R-J’s made-over Web site brings out readers’ inner critics

A sure-fire way to get people's attention is to make changes. You can do it with a new hairstyle, a new car or a new design of your Web site.

The greater the change, the greater the reaction. Some people love the new locks, wheels or design. Others hate them. Some don't really care.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal recently revamped reviewjournal.com, and we invited readers and users of the site to share their opinions of the results. Some loved it. Some not so much. Some would rather not say

This was at least the ninth major redo of the site in the 13 years we've been online. It won't be the last.

The new home page made its debut early Feb. 17. The automated processing of stories from the daily newspaper edition, combined with the human help in making things just so, started around 3:30 a.m. We got our first comments about 15 minutes later, and the feedback pipeline flowed steadily for the next week.

The reader survey was extremely unscientific. People chose to click on a large "Feedback" tab that hovered on the left edge of the new home page. Those with certain sized computer screens let us know the button got in the way of other things on the page. This was a small, but vocal, group.

Of the nearly 250 surveys received, the number of readers who gave high praise (26) was equal to those who used verbiage such as "hate, awful, terrible or worst." It's humbling, for sure.

Another vocal group of 32 respondents asked, demanded or otherwise expected that we scrap the new design and revert to the previous version. Sorry, folks, that won't happen. The team of editors, reporters, designers, programmers and reviewers think the new design has many benefits over the previous version.

Navigation to content sections was simplified and expanded. Users can now select from five tabs on the opening screen to present the "Latest News," "Buzzworthy," "Blogs & Columns," "Photos & Video" and "Calendar."

We're using the feedback to make improvements. A Web site is never "done," but a work in progress.

Numerous readers left comments about the new design, ranging from high praise for the designers to calls for their heads.

Here are examples:

■"I was pleasantly surprised to see the new layout when I logged on today. It looks great -- much more information seems to be presented at once, yet each story seems to stand out on it own on the page ... kudos to the Web designers!"

■"WTF have you done to the Web site? Terrible. I like the old site A LOT better. Whoever approved this needs a new job. Nothing was wrong with the old Web site."

We read every comment, and invite more. The feedback button is at the bottom of the home page.

Call it like you see it.

Share your Internet story with me at agibes@reviewjournal.com.