The U.S. Olympic Committee plans to unveil a redesigned website this fall that will replace its mosaic of images with a more traditional look that features a dominant image and links to news stories.
The change comes two years after the USOC overhauled its site, trading the traditional headline-photo approach preferred at the time for a more tablet-friendly collage of images. It now plans to go back to the more traditional approach used by sports properties for years.
USOC chief marketer Lisa Baird said the organization decided to make the change after analyzing how the site could be improved.
“We can engage people more and serve up stories in a more organized fashion than we had been,” Baird said.
The new site, which is slated to be unveiled late this fall, will emphasize video content but still provide slide shows and articles. The template the USOC uses also will be available to more than a dozen national governing bodies that opt to use the USOC design.
The website (TeamUSA.org) and app have seen significant increases in Web traffic during recent Olympics. The site and app combined to deliver more than 23 million page views during the Sochi Games, easily eclipsing the 17 million total page views that it netted from Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 combined.
The redesign is the organization’s third since 2008. Aspenware, a Colorado-based technology agency, developed the new site. VML, a full-service digital agency and division of Young & Rubicam, assisted with the 2012 effort.
— Tripp Mickle
