UBLabs.org

We have just added an interactive crossword puzzle to the site. You will notice that the crossword page sports a new look. This is a basic draft of the redesign that is in the works. Keep watching for more sections to move to the new look. Let me know what you think of the new color scheme and layout. For all you Web 2.0 nerds out there, the new layout is based on CSS instead of "Table Hell ©."

The design of our site is SLIGHTLY out-dated. I am sure you have already noticed, but maybe some of you are blind or have been in a coma for the past couple of years. What started out as an easy-to-use-page has quickly become a large jumble of links and colors that make even the most weathered of Internet pirates seasick. Well the good news is that soon you can put away your Dramamine and breath a little easier. We are working on a complete overhaul of our site's layout. I will be posting some mock-ups soon and I would love to get your opinions on them.

On second thought, there is one thing I DO NOT LIKE about USA Today's new site, which is that to leave comments, you have to register. So if you want to leave a comment that says that having to register to comment stinks, you have to register first.

I don't mind sites that ask you to register to access *all* content, but I intensely mind sites that use registration as a carrot. I guess I prefer all or nothing. But maybe that's an unfair whine, because I expect that at some point, we'll ask people to register to use our site.

USA Today redesigned (as anyone who has been to their site will no doubt have noticed). Talk about reader interactivity! Gone is the five-refer skybox, replaced with a rotating reader comment. Also new is a login/new account space at the upper right-hand corner. You can still get to everything with the colorful boxes (i.e. sports, travel, etc.), but they're just elegantly tucked away. Want to tab between headlines and the On Deadline blog? That's a breeze and you don't even have to scroll down to get there.

A multipurpose thought: We talk a lot about finding ways to do what readers want, to do the job they've hired us for, etc. I'm all for giving people what the want, so long as it is what they *really* want. But how to get at that.

Here's one possibility: The researcher Norman Li has used an economic model (a game theory kind of thing, in this case) to look into people's priorities in mate selection. His study can be found at http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/Group/LiLAB/Li%20et%20al.,%20200....

Google has such an elegant interface - only about a dozen things to click on at its home page, and of course, just the one place to type in what you're looking for. What would be awesomely excellent, I think, would be a local google, with the same simple interface, where you could just type in, say, Kiehl's, and get results for where you can buy their lotion in the Valley.

To continue an idea that Al touched upon. Maps. More specifically, Google Maps. We've started to incorporate them with some of the local stories that we post online. If it is warranted, of course. And most stories will. The use of Google Maps is hardly new or innovative, but it does offer our readers (website visitors) a perspective that is not possible via the print edition.

A story this morning about levees reminds me of one of the big debates among print types as they try to figure out what people want online.

We plan to run a couple of maps online, one from the Corps of Engineers, one a Google map, that show where an at-risk levy is. This isn't something we had the time or room for in the print edition, but as with many stories, it is no big deal to have room on the Web...

UB Labs is a blog where Josh Gesler, Carlos Virgen and Alasdair Stewart (that's me) talk shop, toss around ideas and get input from readers/visitors/interested parties about what we're working on for the Union-Bulletin's Web presence(s). You can read a bit about us in our bios, find out what we're thinking, Web-wise, and congratulate us on our genius, poke holes in our foolish ideas and give us ideas about what sorts of things you want from us online.