'Washington Post' Site Will Get A Major Facelift

By: Joe Strupp For years, washingtonpost.com has been blazing a trail for newspaper Web sites, winning awards and breaking ground in everything from databases to its online chats. So why is it undergoing its biggest redesign ever?

Simple: In today's Web world, even the best sites can't stand still. "The site represents who we were, not who we've become," says Jim Brady, executive editor of the site that first launched in 1996. "This is a reflection of what the Web site is all about: change. We have done a half-dozen redesigns in-house, but during the past five or six years it has been different parts of the site."

Brady hopes to have the new design up before Election Day in November, citing the political campaigns as a major source for readership on the Web: "We have to take advantage of that."

The major shift began in September when the Post hired The Wonderfactory of New York, which has handled Web redesigns for Newsweek and Martha Stewart. The outreach marked the Post's first use of an outside firm for a Web- design change. "They came to us saying they had a lot of great content in an ad-hoc format and people had trouble finding all of it," recalls Joe McCambley, Wonderfactory's co-founder and creative director. "They said the Web experience was working against their brand -- breadth and depth of coverage. People couldn't go deep and broad on topics. We need to make it easier."

After several meetings in New York, McCambley and his staff began working on different designs, with the final version expected in mid-February: "They wanted theirs to be a site where you understand immediately it is a place to get the news and participate in the news." He offers few specifics about the redesign prototypes being reviewed, but says, "the biggest change will be that it will be dramatically easier for people to find what they are looking for."

McCambley says his staff and the Post spent about two weeks reviewing different typefaces, textures, and "a smorgasbord of choices." The newspaper Web staff then selected the elements they wanted for a design. "I think it will be very different," he says. "Certainly, it will feel friendlier, more approachable without losing its professionalism."

Brady adds,"We are trying to fill it with the strategies we've emphasized the past few years -- reader engagement, multi- media, and providing useful databases for our readers."

Brady says the redesign may also include a change from the modern washingtonpost.com logo to the paper's traditional flag that adorns the front page of each morning's print edition. Recently, the Los Angeles Times made such a move on its Web site, eschewing the latimes.com logo in favor of the newspaper version. "We have stuff in the field now testing the logo," he notes, "a lot of focus groups, panel testing."

He admits that the choice between the modern look that has been on the site since it began and the traditional name "is a tough one. ... Back in '96, the argument for having a washingtonpost.com logo was strong," Brady explains. "Now, most readers don't differentiate the Post from washingtonpost.com, so there is an argument not to differentiate. That is why we are testing this."

On the issue of modern and traditional logos, McCambley says, "It's a tough debate. That speaks to the heritage of the news collector. But by the same token, so many properties want to portray themselves as different."

The chief aim of the redesign, however, is to make the site easier to navigate, not necessarily add or remove major products or services. "It is much more about organizing the bedroom closet than adding more clothes," Brady says. "We have a lot of nice clothes. We want to make sure people know what we have."

McCambley says that with many news outlets into their second decade of online news, more and more are seeking redesigns to better organize the numerous elements added in recent years. In taking this approach, though, he warns, "you can hit people with more than they are ready for." He also cites the growing demand for reader involvement and feedback: "One of the goals is to make it obvious it is the kind of place you can participate in -- and you want to remain the arbiter of what is important."

Brady says the paper will review the Wonderfactory designs internally and through market research, with plans to decide on a model during the spring: "Once we have working models, we are taking it to focus groups and getting reaction from readers and designers and then go from there. We have already started working at what the technical needs are for those templates -- and then we can figure out a launch date."