■ 07 February 2012 | 12:38 PM
A few words about our new look online ...
From David Mele, General Manager, Pilot Interactive
We’ve given our websites a bit of a facelift — and I wanted to explain what’s different and what hasn’t changed. The biggest change is that we’ve modified the navigation at the top of our sites, hoping to help our users find what they’re looking for more easily and present our sites in a brighter, more updated style.
As with any change, we imagine the reactions might range from “You changed? I hadn’t even noticed,” to “The sites look awesome! You just made the best sites in Hampton Roads even better,” to “This is horrible and now I can’t find anything I’m looking for.”
So let’s start with what’s different:
The navigation has changed. For our users who visit our homepages as a portal to The Virginian-Pilot electronic edition, known as ePilot, the links have moved to a convenient position at the top left corner of the page. This is also where users can subscribe to our print edition and manage their subscriptions. We’ve also placed a link at the top for the Pilot Store, where users can purchase photos, reprints, books, special editions, merchandise and more.
The site search box and login links have moved to the top right corner of the page. This has become a standard position across many websites and we figured it was time we adopted the convention.
The sites are brighter, with more white space and cleaner presentation of the site identity. In our previous design, we had the identities of PilotOnline.com and HamptonRoads.com side by side. Now each site gets a clearer identity, and the navigation links are specific to the site. So PilotOnline.com has our most popular news channels - News, Opinion, Business, Military, Sports, Weather, Traffic and Obits; while HamptonRoads.com has our most popular entertainment channels - Entertainment, Movies, Music, Dining, Events, Life, Community and Guides.
We’ve also added a new feature to the drop-down menus for most of these channel links which will present the Top Story on each channel.
Users looking for Jobs, Autos, Homes and Rentals will now find those sites in the top right section of the page under the Classifieds tab. And we’ve added quick links to our Deals, Search Local business directory, Shopping and Coupons next to the Classifieds section under the Marketplace tab.
We’ve also cleaned up the footer at the bottom of our pages. In our previous design we had a five-inch deep collection of links. We’ve now simplified that into a single line of links.
And now, what hasn’t changed. We will continue to post more breaking news and information online than any sites in Hampton Roads — looking to increase our lead as the largest, most visited sites in the region. In 2011 we generated 155,000,000 total pageviews for the year and averaged more than 3.6 million visits per month. If each pageview had been a mile, our views would have circled the globe 6,225 times. If each pageview had been a music fan, our views would have filled the Virginia Beach amphitheater 7,750 times. If each pageview had been a sports fan, our views would have filled ODU’s Foreman Field 7,820 times ....
Ok, I’ll stop. But I do want to assure you that we will continue to deliver more and more digital content to you, ranging from breaking news, crime/public safety, government, weather, traffic and investigative reports to the area’s most extensive events calendar, entertainment options, food and dining guides, movie listings and reviews, and great deals to save money on the best places to go and things to do in Hampton Roads. And we’ll be expanding the ways that you can connect with us, with new mobile offerings and increased social media connections.
We’d like to hear from you about how we’re doing. If you have any questions, ideas, recommendations or other feedback, please email me at david.mele@pilotonline.com or post a comment below.
-- David Mele
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Weather
Where's the weather on the home page? Ads are a better seller than providing a current weather icon?!?! It disappoints me that I have to navigate to a totally different page just to see the weather :(
New website design.
This proves that change isn't necessarily better.
Change?
Change merely for the sake of change rarely satisfies anyone. Was there a reason for this change? Or was it just time for a change?
It's kind of a slap in the face for long time readers.
It would have been far better to change the political make-up of the editorial board to be more balanced and not so blatantly left leaning.
Site Looks Fine
I like the larger white space. Easier to read. Two things though. One, I have to log in on every page I read if I want to comment. For instance, after I comment here, if I go to another article, I'll have to log in again. Not sure why this is. Could be a Google Chrome issue.
Two, how about an "edit" function on comments?
After you log in
go to the search block and enter the name you use for comments. Another page will come up, with your name and something like "view comments" Click on that, and then you can go back and forth between pages without relogging each time. Takes a while to get used to, but it works.
Sitemap
Perhaps a link to a well laid out sitemap would be nice.
All my posts appear in pink
All my posts appear in pink and moderated. Site is still broken!
In the pink
Join the club.
At least you weren't blocked, I have been twice, you're verified account get's the ax as well.
This is my third personna, if I try to verify again, am guessing I will probably get blocked again. The moderation can be stifling.
The Pink Panther.
Sheeze, what a day. Got up
Sheeze, what a day. Got up at 6 a.m. to do the online crossword puzzle.Looked like the whole "Game" screen had disappeared into cyberspace. Hunted until I found Entertainment. Opened it and found Gruss. No offense, Mike, but you're not my crossword puzzle. Looked under Life and found Loraine. Good read today,lady, but you're not my crossword puzzle either. Finally clicked on More and eventually found it buried in a bunch of stuff that was filed in no logical order. Don't worry about me if you have to move it again. I figure you couldn't possibly hide it any better than you did this morning.
Comment deleted
Comment removed for rules violation. Reason: Post continued, repeated