Behind the scenes at the CNN.com relaunch

— Published July 1st, 2007  |  by David Moore

1) OK, first question: the new design is pretty white, isn't it? Was the Web 2.0 look (larger headlines, more white space) a hard sell within CNN?

A key to making sure a web site is successful, is making sure it is easy to use, and the clear, straightforward layout with a white background should make it easy to read and navigate. That was the thinking, and it actually brought the look and feel of the web site closer to that of CNN International.

2) What were the team's own objectives in undertaking the redesign?

Our primary objective with this project was to provide users with a more compelling and useful online news destination. We knew there were more technologies available that could help advance the experience and we wanted to harness those technologies in a way that enhanced our storytelling.

3) Your blog mentions you went through a User Discovery stage - how did you carry that out, and what did you learn about your users that informed the design - both in terms of what they wanted and didn't want?

Starting off the project a number of us internally had theories about what the next step for CNN.com should be. But we knew that we needed to reach out of our internal viewpoints and find out what users really wanted next.

During User Discovery we used both quantitative and qualitative methods - everything from large surveys and traffic pattern analysis to one-on-one user interviews. And when looking at the whole picture that those methods revealed there were some surprises that informed our strategies.

One example is that aggregators were really picking up steam at the time and a few of our internal folks theorized that maybe CNN should go in that direction. But what we heard loud and clear from our users is that CNN provides a filter to all the noise out there - that they rely on us to tell them what matters. This makes sense given that we are committed to being the most trusted name in news, and the research made it clear that we needed to stick with this strength and harness it in a more powerful way.

4) Did you conduct any formal user testing on the prototype site? If so, how did that help you tweak the redesign?

User testing was integrated at every step along the way. When ideas were at a concept stage we usability tested with a conceptual prototype. We then did another round of testing with the first iteration of the visual design.

Throughout our Beta effort we solicited user feedback through an online survey tool and we will continue this feedback mechanism post launch. We will also continue testing and refining as we roll out new features.

5) How will you manage or moderate the user comments in the "sound off" section? Was there any opposition within what is a professional news-gathering organisation to giving space on your site to your readers (and to bloggers in the 'From the Blogs' section)?

We have a dedicated staff to manage and moderate all user participation on CNN.com, including “sound off” and i-reports. When we started this project, we did a lot of research, analysis, and interviews. We knew that we wanted to be able to tell the story not just from our perspective but also from our user’s perspective. So to do that, we had to integrate comments both directly from our end users and bloggers around the web. It helps keep us honest.

6) What was the thinking behind the public beta program and inviting selected people (like us) to stick our oar in? Are you glad you did it?

Absolutely! It would have been taking an enormous risk had we not consulted with you and other web users/contributors. We knew that even with lots of planning, thought and creativity, there would be lots we could learn.

7) Your blog talks about CNN being a good web citizen, but the site uses a lot of Javascript (which will cause problems for some users), and doesn't seem to allow text resizing in IE6 and 7 using the browser controls. How important were universal design or accessibility concerns in the rebuild?

Our concept of being a good web citizen actually refers to opening ourselves up to send links out to other sites, even competitors. The idea being that we can then provide the whole story, not just CNN.com’s perspective.

Yes, we are using a lot of Javascript in the new site. We tried to embrace emerging technologies as best as we could, without alienating a broad user base. And universal designs and accessibility needs are always a top concern for us. We still have a lot of work to do. We are always trying to address and improve our accessibility… we’re not done.

8) One of the issues that many of the blog comments touch on is that fewer news categories and their headlines are immediately visible compared to the old design - you have to click to see more categories. The fading in and out looks good, but what are this feature's benefits over being able to see more options at a glance? (see the example of the new approach below, and the old approach below that)

That feature was put in to help clean up the page but, yes, we’ve received a lot of feedback from users that they miss the scannability of the headlines on the homepage. We are evaluating this and may make some changes based upon the feedback.

9) One thing I've always wondered - why does the search default to the web, and not CNN.com?

With this redesign, we’ve also tried to improve the overall search experience. In the same way that we want to be able to provide the whole story on our new storypages, offering the text, video, photos, user comments etc., we want to be able to provide multiple perspectives in our search results.

So now when you search, you’ll immediately see results from the web, CNN.com news, and CNN.com videos. You can also drill down into each of the different categories for a more specific search.

10) The CNN International site has historically looked different from the main CNN site - will the new design be the same across both sites, or will there still be differences?

The new design will be the same across the entire site, but there will be small elements (such as the Breaking News yellow and black colour coding) that will be specific to international pages.

11) Are there any other new features you're holding back on for the launch?

While we are not holding anything back, there are new features and functionality that will be launching over the coming months. Can’t give more details just yet, but we’ll be in touch with you directly whenever we have news.