OCRegister.com Site Redesign Includes Home Page Personalization and Hyper-Local Community Pages

OCRegister.com today launched a complete site redesign that allows users to personalize the site based on individual interests by adding, editing settings, minimizing, removing or repositioning content within section boxes on its home page. Users may also add content from outside Web sites for display on the home page through RSS feeds.

The cleaner-looking site redesign includes robust, hyper-local community pages that can be personalized at the neighborhood level within the CITY NEWS section on the home page. The enhanced community pages are organized within regional clusters, and include city- or neighborhood-level business directories, school ratings, events, photos, videos, restaurant listings, discussion forums, traffic and crime maps, community-generated content and a new Deal of the Day advertisement.

“The ability to access information from multiple sources through ocregister.com represents the most significant upgrade to our site since launching ocregister.com in 1996,” said Terry Horne, Register publisher and president at Orange County Register Communications. “Home page personalization dramatically enhances the experience we provide to our customers, as it minimizes the need to search deep within our site or scour other sites to find what you’re looking for. Information by neighborhood or topic can be automatically delivered to the ocregister.com home page.”

Instructions on how to create a personalized home page are available through a HELP link at the top of the page, which includes contact information (including real-time chat functionality), FAQs and videos explaining the new site features.

Anyone currently registered to post comments and other content on ocregister.com can immediately begin personalizing their home page. Others are prompted to create an account through a SIGN IN link at the top of the page.

Home page personalization is directly accessible by clicking on an orange PERSONALIZE THIS PAGE tab, located along the top right of the site. Up to 20 personalized content sections from ocregister.com or outside sites can be displayed on the home page. This area also allows users to remove content boxes, add previously deleted ocregister.com content boxes back to their home page, adjust text size or make ocregister.com their home page on a Web browser.

Users may rearrange the order of individual news sections on the ocregister.com home page by clicking on a section they want to move, then dragging-and-dropping it in the order they want it to appear. Top Stories, Local Business Directory and multimedia content have stationary positions on the home page.

An EDIT option and related arrow icon are located to the top right of various content boxes, which brings up a drop-down menu that allows users to:

• Edit Settings: Choose between 5 to 10 headlines, narrow down listed topics within the section or add content into section box from outside sites through RSS feeds
• Minimize Topic: Displays only the section header on the home page
• Delete Topic: Removes the entire content box from their home page altogether
• Add a Topic: Insert a new content box onto their ocregister.com home page

The streamlined, top-page blue navigation bar has new “HOME” and “HEADLINES” tabs, with the latter providing a quick snapshot of the five latest headlines within each of the main content sections.

Fixed-position features along the right side of the home page bring added visibility to popular areas of site. New features include a Hot Topic section showcasing popular news of the day, with links to related headlines from the Register and outside news sites. Other right-side home page elements include:

• Most Viewed and Most Commented article tabs
• In-page video player featuring Register-produced videos and additional video links
• Images From the Web
• Quotes From the Web
• Alerts & Newsletters: Signup area for breaking news alerts and e-mail newsletters
• Things To Do events calendar
• Homes, Jobs, Cars and Deals tabs

Article and community pages have a cleaner and standardized design, with more localized information and targeted advertising. Many of the articles will include interactive tabs – Photos, Database, Graphics and Maps – for added context.

Heil Brice, a local advertising agency specializing in web design, consulted on the initial design. The goal was to develop a modern site that empowers the user and invites them to curate their own content through home page personalization.

Orange County Register Communications conducted several months of usability tests with frequent and new site users to monitor feedback and ensure a positive experience, Horne said. A public beta version of the site was introduced on Oct. 26, to encourage additional feedback.

The Orange County Register logo was added to the new ocregister.com site for cohesive branding with the print newspaper. For promotion outside of the site, a new ocregister.com logo was created and will be featured within a related brand positioning and awareness campaign to follow.

About Orange County Register Communications, Inc.

Orange County Register Communications, Inc. of Santa Ana, Calif. is part of Freedom Communications, Inc. and is publisher of The Orange County Register, a three-time, Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper and the area's most trusted source of news and information since 1905. The company also publishes OCRegister.com, OCExcelsior.com, OrangeCounty.com and 25 community newspapers including Spanish-language Excélsior. Magazines include Coast, Coast kids, Preferred Destinations and several publications supporting the performing arts. Orange County Register Communications also offers a full spectrum of custom printing services, insert and direct mail advertising vehicles. For more information, visit www.ocregister.com/aboutus. Visit the Inside the OC Register blog at www.ocregister.com/insideocr.