I laughed when I saw out assignment because had just noticed CNN's website the day before Jeff sent the assignment. I was confused in the beginning when I first opened the website because it was a big change from what it looked like before. After a few minutes after absorbing and getting used to the new layout, I found that it appealed to me more than the old design. The red header and the interactive videos instantly drew me in. Today's audience wants instant and visual gratification, which is exactly what the new design offers. The old site consisted of basic, simple and, in my opinion, very bland and predicable layout design with limited and hard to find visual interaction. The new site moved the videos to what we would call the "showcase" section, making it the first thing you see. They kept the same color scheme which is very important in order to maintain a constant brand identity.
The article talks about how CNN.com shifted from text heavy content to more video, infotainment and international news due to the most recent trends in online news. Entertainment takes on the spotlight and features such as personalizing your page and incorporating language feeds in Arabic and Spanish. "So the new site will make a step towards the user to be more appealing: new personalisation functionality enables users to customise a column on the front with sports scores or stock prices, local headlines or weather, and CNN's community-based iReport site will be featured in a curated section on the homepage, as well as in the middle of unfolding stories." The redesign of the site shows how the consumer has shifted its interest from content to visual. The layout is more user friendly, reflecting our modern age and how people want to customize everything to their particular needs and wants.
I think that this change was necessary in order to bring CNN up to date with other competitors such as MSNBC who is also planning on redesigning in order to keep up with the times.
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I completely agree. People want instant gratification and this new site, at least for me, makes me want to stay on it and read my news. I'm not into sorting through long articles- I get bored. And I think I speak for the majority of young poeple. So yes.. nice job CNN- they definitely have their changing competition in mind and they did a good job at matching them/ surpassing them.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that the videos immediately draw the visitor in, I cannot get over the red bar that spans the whole top of the screen.
ReplyDeleteI know that particular red is CNN-esque. But it's too much on the eyes. I keep going back to the page to see if I feel differently ... but I don't.