Detroit News Labs

New Spelling Bee page!

The Detroit News has a long history with the Spelling Bee, dating back to 1922. The Detroit News Regional Spelling Bee has become a rich tradition with schools throughout Michigan. Each year students in fifth through eighth grades compete for the chance to represent their school and community in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

This year, we've put together a special section for and about the Spelling Bee, with special features such as Word of the Day, a timeline of the Bee season schedule, photos, stories and additional resources.

So if you are a student, teacher, parent or simply curious, check out our Spelling Bee special report. Also, let us know what you think of the report and share your stories and tips, too.

Cybersurveys and forums

Good news! The comments areas of our cybersurveys are working properly again! Also, the forums comments are again linking back to the story from which they came. Just click on the headline of the forum comment to find all comments on that same story. We value your feedback, so please let us know if you experience any problems going forward.

Sports on TV

I mentioned a week ago that we were looking for a way to anchor the Sports on TV box on the main Sports index. We've done that -- and you can now find the listings for sports events, daily, on the right side of the Sports index, right above the scoreboards. We had so many calls and letters about this one, we thought it was worth making it a priority.

Let us know if there's anything else that strikes you as missing or out of place. We can't promise to do everything you ask, but your feedback has been invaluable in making sure this site is as user friendly as we can make it.

We're beta testing expanded archives -- with PDFs

Looking for a story from more than a few days ago? How about an image of last Tuesday's front page?

Find them at detnews.com/archivebeta. Keep in mind this page is a work in progress, and that -- for now -- it only goes back to Oct. 2, missing a few days here and there. That's because that's when we started using some new tools for tagging our content. We'll be refining that procedure in the near future, but the archive should grow to about 60 days.

Along with stories, we're also providing snapshots of our front page and sports page as PDFs, in color and with enough resolution to be printed at home. You'll find links to today's PDFs in the site map at the bottom of our home page, as well as PDFs for every day available in the beta archive. (Don't forget that there is no Sunday PDF because The News doesn't publish on Sunday).

More feedback ....

Here's more of what you are telling us, and answers to some of your questions and requests:

* I find your new site design loads much slower than the previous design.

We have heard from several readers who say the site is slower; we are looking at ways to optimize the site and decrease the load time, and we hope you see a difference in the next week or two.

* I used to start my day by reading the News on line. I do not like the new on-line format at all. It used to be easy to go to the different sections, simply by checking the column at the left. Now, you have to hunt to find what you want. For example, the columnists page. You used to get all of the columnists on one page, and it would be indicated if there was a new column by any of them. Now, you must check each columnists individually---which takes forever. Please go back to your old format.

Our navigation has been pared down but you should be able to find what you need either in the top horizontal navigation (mouse over and/or click on the tabs and subsections) or go the the site index at the bottom of any page. We do have a page for all of our columnists that is updated regularly. You can find it at Opinion/Columnists or go directly to the columnists index.

* I wrote twice praising the new look in your paper, but don't know where to put the captcha, and I think that is the most stupid thing on the websites.

We realize the captcha code (that's a box with letters in it, and we require people commenting in this blog to replicate those letters) is an extra step that may seem annoying. But it allows us to run the blogs more efficiently, as it blocks spammers. We hope readers prefer a blog comments area without spam as much as we do.

* Am I missing it or do you not publish the sports standings for the NHL, NFL, NBA & MLB?

You can find scoreboards and links to all the stats and standings on our Sports Scoreboards page. You can click to that page out of the top navigation on any page, under Sports, or down in the Site Index. For more standings info, go to the Sports home page and look at the right side of the page under all the individual scoreboards. You’ll see a box that says “other scoreboards”. Click on the league and you’re there.

Sports on TV and other features

Several readers have asked why we've made it so hard to find the "TV/Radio" feature that runs daily. We're looking for a way to anchor it on the main Sports section index, but until then, look for it in the Other Sports index.

More feedback from you:

* "What happened to the Ask Forum (questions to Mike O'Hara)" (Thanks for pointing this out. We realized we'd forgotten to move this feature over. You'll find it here.)

* Up here where I live in Northwest Lower Michigan, cable or DSL internet service is unavailable. It takes me 2 minutes and 15 seconds to open the new and "improved" front page, with my dial-up connection, and navigating through the news articles is painfully slow as well. (We are looking into ways to improve the load time. Please let us know whether you see an improvement over the next few weeks as we tweak things)

* It is too hard to find and get to Wings Talk, and the other similar fan forums; I liked the old one—scrolling to it on the left, and getting in very quickly. (We realize the new navigation is different. So we have added all the main forums at the bottom of the page, in the Site Index, so that they will be easier for you to find. Just click from the "Jump to Site Index" arrow at the top of the page and look for "Forums.")

* Your new web site is nice though it will take awhile to get used to it and find my way around. But lots of people like to write an occasional Letter to the Editor. After searching for awhile, I found it (under Contact the Detroit News) but why not give that topic its own hyperlink on the Home page, so people don't have to search for it? (OK, great idea. We added it to the Site Index at the bottom of the home page and the rest of the site)

* Mostly, I find the new format "breathes" more. But is it still possible to access the front page — which I used to do daily under the former format? Maybe I just haven't spotted the link yet. (Yes, it's coming. Check back early next week. We are converting from providing a jpeg image to a PDF, which readers seem to prefer.)

Keep it coming! Thanks again for helping us move forward.

Nancy Hanus
Director of New Media

Thanks for all the feedback

Thanks for all the great comments about the site, and the suggestions on how to make it better. We have had some feedback that this blog does not make it very easy to add comments, and we are working to improve that functionality.

This blog and another, the Neighborhood News blog, are tests for our new blog software, which allows for comments directly at the bottom of the blogs. Obviously we have some tweaking to do.

We've published all the comments made to this blog, but we have gotten hundreds more emailed to us at newsite@detnews.com, and I wanted to share some of those comments as well. Here's a sampling:

* I really like the new design. Especially the little column of gray down the left side to separate the text from the edge of the monitor.
The whole thing looks very very professional. Definitely a change for the better.

Read more! »

Welcome to the new detnews.com

When we started planning the redesign of detnews.com nearly a year ago, we asked you, our online readers, for your advice. More than 600 of you responded. Overwhelmingly you told us you mostly liked detnews.com. You told us content was our strength - sports, autos, photos, local news. But you also made suggestions on how to make the site more user-friendly.

So we embarked on creating a new look -- while keeping alive the essence of what already worked.

We took what you told us, did some internal brainstorming, and came up with what you see today: An updated, wider design, a new logo, a different kind of navigation. What we hope you also find is all of your favorite areas -- breaking news, sports, autos -- dressed up a bit, and hopefully organized in a way that invites you as the reader to explore and to more easily find what you are looking for.

You'll notice we've taken our left-hand navigation and changed it to a horizontal format at the top of the page. We understand that many of you like to click directly on your favorite features, so we added a Site Guide to the bottom of every page. A handy "Jump to Site Guide" button takes you from the top of the page to the bottom, and back.

Please check out the site and tell us what you think. We tried to keep you, our readers, in mind every step of the way. But there are sure to be things we've overlooked -- and we want to hear about them. Be honest; we want to continue to improve, and with your help we can do that.

One more thing: This is just the beginning. We have made dramatic changes to the site, and you'll see that today as you explore. But we have big plans for the next few months -- more interactivity, community and databases. More multimedia at every section and page.

We hope you enjoy the new detnews.com, and will take part in our evolution!

Nancy Hanus
Director, New Media