The Austin Chronicle launched a new version of their website today and the results are impressive. Among the first-impression highlights:
- Clean page layout with intuitive navigation. I like how the sections are clearly delineated on the home page and the calendar — one of the key tools on the site — is in a prime position.
- Areas for reader interaction take a prominent place. Both a section titled “Columns and Blogs” and “Comments and Forms” are featured in a high-profile spot on the home page. This is a crucial piece of online functionality and especially important for the Chronicle to maintain a constant conversation around their stories, which are published weekly in print.
- A nod to social media. Each story has an opportunity for readers to do something about it. There are links for commenting, writing a letter to the editor, printing, emailing, and submitting to Digg and Del.icio.us.
I found a couple of first-day minor glitches — this story was still in the old page template — but nothing glaring.
Congratulations to the Chronicle staff on a significant upgrade to their web presence.
3 responses so far ↓
1 ryan.joyserve.net » » AustinChronicle.com - Redesign review // Feb 15, 2007 at 1:15 pm
[...] Following Jeff Beckham’s review of this redesign and original critique of their old design, I’d like to offer my first impressions: [...]
2 Paul Walhus // Feb 16, 2007 at 7:18 am
One of the most impressive additions (maybe it’s not new but I just noticed this) is that you can get the whole issue in pdf format, so you can see it just the way it looks in print. I have a 24″ vertical monitor so it’s almost like reading the print version without the touchy feely newsprint paper.
3 Prentiss Riddle // Feb 16, 2007 at 12:15 pm
What’s most amazing is that the music screenscraper I wrote several years ago still works. I grep out a few bands and venues I’m interested in and display them in teh sidebar of my blog: http://aprendizdetodo.com/music/
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