CBSNews.com's New Look

CBS News Web Site Begins Unveiling New Design In Beta Testing

(CBS)  Daniel Farber is editor-in-chief of CBSNews.com.

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It’s been more than a decade since CBSNews.com arrived on the Web. During that time, the site has undergone two major redesigns, evolving along with the rest of the Web as the technology improved and the Internet "pipes" gained the capacity to deliver a fire hose of rich-media content, such as CBS News television programming, to your computer and cell phone.

Here are images of CBSNews.com circa 2000, left, and our current site, right.



The last major CBSNews.com redesign was four years ago, which is virtual generation in Internet years. Over the last six months our team of designers and engineers has been at work on a new look, incorporating features based on data showing people are using the site and live "alpha" testing of prototypes.

This week we are entering the "beta" test phase of the next generation CBSNews.com. As you can see below, it's a dramatic visual change from the current site.




We had a few key goals with this CBSNews.com redesign -- make the site easier to navigate, more visual, faster and highlight our unique content.

The new home page features a rotating carousel of top stories on the left, next to the stack of the latest and most important headlines. The page also provides easy navigation of the news sections, such as Politics and World, and the CBS News programs. The CBS News Alert offers breaking news updates across the entire site.

In addition, highlights from CBS News programs, as well as the latest video, photo galleries and blogs, are highlighted on the page. CBS News program sites -- including Evening News, Face the Nation, 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, Sunday Morning and Up to the Minute -- have been updated to fit with the new design and highlight their unique programming.

Underneath the hood, we applied technology from our sister site CNET.com to deliver pages from our servers to your screen more rapidly than in our previous generation.

A small percent of random visitors to CBSNews.com will be presented with the new look for most of the pages on the site. You can help us fine tune the new site, which is a work-in-progress. If you land on the new pages, give us some feedback (fill out the brief feedback form linked at the top of the pages). We will be making changes and opening the revamped site up to additional users over the next several weeks as we head toward an official launch next month.

And here is a look at the redesign for the 60 Minutes page.

[incog-nito]

Don't like it. Everything is shifted vertically, meaning you have to do a lot scrolling to get to the item you want. The current site has more of everything upfront. It's odd that most computer screens nowadays are of the wide-screen, theater-format variety, while the way people read and work in real life requires a lot vertical scrolling.

[susan100658]

My main complaint is where is the evening news simulcast? I work late each night and looked forward to getting the live broadcast. If I leave work at the normal time, I miss evening news since I'm on the road then. Sometimes the blue link box shows up, but when I click it, it goes straight to video on demand, I do not want last week's videos, I want today's live news broadcast.

The 60 minutes site is not bad, but in general, your site is getting too cluttered. I have a very fast computer and the latest updates, but sometimes simpler is better, and this is one of those times.

[LateNiteCrawler]

Simulcast was the best feature on this site. The main reason I logged in to watch the news while on the computer. Personally, I prefer the old site layout.

Without simulcast to draw me in, I not sure you are going to be able to compete with other newsworthy web sites.

[maba7]

New site too dark.
Cluttered no real problem, however, the old design was much better than any of the other news websites. Now you have gone from preferred to low mediocre.
For some reason, I find it nearly impossible to read white print on a black or really dark background. Apparently, I will have to forgo my visits to your web site.

[polisigh]

It is probably easier to navigate, but I miss some features, such as Public Eye. It is content that matters most. Local tv follows the route of preety anchors mindlessly reading poorly written stories. Happily, the site has a lot of unique and interesting content.

[dogmanreds]

its beautiful

[rnx1070]

Where is my simulcast of the evening news?? Best feature of the page.

[madesmarais1]

Bad! You are doing the same mistake as ABCnews.com. It looks like TABLOID. Your existing format is among the best with BBC.

[Renaudio]

It's not horrible it's BEAUTIFUL!!! It's not cluttered it's just right! just because people have computers that cannot handle the graphics it doesn't mean that what you've done is bad. Black and red are excellent colors too! We have entered the new age of digital and such and so the newer computers can handle the graphics. Some people have not had a computer upgrade for their own reasons and that's fine but there is no excuse for rudeness. CBS asked us for our comments on how the new site looks that doesn't mean we should bash them good grief! CBS you're doing a wonderful job and to the person in "corner office", great choice of colors!

