHNOLOGY page under the BUSINESS navigation.
We hope you find it more usable. Let us know what you think.
See all our blogs in one place
When we first launched the redesigned NewsOK.com in October. One of the first things our visitors asked us about was our primary blogs page. Some of our visitors really liked the page where they could see every blogs feed in the NewsOK Blogging Community.
When I stopped updating the blog shortly after the redesign, I never had a chance to go back and let everyone know that the blog page had returned. It’s been back for awhile, and we had visitors who noticed its return immediately (sure, she used to work here, but she still noticed it immediately).
Comics page enhanced with Comics Kingdom partnership
NewsOK.com is launching a new comics page this weekend. We’ve partnered with Comics Kingdom for an interactive experience with you daily comics online.
Our new experience allows you to select your favorite comics and bookmark them for easy access, then comment on them and share them with your friends. As with all of our pages, we will continue to improve the functionality on this page as we get feedback. But we are confident that as our users get familiar with this experience with our comics, its popularity will grow quickly.
Comments on our articles
If you look at our home page, or any section front page, you will see a new addition on each of our top stories. Under the headline, there is now a a little note that shows how many comments have been made inside that article.
If there are no comments yet, you can be the first. If there are comments on the article, click the icon and read them.
That functionality was in design superstar Scott Horton’s original design for the site, but it took a few days to get that part implemented.
Tuning In returns to NewsOK
One of the first comments we received after we launched essentially asked where the Tuning In feature was.
Tuning In is the piece that runs every day on Page 2 of the Sports section in The Oklahoman. It informs readers of the sports programming they can find on TV and the radio for that day. It has always run online, also, but every time we redesign, we have to figure out how to get that transfered over, both technically and logistically.
Well, we now have Tuning In on our Sports page on NewsOK. Just go to the right-side rail of the sports page to see the latest Tuning In piece from that day.
Voices, voices everywhere
No – the voices are not in your head. They’re on NewsOK.
One new aspect of the new NewsOK.com is the Voices page, located in our main navigation.
The voices area of the Web site houses all the opinions, columns, blogs, and podcasts from all of our personalities at The Oklahoman and NewsOK.com.
The really cool aspect of these pages is the left rail. That’s where we display the recent comments from articles on that topic. If you’re on our Sports Voices page, you’ll see comments on sports articles. If you’re on our Business Voices page, you’ll see comments on business articles. On these pages, you can see what we’re saying, what our users are saying – and then you can say something, too.
My site loads faster now!
The most consistent comment we’ve heard from the public is that our new Web site is cleaner and easier to navigate. We’re happy to hear that, because that was the ultimate goal of the resedign.
Another consistent comment we’ve heard is about the load time of the site.
Indeed, the site does load faster than our previous version. That is happening because the programming staff and designing staff spent weeks cleaning up and improving code under the covers to make your computer load our site faster. They also configured the servers and placed images on new servers to improve the load time of the site.
I’m no expert on that stuff, but I know when my favorite Web site works well – and this one does. It’s just another example of the development team making things happen behind the scenes to help our news and information shine.
Day 1 recap
The first full day of the redesigned NewsOK.com is closing. We’ve now been on the site for a full 24 hours.
We’ll be evaluating and dissecting the feedback from our users over the next few days, but early indications of the first day is very positive.
With any major change to a product, whether its The Oklahoman or NewsOK.com, we never expect to get a lot of calls, e-mails and comments from people telling us how great we are. It generally doesn’t happen. People are wired to let us know when they’re unhappy and stay quiet when they’re pleased.
But today, that trend doesn’t seem to be true. We’ve received many positive comments, many helpful insights, some negative comments and a few ugly comments.
We cherish the positive, act on the insightful, discuss the negative and move past the ugly. Regardless of the nature of the calls and comments, thank you for using NewsOK.com.
There is still much to work for us to do to completely move over NewsOK into our new design, but the vast majority of the site is operational. We have plans to add greater functionality and more enhanced features. You’ll see more blog posts when we get some of the aspects from deep into our site online and ready.
Jim Lange editorial cartoons
The cartoons from Jim Lange were not updating on the site properly this morning. They are now. They can be found on our main voices page.
