From the Nominator

"As Washington University in St. Louis' central digital storytelling platform, The Source gets over two million visitors a year. The mission of the 2021 redesign of The Source was to increase user engagement among those visitors. We implemented a two-pronged approach: (1) offering site visitors more relevant stories, and (2) enhancing our storytelling capabilities with more engaging and interactive functionality. 

 

In 2016, we merged three separate digital properties to form The Source: the Newsroom, The Record, and Washington magazine. The consolidation of these properties allowed visitors to engage with content across all three brands for the first time, but the original design sacrificed the visibility of each publication. In 2021, our goal was to increase engagement on the site by leveraging the best of both worlds: still providing one central destination and opportunities for cross promotion, while elevating the visibility of each publication and leveraging the equity that these publications have with their specific audiences.  

The sustained post-launch metrics from Google Analytics show that page views and pages per session almost doubled, while the bounce rate dropped to a third— demonstrating that the new site design is effective at encouraging visitors to discover new content and they are choosing to engage with more stories."

From the Judges

"• Good metrics 

• Nice solution to merging publications/audience needs 

• The site itself is well-organized and easy to browse 

• Hero header treatment is especially nice"