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First look at the redesigned MSNBC.com

Posted by Cory Bergman on November 5, 2007

MSNBC.com is offering users preview screen grabs of its upcoming redesign, set to debut later this month. Here’s the new home page.

Editors can choose from a ton of flexible layout options for the cover section.

Further down the page, users will be able to collapse, expand and move section modules to their liking. Also, notice the “topics” organization.

This is the “explore” box with tabs for personalized news, video, photos and “participate,” which includes content from FirstPerson, the message boards and iPredict. Also notice the bigger plug for FirstPerson content submissions.

“It’s been several years since we significantly shook up the look of our home page,” writes Jennifer Sizemore, MSNBC.com’s editor in chief, on AlphaChannel, a blog dedicated to the redesign. “We have tested and retested all kinds of solutions and what we’re preparing to roll out is dramatically different from where we began, thanks to your feedback.”

Your impressions so far?

Adds Don Day: The site will also work better for non IE-users. In fact, the new Safari/Mac friendly navigation is already live on MSNBC.com.

Adds MSNBC.com’s Jim Ray in comments: We’re all working hard over here to get this thing out the door. Be sure to clear your cache and refresh the homepage in a week (fingers crossed) to see all the new toys. We’re hoping to use the Alpha Channel blog not just for the redesign but to catalog other new features and projects that we roll out in the future, so be sure to keep an eye on that one, too.

Adds MSNBC.com’s Rex Sorgatz in comments: The thing I’d like to point out about this design is how it’s not at all what we’ve come to expect in recent redesigns. It’s not gray/blue on white, the look that has steamrolled itself through news sites ever since NYT started it. Obviously, there’s no reason to be critical of those designs, but hasn’t that look become a little… safe? I like that we’re taking a risk here. (Also, I can only say “we” for another week. I’m leaving msnbc.com soon, trying out some new stuff.)

  • Sam

    Wow – what a great design. I really like the collapsible and moveable features. I look forward to creating my own page.

  • http://jimray.tumblr.com Jim Ray

    Hey, thanks for the shout, Cory, we’re all working hard over here to get this thing out the door. Be sure to clear your cache and refresh the homepage in a week (fingers crossed) to see all the new toys.

    We’re hoping to use the Alpha Channel blog not just for the redesign but to catalog other new features and projects that we roll out in the future, so be sure to keep an eye on that one, too.

  • BJ

    Visually, I’m impressed with the screen shots and look forward to using the site.

    The flexibility they’ve built in “above the fold” to cover a variety of stories or multiple angles looks impressive.

    One thing I don’t like, and that I hope changes, is the use of “new” and “updated” tags for headlines (according to the tour, they remain). I find them mostly useless. I’d prefer they take a lesson from a couple of other sites and time-stamp the headlines (and I prefer an actual time-stamp, not the “minutes” method that CNN.com uses).

  • Greg

    Finally, MSNBC ditches the 1999 dial-up look. Going to look awesome.

  • Mike Escutia

    VERY nice. Can’t wait to see it once it’s live.

    (Oh, and I’m adding Alpha Channel to my Google Reader feeds. Awesome name, by the way.)

  • Chris Nicolini

    Now if only they’ll incorporate that design with their NBC local affiliate sections…

  • http://www.fimoculous.com Rex

    Mike: Jim gets credit for naming the blog!

    Greg: Totally.

    BJ: Some people like the new/updated stamps; others don’t. It seems we’re leaning toward the majority right now.

  • http://www.fimoculous.com Rex

    Oh, and the thing I’d like to point out about this design is how it’s not at all what we’ve come to expect in recent redesigns. It’s not gray/blue on white, the look that has steamrolled itself through news sites ever since NYT started it. Obviously, there’s no reason to be critical of those designs, but hasn’t that look become a little… safe? I like that we’re taking a risk here.

    (Also, I can only say “we” for another week. I’m leaving msnbc.com soon, trying out some new stuff.)

  • Z

    Criminy, where are you going now?

  • http://www.marcrullo.com Marc Rullo

    Yawn. Wait. Risk? What risk? A multi-colored header? Wake me up when “taking a risk” means that you’re willing to make users a little uncomfortable in the short-term in order to push the envelope a little for the greater long-term good.

  • tdc

    good luck on those new frontiers, rex!

    damn, how come these companies CANNOT seem to keep good help!?

  • http://www.fimoculous.com Rex

    Marc: I guess “risk” is subjective, but things that I’d point out that are different from almost any news site out there:

    + The non-templated above-the-fold approach. There is no single spot for “top story” — there will be several different iterations of that idea. Much more like a newspaper. I’d argue no one is doing this.

    + Navigation. Check it out when it launches.

    + Homepage customization. A lot of sites are doing this, but I think we’re putting a twist on it.

    + Scanability. It’s hard to tell from this mockup, but there’s a different philosophy here about group content. Things move horizontal, rather than vertical.

    So maybe there’s nothing new there. But I think if you take a look at the set of news sites that have relaunched in the last six months, you’ll see plenty of differentiation.

  • Don Day
  • Anonymous

    I would say ABCNews.com tried a risk and failed. This looks much better than that, though.

  • http://www.scimus.net Devin Nakao

    It could be the most informative artice I’ve ever read.

  • http://www.oate.pomorze.pl Jeff Ganguli

    This is the finest authoritative blog I’ve ever seen.

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