By Anshul Tewari:
If you’ve been following us for the last few years you know well about how seriously we take user experience. Over the last few months, we have toiled late nights to figure out what has been working really well and what hasn’t – and we came across some interesting observations.
With this new design we are not only making a move to a different user interface and experience, we are also trying to create a better, more meaningful place for our community to speak up on issues they are passionate about. Jumping quickly to the whats and the whys, here’s a list of what you’re in for:
Introducing ‘Staff Picks’, and the likes: With the growing content and contributions on YKA, we, the editors felt the need to connect better with our readers. And what better than showcasing the content that moved us, personally. ‘Staff Picks’ will be your inlet into what we love the most at YKA.
A reader friendly approach: We removed all the frills and fancy from the right side of the content pieces, made them simpler and moved them to the left – to not disrupt your flow while you read the pieces we put up. The site also transforms into a sleek and trendy mobile experience to let you access the content on the go – much like an app would.
Comment interactions: We have added our internal ‘Like’ and ‘Dislike’ system in the comments under our posts to let our community register their agreement or disagreement in more than one way. Disliking will also play a key role in helping us identify spammers and trolls.
Your stories: Over the last few months, YKA has been trying to reclaim social media as a safe public space to talk about people’s personal experiences of facing violence, fighting back and building movements. With the new interface we are also launching ‘My Story’ which will be your space to narrate your personal experiences and stories that come well under our existing themes but also go beyond to talk about positive experiences, success stories, and much more.
More to take action on: As we work more closely with high impact organizations, our impact driven content series will continue to grow – focusing on how we can make taking action easier and more meaningful for you.
With this shift we are hoping to strengthen our resolution to build a media organization that can further democratize the process of news and opinion building and sharing. Stay tuned for more and drop in your comments to let us know how you like the new design. You think we look good?