Thank you to the thousands of viewers who tested our video redesign last week and to the dozens who sent feedback and suggestions. It's terrific to roll out a new HamptonRoads.tv redesign, the first since the site launched in 2005.

You can still send us design feedback and we'd really like it if you would take our Online Video Survey. Telling us what you like to watch takes less than 10 minutes (really! we timed our children with a stopwatch, and they did it in 7).

Here's what you've told us with your feedback so far:

• You really like bigger video. Comments from testers were 4-to-1 in favor of the new design, and doubling the video size got lots of great feedback. So did faster load times and smoother video playback.
• You wanted more-readable type. The No. 1 complaint during testing was hard-to-read headlines and text. We made some quick changes Monday to improve the color contrast, and we've got a few more design adjustments on the way.
• You like to share our videos with your friends. Look for easy ways within the next week to grab a video link, email-a-video and even embed a video in your blog or website.
• You want to share YOUR videos with the world. Most survey-takers are interested in uploading a video from time to time, and our new upload page streamlines the process. We can convert more video formats than before, and we've automated some of it to speed the time between upload and staff review.
• You like browsing our deep video library and re-discovering old favorites all over again. Whether you're listening to more than 100 local music videos, surfing staff favorites (anybody remember Roscoe the Escapee Dog?) or enjoying viewer videos, we've made it easier to browse and search thousands of unique local videos that you can't find anywhere else.

Actually, we do help you find our videos in a few other places, and some of those are changing with redesign as well:

• If you use RSS headline feeds to keep up with latest videos, you may have noticed that they're not currently updating. We should have new feeds for you in the next couple weeks.
• If you follow The Dot daily webcast on iTunes: We'll take a vacation from iTunes updates in August as we work through some technical issues. If we get a lot of feedback about The Dot on iTunes, we'll move this higher on the priority list.
• You can also get email updates about our videos when you sign up for our email newsletter, and you can see a selection of HamptonRoads.tv videos on the big screen by watching  HamptonRoads.tv On TV  on Cox Channel 11 Sunday nights at 8:30 p.m. The show repeats at various times throughout the week.

As we prepare to roll out a new HamptonRoads.tv design, it's a great time to take stock of what Hampton Roads likes about online video. If you have 5 or 10 minutes to spare, we have an online survey to better understand how you use online video and what's important to you for LOCAL online video.

It's easy to participate - just click here to take the Online Video Survey.

And if you haven't had a chance to test our new redesign, it's not too late to give it a whirl. Click here to visit our redesign test site and click here to send us feedback about the design. You can read more about it in the blog post below.

We're pretty excited to be rolling out a new design for HamptonRoads.TV!

From day one, your feedback has been an important part of our site.  From the first viewer-video, to email feedback, to studying what you choose to view everyday,  we've learned and grown from your input. So we're making our new design available for you to preview over the next week.

The new site includes new upload and video-serving tools. We want to prepare the site for our growing audience. Therefore, we need you to help us fine tune it all before we fully replace the old site with the new.

It won't take you much time to check out the site and send us feedback. It only takes two simple steps:

•Click here to visit our test site    

•Then click here to send us feedback. That's all there is to it. We may not reply to every email during this test phase, but we'll read every one and make use of the feedback. If large trends of feedback occur, we'll share them here in this blog. 

Here's some of the changes you'll find on the new HamptonRoads.TV:

•Bigger video. At twice the previous size, this is the most noticeable change on HamptonRoads.TV - and one of the most-requested improvements we've heard from you over the past year.   

•Smoother video playback. We're changing the technical way our video is delivered, and it should be a smoother experience for many computers and networks. The video should download ahead of your viewing experience,  so if you occasionally stop for more downloads, just click the pause button for a few seconds to let the download get ahead of you again.    

•More variety and more ways to find videos. You'll find newest local videos at the top right of the page, but if you scroll down, you will find more videos in a wide range of categories. The navigation in the lower right links to many more categories - making it easy to find your favorites. Also, the video search in the navigation connects with the thousands of videos we've published since launching HamptonRoads.TV in 2005. Explore and enjoy!    

•Easier upload for YOUR videos. Click the "Upload Video" link in the navigation, and you'll find a simple upload form that supports more formats than ever. In recent months, it takes us longer than we like to convert and publish your videos. With our new systems, the conversion happens automatically, and videos will be in front of our staff for review within minutes. (We still need to doublecheck for copyrighted music and to keep things clean for family viewing). So send us videos that YOUR community wants to see, whether it's the regional community, your school or team, or even circle of friends and family.   

•Easier ways to share videos with your friends. Once the test is over, it'll be easier than ever to email a video to a friend, or to link to a video, or even embed a video in your blog or website. 

It's a big change, and we think you're going to like it. 

P.S. During the test period you can continue view video in the old design at HamptonRoads.TV.