IF AOL WAS ever cool, it isn?t anymore. For those of us who used the company?s Internet service as the gateway to the World Wide Web, AOL still stands for screechy dial-up and email addresses with clunky numerical strings (think: mrhodes8003@aol.com). With a radical new site redesign, AOL hopes to change that image, especially among Millennials, who may not have developed any associations with the brand.
It?s not that AOL doesn?t get clicks; in fact, its audience is huge, attracted mostly by video content. But by advertising standards, readership is on the older end of the spectrum: The average reader is 48. As part of a larger, multi-year effort to attract the under-35 set, AOL.com has unveiled a 21st-century redesign of its homepage that prioritizes mobile and video viewing.
The old site was last updated in 2009. It features feeds and lists that tend to get a clunky display on mobile.Click to Open Overlay Gallery
The old site was last updated in 2009. It features feeds and lists that tend to get a clunky display on mobile. ?AOL
The old news feeds are gone?last updated in 2009, when AOL worked with branding agency Wolff Olins on its new logo?replaced by a cleaned-up, responsive site with plenty of white space. Each news item has a corresponding big, modular tile that easily translates to a smartphone screen. AOL president Maureen Sullivan says the in-house design team created the mobile version first, then based the desktop experience on the smartphone design.
Read more at?WIRED
