Birminghammail.net has been relaunched on a new content management system, with a fresh design devised in consultation with users.
The new website includes built-in live blog technology, better presentation of picture galleries and video, and a new hyperlocal section called In Your Area, which will build on the work of the Birmingham Mail Communities team.
A full mobile site is also available and further improvements are planned in the coming months, say the publishers.
David Brookes, editor-in-chief of Trinity Mirror Midlands and editor of the Birmingham Mail, said: “We’re delighted with the new site which we are confident will be popular with our users.
“The Mail site has grown rapidly in recent years and this new design will enable us to showcase more of what we do and help users find the content they want more quickly.”
The move to the escenic content management system follows a re-design of Trinity Mirror’s regional sites earlier this year.
User testing and audience research was critical to the design process. Feedback showed that people did not realise how often current sites were updated and were unaware of the range of content available.
The new site has been designed by Chris Lam, Trinity Mirror’s regional senior web designer, whose refreshed designs unveiled earlier this year have been shortlisted for awards, says Trinity Mirror.
David Higgerson, digital publishing director for Trinity Mirror’s regional websites, said: “The new Mail site looks brilliant and is a credit to everyone who has worked on it.
“The new technology allows us to focus on getting news and information to users fast, using a wide range of tools to create strong, multimedia stories.”
The site shares the same technology as the new mirror.co.uk and Dailyrecord.co.uk sites, meaning that Trinity Mirror’s regional and national sites will benefit from future improvements at the same time.
Malcolm Coles, Digital Product Director, said: "As more and more sites come on to the new platform, we'll start to see increasing benefits from the common approach we're taking. Unlike the previous patchwork of older technologies that made up our sites, we'll be able to roll out new functionality instantly to all sites on the new platform. It shows how, by working as One Trinity Mirror, we can bring great new content and functionality to our customers."
