Early Thursday morning, Aug. 3, the NCR web team will begin a transition to a new, fresher, brighter website design. The conversion will begin about 6 a.m. central time, but you, dear reader, probably won't see the change until sometime after 10 a.m. central time.
We will be working furiously behind the scenes, but you will be able to read and comment on articles by your favorite NCR writers without interruption. If you wish to renew or subscribe to our newspaper during that time, online ordering will be unavailable but our customer service team will happily take your call at 1-800-333-7373.
If you're on the website around midmorning Thursday when the big switch happens, you may have a momentary loss of access, but that should be a mere flicker. After that, you'll be seeing a different NCRonline.org. The content won’t change — it'll still be the high quality journalism you come to NCR to read — but you'll find a new layout and new page designs.
Let me emphasize: The content hasn't changed. We haven't dropped any writers or stopped covering any issues. We've shaken up the website, so everything is in a different place, but it is all still there. Take some time to look around. Scroll up and down. Click some links. Explore all areas of the website.
One thing many of you will notice immediately, I hope, is that the new NCRonline.org will be much more mobile friendly. If you regularly read NCR on a smart phone or tablet, I think you're going to be very happy with the new experience.
Much of the improvement of the website is in behind the curtain functionality. Our web editors will have more flexibility and more creative tools to give readers different ways to access NCR content and to interact with that content. Those changes will become evident over the next few weeks.
This is the fifth reiteration of the NCR website that I have been involved with. One thing I've learned over the years is that, despite our best planning, when we relaunch the website, some things break: some links quit working, photos drop off the page, the new design doesn't work with this or that browser or this or that machine. We're doing all we can to make sure these things don't happen, but I know they will.
The other thing I've learned is that you readers often know the ins and outs of our website better than we do, so I'm enlisting your help. If you spot a problem or see something broken, please send us a note at redesign@ncronline.org. We value your feedback.
Thanks in advance for your help.
