In early July, almost four months after we invited the Daily Kos community to use the new design and offer feedback, we began the next step of introducing site users to the new Daily Kos front page. The release is explained in detail here. The page is being slowly released to additional new users as we accept and respond to feedback, and for now, if you’ve been chosen for the new front page, you can switch back using the menu in the top right if you’re logged in and using some links below if you’re not.
The new page differs in a number of ways from the old page, some visible to the user and some not. The new design is meant to function more like a site index page, providing more headlines at a glance with just enough information about each story to encourage a user to click through to the full story page.
This change allows us to get more stories on the front page to accommodate the amazing work of over a thousand distinct writers in a single month, which includes both community and staff. The blog format works well for a site that hosts a handful of writers, but less well for a firehose of over 100 stories a day. Great stories written at the wrong time of day scroll away before they can be seen. We have some bandaids that we apply to get around this, including the amazing people at Community Spotlight, but they’re all workarounds. If you’re a regular reader and you missed one of the linked stories above announcing the front page changes, that is evidence that the front page didn’t give you all the information you wanted and needed.
The new design offers more visibility to some specific efforts that are important to our shared mission of progressive activism. Now, original stories from Daily Kos Elections, Daily Kos Liberation League, and Prism, meant to highlight key areas where we can collectively make a difference, are easy to find. Civiqs has a larger dedicated area featuring noteworthy poll results in a format that is easier to read and more useful than the tiny banner that felt like an ad instead of information. “Trending” stories (formerly known as the Recommended List) have a more prominent place than offered by the old sidebar display. “Recent Community Stories” highlights the latest from the community, with staff stories filtered out. Popular and active Community Groups are highlighted with randomized rotation to bring forward the niches that those groups address with their own vibrant subcommunities.
The less-obvious improvements in the Front Page design involve coding for a far wider array of devices and displays than the old one could easily accommodate. Responsive design enables a more consistent experience for users across platforms, from 2 inches to 2 feet in screen width. These changes also pave the way for increasing site accessibility along a number of different axes. Generally, the new design gives us much more flexibility to adapt the page for special coverage and to include special features without needing to rebuild the whole page from scratch.
Our plan is to continue a gradual rollout of the new page. In small percentages for now, and gradually increasing over time, users will be automatically routed to the old or the new page on a per-session basis, set independently on every device you use. Logged-in users can switch between versions by clicking a link displayed at the bottom of the user drop-down menu, “Switch to old/new frontpage design.” This preference is set by a local cookie, so if you clear cookies between sessions, you may have to reset it. Anonymous users can use these links to switch:
We are still very interested in user feedback. You can add comments here, and we’ve also opened a category at Helpdesk for new Front Page questions and commentary. If you open a ticket there, please provide details about the type of device you’re using, its operating system and browser, along with as much specific information you can supply about your question or issue. Helpdesk does permit the upload of screenshots, which usually facilitate explanation and diagnosis. Something that feels broken may in fact be specific to you, and this helps us figure out what is happening. The best way to express a problem is to be clear about what task you’re trying to accomplish, and why this is harder or impossible. We want to make this a great change for everyone, and the more constructive and specific you can be in your feedback, the more likely it is that we can find an answer.
Some people have mentioned that they use other pages besides the front page to get a view that works for them. By all means, if that works for you, that can be a great way to find content. Some popular ones are:
- The Recent List view
- The recent list in blog form
- The list or blog view of a group you especially enjoy
- A tag page for your favorite tag
- Your stream page, which lists all of the stories by authors, tags, or groups that you follow, and is available from the drop down menu in the upper right if you’re logged in on desktop
We remain fully committed to fulfilling our slogan, “News you can do something about.” The new design is meant help us grow the progressive coalition we need to accomplish the social transformation we all seek.