As you pick up the Daily Bruin today, you might notice a few changes. Actually, if you don’t notice anything different, I haven’t done my job properly.
In September we launched the latest version of dailybruin.com. Though the web and social media are the tools of the future, I see no reason for print media to be left in the dust.
We approached the redesign with you, the readers, in mind. This is a college campus, and we are not your father’s or grandfather’s newspaper. Just as our reporting should be of relevance, so should our design.
Three key words guided our modifications ““ clean, bold and fun. Clean to make navigating each page as easy as possible, bold to capture the reader’s attention, and fun to relate to our audience.
Okay, talking about change in general is great, but what have we done specifically to achieve our goals?
Color plays a significant role in our new look. We have increased our use of color in order to guide the reader’s eye and avoid creating too many blocks of gray text.
New flags mark different kinds of stories, and revamped refers direct readers to multimedia content on our Web site.
Even subtle changes, like the lines separating stories, contribute to a cleaner and thus more reader-friendly look.
Change can be a scary thing, but trust me when I say that every aspect of this redesign has been carefully considered. I don’t believe in change for change’s sake, but I do realize that sometimes change is necessary and even for the best.
Whether you register it or not, the first thing you see when you pick up the paper each day is the design. This redesign is for you, and we hope you enjoy it.
E-mail Vas at nvas@media.ucla.edu.