At the end of last year, the era of the printed edition of the e15 daily came to an end. We therefore decided to upgrade the e15 website so that it takes over some of the functions of print. The redesign allowed the newsroom to decide the most important topics and articles on the front page, offer exclusive space to business partners and present content in the premium form readers were used to.
The e15 homepage is the newsroom’s shop window. The redesign turned it into a full-fledged magazine-style space that serves as the front page, both graphically and in terms of content. The new layout by topics and formats gives readers clear orientation, while the newsroom has room to work better with its priorities.
Thanks to the modular system it is possible to react quickly to current events and rearrange content easily as needed. It was important to give the newsroom full control over the content and let it decide which topics and articles deserve the most attention on the front page.
More room for collaboration
The redesign was not limited to working with editorial content. We also addressed the monetisation of the website and gave more room for strategic collaborations. Every section and every column can be visually and content-wise linked to a specific business partner. The website also has space for content specials that were successful in print. Specials allow the newsroom to create tailor-made content with a partner without compromising the clarity or quality of the whole page. The partner gets space reserved exclusively for them, where no one else’s advertising is shown.
Full control for the newsroom
The basis of the homepage layout are so-called boxes: content blocks governed by section, tag or article type. The boxes are flexible. Some display two articles side by side, others three one below the other. The newsroom can freely combine them, change their order, size and visual form.
Work with the boxes on the homepage and with the content specials is accessible to the newsroom directly from its editorial system. Editors thus have full control over the homepage, while the system keeps a firm design framework and component logic, so no change can break the look or functionality of the website.
Familiar elements helped editors adopt the new features quickly, for example the Topic of the day. Thanks to this too, the new features do not feel alien to them, but like a natural extension of their CMS. The entire e15 website change took just under three months, but the launch is not the end. We continue to upgrade the website and expand it with new features.
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