[Renaudio]

The new site is perfect!!! please don't listen to the negative people. it's beautiful and it is easy on the eyes. CBS is truly the best! I also like the 60 minuets page. I really hope you keep this new one! Remember, you can't please everyone but I am pleased. thank you for your good work.

[cyberus-2009]

I've stuck with CBS because of the lack or bells and whistles that have nothing to do with the news, and the fact I can actually READ the articles rather than being forced into a video complete with talking head and adverts.

Its not broke, why are you fixing it?

[anisakid]

The new design looks great. I prefer the darker background because it is easier on my eyes. Also, I agree that the link to CBS Radio News audio should remain available.

[cd814]

I think the new site looks AMAZING.

[jpbowman-2009]

In my opinion, the background color is too dark and somber. Also, I agree with those who say that the site looks a bit cluttered. Increasing the number of visual elements doesn't always increase visual attention--the viewer needs to have a limited number of points of interest to stay focused.

[BC Kelly]

CBS News

Be very careful you don't travel down the same road as Detroit

"New and improved with more chrome and longer tail fins"





Tell you what you DO need


Get Uncle Walter for a voiceover intro to the new site

That should make the Reporting much better

;-)

[mothermud]

Looks to me like you just used the same web designer as ABC has.....and i left their site because yours is easier to navigate......dont change, if its not broken.

[kno-1]

That's it. I am no longer coming to CBS News to get my news. This is appalling. I've been 16 years in the design industry, 12 of them in web design...this is insulting trying to wade through this website.
My problems with this site BEFORE the redesign were this:
1. Poor Content. The layout was fine. The content was deplorable. Misspellings, copy and pasted AP releases MULTIPLE TIMES within the same "article."
2. Blogs as articles?! Op Ed okay. Mixing blogs with articles? No go.
3. Ads that jumped out obstructing information. Frustrating to say the least.

Now I can't even find articles from yesterday! let alone from early this morning. I had to use the Site Map to find the AP tab. I had to use the Search box to find THIS "article" (come on, it's a press release).
I refuse to hunt down poorly compiled information under the guise of new technology. The average person deals with tens of thousands of images a day, the last thing a person who is looking for news and information wants is to be visually assaulted by multiple modules of flashing imagery.

[StayOnTrack]

It still isn't dependable. You said that Katy Couric would do a live simulcast of the Evening News at 5:30 pm eastern. I have both the required players to watch it. I looked at the blank screen on my laptop for 30 minutes, and entertained myself with one of the stories in Best Russian Short Stories--The Uncensored Edition. Now it's time to watch "Star Trek TNG" reruns on the SciFi channel.

Take a cue from old technologies such as books, radio and TV--Don't fix what ain't broke, and when you muck up, don't brag about your achievements, hoping no one notices.

[slantedview]

QUICK - HIRE YOUR WEB DESIGNER BACK!!! 'cause you guys really need one. Don't tell me... someone in the corner office wanted black and red?

It's too dark and cluttered. I came here from msnbc.com because they totally screwed up their design and yours was light, simple, easy to read and navigate.

Now I'll have to find another news page. Don't be surprised if your hit count goes down and you lose readership (and revenue from all those ads). It won't be because people don't like change... it will be because your site is f*ugly. Don't say you weren't warned.

[kingj2038]

The design looks nice, but it appears CBS is putting A LOT of image content on each page. I don't want a slower, image-overloaded site. I have broadband but text still loads faster than pictures regardless. I like CBSNews.com a lot because it is simple and informative. I used to like Yahoo Sports for this reason, but they went the way of the graphics engine, too.

Oh and a question: I heard the CBS Evening News will get a graphics update, too. What does this mean for the Early Show, the Special Reports, the Morning News/Up to the Minute (yes, I watch that sometimes), and other CBS programming looks?