Hopefully you noticed something new when you loaded iowastatedaily.net this morning. Last night we loaded the biggest set of changes yet. Like the last update, these changes focused on aesthetics.

The most noticeable change is the addition of a charcoal gray background to the site. After reviewing other sites and hearing feedback on our own, we decided it was too white. We think this gray will help content and photos stand out and provide a better viewing experience.

The homepage also got another refresh. The block that used to display the most recent stories that had been posted to the website is gone. We replaced it with four individual blocks that show the three most recent stories from news, sports, opinion and beyond Ames. We hope this change cleans up the homepage, makes it easier for you to find information that matters to you, and it allows us to display four additional stories without taking up much more space.

We also added a little bit of color to help divide things up. All of the section tags on the homepage, and other pages throughout the site are now red to help them stand out.

We’ve got a few more minor changes still in the works, but today’s change is the last major step in our refresh.

We are still looking for feedback. Let us know what you love, hate, think we need to add or think we should get rid of. This website is about serving you, our community, and if it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t work for us. Leave feedback on this post or send me an email at [email protected].