Michelle Fosbrook

Project: To redesign and refresh the stable of 14 Archant Herts & Cambs newspaper websites.

Elements considered in the redesign:

A new horizontal navigation system - previous site used a vertical navigation list which was long, cluttered and difficult to read.
A new 1000 pixel width - previous site was 760 pixels wide to fit with previous popular screen resolutions. Statistics now reflect a majority of visitors use 1024 x 768 and above.
The introduction of a new vertical Skyscraper advertising zone as well as a still prominent position for the existing horizontal Banner advertising zone.
Better prominence for video, audio and picture gallery stories - interactive elements which are only supported only and compliment features in print.
Continued prominence for the property, jobs and motors corporate '24' sites as well as the introduction of a number of new revenue streams (mymobile24, myphotos24, business directory etc.)
Better prominence of essential contact telephone numbers - an recurring complaint from the previous site design.
To streamline the pages for ease of navigation.
To offer cross-linking between all sections of the site and between different newspaper titles to encourage longer visitor paths and greater page impressions.
Google rankings.

Work carried out:

Development of a new navigation layout.
Design of Dreamweaver templates (xhtml where possible, html, asp.net).
Design of CMS templates.
Design of new page and index layouts.
Design of asp.net skin templates.
Design and sourcing of any artwork required.
Separate stylesheet for printing.
Tested on multiple platforms, operation systems etc.
Introduction of many new database driven sections in place of previous 'flat' content.
Introduction of new interactive static content - quizzes, fan sites, entertainment etc.
Populating other content.
Addition of new Skyscraper advertising zones.
In addition to the above, the two umbrella sites Herts24 and Cambs24 work now more as 'portal' sites carrying you through to the appropriate newspaper brand for news rather than holding their own audience. This way any visitors to Herts24 are driven into our brands to increase their traffic rather than stealing anything away from them.