9/27/00

James Robinson, News Service (650) 723-5675;
e-mail: jamesrob@stanford.edu

Stanford Report launches redesigned web page, new URL

Stanford Report on Wednesday launched a redesigned web page with a new URL, http://news.stanford.edu, aimed at highlighting the site's daily offerings of news, photos and graphics.

"With our redesign, we want to make Stanford Report online a more integral part of the daily lives of faculty, staff, students and our broader audiences," said Eileen Walsh, director of Stanford News Service. "We hope that readers will make it a habit to log on every day to learn the latest news about research, teaching and campus events. With that in mind, we plan to update the site throughout the day as news warrants."

Stanford Report's website was originally designed in early 1997 as a way to post online the weekly contents of the Stanford Report newspaper. Since spring of 1999, however, during the academic year the website has served as a vehicle to deliver news on a daily basis.

"Three and a half years ago is a long time on the web," said Andy Krackov, web managing editor. "Since then, there's a lot we've learned about how to design an online publication." The old web page design, he said, "was buckling under, in the sense that our design did not permit us to highlight both breaking news and stories of ongoing significance. I think our new design accomplishes those goals."

The new web design has multiple headlines on the home page, allowing readers to see not only the latest news on a daily basis but also recent top stories. In addition, a space is reserved in the right-hand corner to emphasize feature stories, photo slideshows and video clips. With technological innovations in digital photography and videography, posting images to the website has become easier and faster. For example, two video clips from an interview with Paul Ehrlich on his new book, Human Natures: Genes, Cultures and the Human Prospect, recently were posted to the site and have proven popular with users.

A new navigation bar on the left side of the page gives users of the site many more categories to choose from so that they can get to the news they want with fewer clicks. In addition, the story-level pages have been enhanced with more related links, photos and graphics.

The home page retains several features, such as an item highlighting a daily event on campus and "Stanford in the News," which gives readers a selection of news media stories quoting Stanford professors.

Finally, the website's new name, http://news.stanford.edu, is "something that we hope people will remember easily," Krackov said.

The editor of the website is James Robinson, assistant director of the News Service. The assistant web editor is Libusha Kelly.

Feedback on the redesigned site should be directed to krackov@stanford.edu.

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By James Robinson