Detroit Free Press Unveils Website Redesign
By: Mark Winter
The Detroit Free Press recently introduced a newly redesigned website boasting several changes to enhance user experience. Over the past several years, legacy newspapers have had to shift their focus. This transition is a clear representation of that shift with some positive new features to promote reader-to-reader and reader-to-newspaper interaction.
Commenting protocol has changed to allow better policing of inappropriate comments. The Free Press has implemented a rating system to vote “good” comments to the top and let the “bad” ones fall to the bottom, making the exchange more relevant and less likely to tie every story back to President Obama in some fashion. Additionally, a crew of devoted staff members will monitor and respond to flagged posts to ensure the conversation between readers doesn’t get out of hand.
Readers will also now be able to log in using their Facebook information rather than creating a new account and remembering a new set of credentials.
For those of us who do most of our news reading on Freep.com, the adjustment of the text to a sans serif typeface in a larger font size is a welcome one. Sans serif is typically easier on the eyes from a computer screen and the larger characters, though they may require more scrolling, decrease the amount of squinting.
There have also been some noticeable and definitely appreciable design changes to streamline the site and display video and photo galleries.
With website redesigns being part of Identity’s core client services, we understand this is a massive undertaking that requires a lot of time and effort. We congratulate the Free Press and hope the redesign proves to be a success!
The Free Press is interested in your feedback and suggestions as this 179-year-old paper continues to stay “on guard.”
Drop Managing Editor for Digital Media Nancy Andrews a note at nandrews@freepress.com, or share your thoughts on the Free Press’ Facebook and Twitter pages.
Let us know what you think in the comments. Do you like the changes, or do you have suggestions for improvements?
