A new WRAL.com debuted Wednesday after nearly a year of redesign and software development.
Given the rapid pace of change in technology, the continuing transition of Internet use by more people to smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, and improved capabilities for delivering data wirelessly as well as over broadband, the technical team of Capitol Broadcasting Company’s New Media Group has spent nearly a year incorporating changes into one of the nation’s most popular regional news portals. At the same time, the sports site WRALSportsFan.com also was redesigned.
Jason Priebe, Director of Technology for CBC New Media Group, says an “overhaul” of WRAL.com, which first launched in 1996, was needed. The end result is a website that is easier to navigate but at the same time includes more tools and capabilities for users.
The site is designed to present what Priebe calls “device-optimized content” to users across the growing number of computers, tablets and laptops supporting multiple browsers and operating systems.
“The beauty of the new design is that the entire navigation is available to all platforms,” he says. “We don’t water down the content for the phone. It’s all there. The challenge was to format the content and provide user interfaces that make sense for the touch screen.”
John Conway, general manager of WRAL.com which is part of CBC New Media Group, says “everything” within the site “from layouts to fonts to navigation to load time has been reviewed, tested and improved.” In a recent blog post, he noted that the time had come for change: “Our last major redesign was almost exactly seven years ago. That’s a very long time in Internet years.”
The decision to redesign the site was made even as WRAL.com continued to win accolades and draw an increasing amount of web traffic. According to The Media Audit, WRAL.com reaches 54 percent of all adults in the Triangle monthly, thus ranking as by far the most popular local news site. It also outranks larger newspaper sites in market penetration, including the Washington Post.
WRAL.com averages some 100 million page views a month through desktop devices and another 20 million page views through a variety of mobile apps for iOS and Android. The site has won numerous awards over the years, including the 2009 national Edward R. Murrow Award for best local TV Web site. In 2010 WRAL.com was named best local TV website in an international competition sponsored by Editor & Publisher. The site also has won several regional Murrow awards plus best site honors from the N.C. Associated Press Broadcaster’s Association and from the Radio and Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas. Content and interactive graphics produced by the site also have won several Mid-South Emmy awards from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
In a Q&A with WRALTechWire (which is part of the CBC New Media group), Priebe talks about the challenges and the new capabilities of the website.
WRAL.com was already the most widely read web site in the Triangle, and in terms of market penetration it’s a leader across the country. The site has won numerous awards. So here’s the first question: Why change?
I don’t think you can maintain a leadership position like ours without continuing to push forward. Web standards, browser capabilities, and Internet-connected devices have been evolving at a rapid pace for the past seven years since our last redesign. An overhaul was needed to help our users maximize the capabilities of these new tools.
Why change now?
For the year leading into the redesign process, it became increasingly clear that we’re in the middle of a sea change in how users consume Web-based content. We’re seeing rapid increases in mobile consumption as more and more users access WRAL’s resources from their phones and tablets.
We knew there was more we could do to deliver device-optimized content to these devices. It would have been a catastrophic mistake to not make a move in this direction.
From a technology perspective, what were the trends in consumer usage that drove the design to redesign WRAL.com?
I have noticed more users relying on the web browsers on their devices to access our content, instead of strictly relying on our mobile apps. I’m not sure exactly what drives this, but I suspect it is a combination of factors: improved data networks from mobile carriers, faster processors on phones, more capable web browsers on phones (Chrome vs. the old Android browser is a great example).
If users want to access us via the web, we want to make sure that what they find is content that is optimized for the devices they’re using.
With these changes is WRAL.com designed to be easier to navigate both on mobile devices as well as desktop machines? How did you add depth and breadth to the site without making it more difficult to use by mobile users?
I think we’ve been able to come up with excellent navigation options for the small screens as well as the desktop machine.
On the desktop, our megamenus are not only visually appealing, but they are intuitive and well-organized. They can help surface content that might otherwise go unnoticed as a user drills into a section of the site.
On the mobile device, we use a mechanism that should feel quite familiar to users: a collapsible menu that slides in and out of the side of the screen. It has an app-like feel. The beauty of the new design is that the entire navigation is available to all platforms. We don’t water down the content for the phone. It’s all there. The challenge was to format the content and provide user interfaces that make sense for the touch screen.
One of the best things about a massive redesign effort like this is that it gives you a chance to clean house; you can consolidate similar content and remove content that is no longer useful. The result is navigation that is more concise and straightforward.
From an end-user perspective, what were the primary demands/needs that WRAL.com seeks to address for consumers/end users – faster, more video, easier to navigate?
Our objectives were to make the site more visually appealing and easier to navigate. Speed was critical to us; we spent quite a few man-weeks optimizing the payload to make it as small and fast as possible without compromising any of the usability.
We wanted to make video a central part of the user experience; I think that’s reflected in the way we position a full-size video player at the top of many of our stories. Underlying it all was the responsive web design (RWD), which makes all this rich content available on any screen.
Still images in particular are larger and given more prominence. Why?
This is a reflection of a trend in online publishing. User expectations have gone up with respect to images; they want more photos, and they want them to be higher quality.
Again, the underlying technology has improved so much recently – faster broadband to homes and offices, larger displays on desktop machines, and higher resolution displays on all types of devices all combine to make better quality images practical.
WRAL is committed to delivering these images, and we’re working hard to make sure we capture the highest quality photos while our reporters and photographers are in the field.
How much emphasis was placed on social media in the new site creation, and why. How can users/customers benefit from utilization of social media tools?
We’ve always been committed to social media integration, with the ability to log in with your social network credentials and to share content directly to your favorite social network. I think that the way we package those tools is improved in the new design. We make it possible to share just about any piece of content on the site now.
How does the new WRAL.com site set itself apart from competitors now that all these changes have been made? What points of emphasis will consumers see or benefit from in terms of cutting-edge technology?
I think what makes this design stand apart is the way we bring the entire experience to every device. When you visit the site on your mobile phone, you won’t get a watered down version of WRAL.com. You’ll get the same content you would see at your desktop.
What that means is that if a story has related content, you’ll have full access to that related content. If there is video available for a story, that video will be there.
If you want to search deep in our archives for a story from 5 years ago, it will be available to you wherever you are, on whatever device you’re using. And you’ll be able to access all of that story’s rich related content.
Were any changes made based on recommendations from users after the “soft launch,” and if so in what areas?
We’ve made some minor tweaks to the visual design, like changing some of the default text colors. We also find that users’ computer environments differ quite a bit from our development systems.
Applications designed to improve security or privacy often block files from some of our partners; having these key files blocked makes it difficult to provide all the functionality we’ve designed into the site, and in some cases, it can block access to content entirely. Learning more about these software packages helps us to find workarounds.
How long has your team been working on this project?
Our project leads have been involved for nearly 12 months. The front-end design was complete in August, and at that point, my team of software developers was focused 100 percent on making the design a reality.
Given the scope of the project, I’m pleased that we were able to get the site to a public beta in four months; these guys are the best. Our sales trafficking team was instrumental in porting over all our advertising from the old design to the new, which was no small challenge, as many of the ads changed form factors.
Our editorial staff was fantastic, working with us as we dropped new tools and techniques on them weekly, and basically taking responsibility for the content of two sites simultaneously.
