User research, community feedback and technological advancements guide the next phase of online news at CWRU
When we last overhauled The Daily, the Tinkham Veale University Center was no more than an architect’s drawing. What’s now Uptown was still a mass of construction fencing, metal and concrete. And many of the first-year students who arrived on campus yesterday were just finishing seventh grade.
Plenty has changed since the spring of 2011—and now, finally, so has The Daily.
What you see today reflects a combination of your guidance (via our survey and focus groups), and our research (regarding best-in-class higher education and mainstream media newsletters and websites). We hope you find it both more visually appealing and more intuitive to use.
Among the changes are:
- A mobile-friendly newsletter;
- Brief summaries in the newsletter to help users decide whether they want to read the full story;
- A dedicated research section on The Daily website, separated by broad, cross-disciplinary categories;
- A revamped events section with a calendar that allows you to sort by event type (as well as add directly to your Google Calendar); and
- Search results that appear in reverse chronological order, with dates listed.
We also plan to feature more stories about the people behind the breakthroughs, in front of the classroom, and always around, supporting all of the systems, structures and people involved in achieving the university’s mission.
We hope you find the updated email and website as engaging as we’ve tried to make them, but recognize that not every change appeals to all constituents—or even a majority of them. We are counting on you to tell us what you like, what you hate, what’s compelling and what’s not quite working. Please send your questions and comments to case-daily@case.edu; we look forward to hearing what you think.