Welcome, once again, to a new badgerherald.com.
Work on this new version of the site started over a year ago. Since then, we have migrated our databases and content management system from Movable Type to WordPress, moved server environments and rewritten every line of code that powers this site.
The previous version of the site, which we retired yesterday, was coded under strict time constraints. Our team had just spent the summer painstakingly rebuilding our databases and setting up tools for our editors to work and collaborate. With only two weeks before the fall semester started, we threw together a WordPress theme.
Over the course of the fall semester, the Herald’s web department focused on improving the user experience. Those improvements are what we are pushing out today.
We focused first on mobile devices. During the fall semester, 31 percent of visitors accessed our site from a smart phone or tablet, 21 percent from iOS devices and another 10 percent from Androids amassing a total of 400,000 page views.
It was important to us that the site look good and function the same for users on phones and tablets. With improved navigation and a unified design, we believe we achieved this goal.
That’s not to say we didn’t also focus on improving the experience for desktop users. We’ve stretched our site to a maximum of 1220 pixels, to make the most of your high resolution (and hopefully soon 4k) screens. We increased the font size and focused on readability, to allow the great work from our editors and contributors to shine.
This is the last project I will oversee as Web Director. This next semester, I will act as the Herald’s new Digital Managing Editor, overseeing our newly-created Digital Team to make sure our online content is always helpful, relevant and engaging.
Together, we are building a digital newsroom with software like HipChat and Google Drive. New Macs are being delivered tomorrow as we continue to invest in new technology.
I’m proud of what our web team has been able to accomplish over the past year and am confident they will continue to build great new features in the future.
There are few student newspapers that administrate their websites fully in house. It’s an important part of the Herald that allows writers, designers, coders and photographers to collaborate and produce the best journalism we can on the best platform we can build.
For students with an interest in student media and a knowledge of WordPress or developing for the web, there are countless opportunities for you to build the next big thing on campus. If you’re interested in hearing more about the web department at the Herald, please reach out to me at [email protected].
