We’ve been listening to you – and the recent changes you have seen to our websites, apps, and overall digital communications are the beginning of our answer.
A little over a year ago, we embarked on the biggest research study we’ve ever done in order to understand what you wanted from us – where we were delivering and where we were falling short.
Overwhelmingly, we heard that the design and usability of our digital products did not meet the expectations set by the quality of our journalism. We heard that you want a digital news subscription to work as seamlessly as Netflix, Google, or Amazon – a pinnacle far-off from most digital news experiences.
We made a commitment to invest in your digital experience. First, we decided that rather than remodel, we would build anew, leveraging the best technology we could find. That started by licensing Arc, the Washington Post’s content management system as the back-end of our operation.
We then hired Alley, a firm specializing in modern digital news design. We started collaborating with our friends at the Philadelphia Inquirer, to leverage each others’ technology to speed both of our software development.
We also built a team, growing from only one product-focused developer to nearly a dozen product experts across design, product management, and software development.
That team has worked hard to bring us to where we are today.
Here’s what we’ve done:
- Built a responsive site that is more than 300% faster loading than before. In fact, it is now the fastest-loading commercial news site in Texas.
- Merged our four sites (DallasNews, GuideLive, SportsDay, and Al Día) into one, easier-to-navigate experience at DallasNews.com. All the existing content from these sites has moved to the new site and all existing URLs should work.
- Replaced our old site search with one that is far more functional and will continue to improve in coming months.
- Built additional features to take you deeper into the people, places, organizations and events that make our community special. You’ll soon see these throughout the site in “baseball cards” that pop into stories to provide more context.
- Included lots of goodies to help create more “lean-back” experiences and navigation cues to help provide a sense of completion when visiting the site – both requests that came out of our research. Among these features are signposts to other homepage stories if that is your starting point and a daily listing of stories from our print edition.
We have been stressing to our colleagues that this product refresh is a starting line, not a finish. We will be launching and enhancing features every two weeks going forward. We like to think that we’ve infected the whole organization with this “sprint” mindset, helping us show you more frequent progress in making local digital news a must-have for you and your neighbors.
Please let us know how we are doing. You can email me directly at mike.orren@dallasnews.com, or provide feedback in links provided at the bottom of most pages on our properties. We will continually adjust to your feedback and usage of our products.
FAQs
Q: Why did you change your website?
A: We continuously make enhancements to give our users a better experience and a fresh new look.
Q: Will the site look different?
A: Yes, expect a fresh new look and multiple improvements with the goal of making your experience better. And we're not done yet! We'll continue making exciting additions in the coming months.
Q: What’s changing?
A: SportsDay and SportsDayHS will now be located on the main DallasNews.com site. The navigation at the top of the page will be organized to make it easier for you to get where you need to go. All of the events and stories you expect from GuideLive are now in the Arts and Things To Do sections of DallasNews.com.
Q: Will everything from the site today still be available?
A: Yes. Content might be organized differently, but it’s all still there. Plus, our improved search functionality will help you find what you need quickly.
Q: What about my existing bookmarks and links? Will they still work?
A: Yes, your bookmarks and links should automatically redirect. If you find a link that’s not working, please let us know by emailing dmnfeedback@dallasnews.com
Q: Will I have to change my user name and password?
A: No, you will continue to log in with your current user ID and password. The site should remember you
Q: Will the new site remember me or will I need to login again?
A: The site should remember you. Having trouble? You can contact us to help.
