Our friends at the Financial Times launched an online “test” of its new homepage design to gather thoughts and responses from readers.  (You can check out the new home page here.)

In an e-mail to past and current subscribers, the FT explains its web site overhaul is an attempt to achieve three important goals:

This is the first step in a series of design changes and functional improvements that will be rolled out across the rest of the site as they become available. These include:

 

  • expanded coverage of important subjects such as macroeconomics,
    energy and technology

  • better integration between market data and news, to give context
    to market movements

  • more opportunities for users to become part of the Financial Times
    community by contributing to our discussion forums and blogs

Of course, many of the things we’re working on we hope you’ll hardly notice at all. Planned improvements to the behind-the-scenes nuts and bolts of our publishing system will make the site quicker and easier to use. Please bear with us while we get there.

Is sharing all of this a good idea?  We think so here at Brand Central Station.  Here’s why:

  1. The campaign is all about soliciting feedback – a critical step in making sure a major design change doesn’t turn off more readers than it entices to the FT.
  2. The effort creates “buzz” among readers and first-adopters.
  3. Analysis of how the sample home page is reviewed and used will help drive further site enhancements down the road.

All in all, a this test (and the upgrades to site service and design) are good ideas from a well-run news organization.  Kudo’s FT.

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