Welcome to the new thedp.com.
Yesterday, we launched a comprehensive redesign of our online platform. With a renewed and greater focus on our online presence that will help bring us up to speed in an increasingly digital atmosphere, we felt that a refresh was necessary for the following reasons:
1. More integrated company and product
Our website had siloed sections — without scrolling, we were only able to feature a select few stories in prominent positions on our homepage.
We were unable to highlight content from our other publications — 34th Street, Under the Button, or The Buzz — in the way we would have liked. In order to bring you the best, most up-to-the-minute content, we migrated 34th Street, Under the Button and The Buzz from the Wordpress platform and to our content management system, which will allow for more fluid integration of content between our diverse array of publications.
In addition, sliders for each of our sections allow us to feature more content from news, sports and opinion so you can get a comprehensive look at a variety of topics and events happening on campus.
2. Showcasing our talented visual departments and bringing a more visual focus
When thinking about our redesign, we wanted to ensure that our readers' visual experience was a top priority. Articles are previewed in a more visually compelling way and with much more space for photos. In addition, we’re highlighting our video content by placing a video box prominently on the homepage.
3. Responsiveness to the mobile future
Our previous mobile site was a separate entity from that of the desktop and faced several maintenance issues, making it very difficult for our readers to use. As mobile usage has been rapidly increasing, we felt the need to optimize the mobile experience.
Traffic to thedp.com broken down by device
*Numbers pulled from August of each year
Our site is now equipped with responsive design, meaning it will simply rearrange the components depending on the site width (try changing the width of your browser to get an idea of how it works). Any improvements we make to our desktop site will be reflected in the mobile version as well.
4. All about the content
Our news editors have been hard at work making sure that we’re producing the most relevant and high-quality stories. To match their efforts, the new website gives more real estate to the content and minimizes the distractions around the article box. The new fonts were designed to make the article more legible and the new layout allows us to pull out interesting quotes and insert relevant photos throughout the article.
5. Versatility
With our old layout, we found ourselves in situations where we wanted to break news or showcase a big article, but were forced into the same layout, regardless of what kind of news day it was. With our revamp, we can choose from numerous templates to accommodate different news scenarios that occur throughout the day.
6. Your source for relevant information
The web is full of stories that hold a Penn connection and that our readers find interesting. We couldn’t possibly report on everything, but we do want to be the source that our readers use to find information relevant to their lives. "Poor Richard's Round-Up" is a new content aggregation feature of our site, comprised of content from around the web that we think our readers would be interested in, and it will be updated throughout the day.
This redesign is only the beginning of a renewal in our digital focus. We will continue to build on the foundation that has been laid, and we look forward to experiencing this growth with our readers. Please continue to let us know what you think by posting in the comments below or emailing websupport@thedp.com.
Taylor Culliver, President and Executive Editor
Lois Lee, Director of Online Projects
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