WSJ.com's New Look

In the midst of some of the year’s biggest financial news, The Wall Street Journal is unveiling a new online look complete with today’s competitive standard: social networking.

Launched today, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network redesign offers a more streamlined interface and new features for all users.

Of particular note is the site’s more open feel. By moving the left hand menu column to a three-tier, seamless horizontal navigation bar, the site makes better use of white space and is easier to maneuver. The section headers are prominent and reflect the natural way viewers are programmed to scan and process information, from left to right.

In some ways, the new site has more of a "newspaper" feel than its predecessor. The gray "What's News" column almost directly parallels the print edition's style.

The open layout and modular feel also offers more flexibility as the company promises “varied home and section pages. ” In an online world, change is critical to maintaining reader interest.

The new WSJ.com appeals to a wider audience. The modern feel, cleaner navigation and more muted color palette are less daunting to those individuals often intimidated or overwhelmed by the Wall Street machine. The site no longer feels like a complex compendium of information that only hardcore investors will brave to sift through.

New features also directly target the general reader.

Subscribers will now have access to the site's foray into social networking. The product, Journal Community, is being called a “topic-based professional network” where subscribers can comment on articles, ask experts questions and join discussion groups. A new section devoted to management news and an expanded relaunch of "Heard on the Street" round out the new subscriber-only offerings.

All users, non-subscribers included, will also have access to “Newsreel,” a feed-like tool atop all story pages. According to the Dow Jones press release, this module will highlight “the most important stories in each major section of the site with direct navigation among them.”

Despite all the new bells and whistles, however, the interface improvements are most noteworthy.

Joining the social networking craze and highlighting the latest feed technology may or may not prove successful for the company, but any move focused on making content easier to read and find is a definite improvement.

Staying true to the basics of good Web design, the new site honors content and sticks to its niche.

WSJ.com is synonymous with markets and now "Market Data" is much more visible and prominent, occupying prime space, the top right corner. Text has been given more room to breathe, making for an uncluttered read, and multimedia elements such as video are still highlighted alongside the day's news stories, but with a slight layout shift that gives the impression of a more compact, less overwhelming page.

*Read more about the changes here.

Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism