For the new ESPN.com, less is more. But more is also more.
The redesign, to make its debut April 1, represents an embrace by company engineers and executives of a seemingly contradictory challenge. At once, their goal was to reduce clutter and improve the site’s navigation, while also helping users discover the vast amount of available content.
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The new ESPN.com is scheduled to make its debut this week.
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The new site also fully aligns ESPN’s flagship online property with a redesign and rebranding of its “SportsCenter” mobile application to “ESPN.” After years as distinct entities, ESPN online and mobile will present users with fundamentally the same design and personalized preferences that carry over from one platform to the other.
“We’ve changed a lot of what people have come to know about us,” said Ryan Spoon, ESPN senior vice president of digital product management, who played an integral role in the redesign. “This is very different. But we think this is going to be much cleaner and more immersive.”
After more than a year in active redevelopment, including an extended beta-testing period, the ESPN.com redesign features three distinct columns within the home page.
The right-hand column, ESPN Now, is a continually updating stream that includes breaking news, trending topics, social media highlights, statistics and a sampler of other peaking content. ESPN Now was first introduced through the redesigned ESPN mobile app, but gets an additional rollout online and will be supported by an editorial team specifically dedicated to the product.
The left-hand column is the key area for user personalization. Spoon said the user sign-in and personalization rate for ESPN on mobile platforms is at 70 percent, and he promises “we’re going to hit you over the head” to promote similar log-in adoption online.
The center column most resembles prior versions of ESPN.com, with top headlines and a lead photo. But the area contains fewer static links in favor of continually updating content blocks.
“We do literally many hundreds of pieces of original content every day, and we need to do a better job showcasing it,” Spoon said.
To that end, the new design also operates under the concept of “every page is a home page,” and takeovers and other premium advertising units will now be sold on team pages and other non-home page areas. The new templates also are being applied to ESPN.com international editions. More external digital ventures such as Grantland and FiveThirtyEight will maintain their own distinct designs.
The new ESPN.com also features a fully responsive design, something that allows for easy rescaling of pages to optimize for the screen. Many other websites have already embraced such architecture, but given ESPN.com last received a significant design overhaul in early 2009 and still uses some code dating to 1997, this represents its first use of responsive design for the company’s flagship site.
“Hopefully this new design lasts five or 10 years,” said John Kosner, ESPN executive vice president of digital and print media. “I sort of think about it like I do Apple. We’re not necessarily first to a particular technology, but ideally we’re the best.”
