BT's new website debuts bold, clean look for 45th anniversary
THE Business Times marks a major milestone in its digital transformation journey with a bold, fresh new look for its website today.
Completed right on target to celebrate BT's 45th year, the website enhances BT's award-winning journalism with an enhanced user experience, both on mobile and desktop.
BT editor Wong Wei Kong said that the new home page is one of the more visible embodiments of BT's commitment to digital transformation.
"To meet the evolving needs of our audience, we will continue to constantly iterate and improve across our platforms to create the best user experience for our users," he added.
Upon visiting the new bt.sg, users will be immediately struck by the cleaner, sleeker, more streamlined design.
BT's design team introduced more white space and a serif headline typeface for greater readability, while creating a visually arresting central spot for the most important story of the moment.
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Additionally, the number of articles featured at the top "fold" of the homepage was doubled, to give users a broader choice of current top stories at one glance before scrolling.
The masthead and menu have also been streamlined to improve ease of navigation, with the search, subscriber login button and expandable menu grouped together intuitively at the top right hand corner.
Other new features include:
- A marquee scroll now shows stock tickers just below the masthead.
- More space for headlines under the Opinion section, which highlights views and analyses from BT's experts and contributors.
BT's specialised verticals, including Asean Business, Global Enterprise, SGSME and award-winning startup portal, Garage, are now featured higher up with dedicated containers showing their most recent features.
The latest website revamp was done with input from BT's users and subscribers. Several rounds of interviews were conducted to find out how to create the best user experience possible.
BT's digital editor Christopher Lim said the product development process involved consulting both internal and external stakeholders.
"It was a truly cross-functional effort across our design, product, engineering and editorial teams, based of course on the invaluable inputs given by users," he said.
Visitors to the refreshed homepage told BT that they were pleased with the new layout.
Toby Koh, group managing director of Ademco Security Group, said the new site "looks clean and modern".
"It's easy to scroll to a section of interest. I like the Breaking section, which is timestamped and allows me to get to the key information I want," he said.
Koh, 50, added that he was a fan of the permanent tiles featuring the latest from BT's verticals, as he can see articles he may have missed from Garage - which he enjoys reading - with one click.
Longtime reader Terence Foo, 51, said the top stories of the day are easier to see at a glance with the new design.
"I also like the Market Today ticker, which provides a sense of real time market sentiment," said Foo, adding that he also likes that the podcasts are featured more prominently.
The new website is part of BT's ongoing digital transformation efforts as it celebrates its 45th anniversary this month with a slew of initiatives.
These include a one-week virtual "open house" from Oct 12 to 18 to allow all visitors to sample BT's award-winning business journalism, including pieces normally available only to its subscribers.
Singapore's top financial daily is also undergoing many less visible yet equally important changes, including hiring more multimedia and audience-centric digital talent as it optimises its content for today's users.
Let us know if you have any feedback on our new site at this link.
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