Welcome to the new idsnews.com

Don't worry, this Web site might look different, but it's still the Indiana Daily Student online.

In November, a collective group of IDS staff members decided the Web site needed a redesign to make it more reader-friendly.

The Web site needed to be able to change based on the type of news that occurred that day. With the redesign, there are different online templates that allow us to use them to better showcase our content.

The redesign made our multimedia – slideshows, videos and blogs – a priority. When you click on a story, you might also notice links to related content similar to what you're already viewing.

The navigation tool on the left was moved to the top. This gave us the ability to widen our news hole, enabling us to play up photos and giving us more flexibility.

We added four tabs underneath the navigation tool: two new and two old. You can now see not only what the IDS editors think are the most important stories of the day but what stories are most commented and recommended by readers. Also, with the new "Today's Paper" tab, you can easily find content in that day's print edition. The last tab is "Blog Updates." It contains the most recent posts from all of our blogs, which enables you to see what's new in sports, opinion, arts and entertainment in one click.

Our biggest concern was the look and feel of the site - the new design matches our newly designed newspaper. To do that, we made it less cluttered, eliminated the harsh colors and went with a cleaner, more basic design.

Another point of emphasis on the new site will be moving from a static page to a dynamic one that changes throughout the day. This includes both design and content. Two new Web editor positions were added to the staff this semester so we can be more committed to giving you newer stories and photos.

We hope these changes make the site easier to navigate and more user-friendly. This is the first of many versions, and more features will be added in the coming weeks.

For thoughts, concerns or questions, please leave a comment below.