Forum Communications Co. unveiled a site refresh Monday, May 6, with new features to improve readers’ experience to InForum, the company's flagship news website.

Based on feedback obtained through user studies conducted by a third-party firm, Forum developers, product managers and user experience professionals identified high-priority features to deliver a variety of new functionality, including: simplified navigation, a live video ticker, a latest and trending news content block and an overall improved user interface.

The first step in the process was obtaining feedback through user studies from the company’s readers.

“Our readers are at the heart of everything we do, so it’s important for us to make decisions based on what our users are telling us,” said Steph Schroeder, chief digital marketing officer at Forum Communications. “These studies helped us identify the most desired features from our users and then implement those into this refreshed version of the site.”

Considering readers’ responses and analytical data, new features were identified as priorities.

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“We have seen a lot of interest in videos from our readers,” said Emil Hatlelid, a user experience and interface designer at Forum Communications. “Some readers said they struggled to find WDAY content on InForum.com. We hope bringing these broadcasts up front and center will make it more accessible to find and watch your local news.”

After identifying top priorities, developers and product owners began working to update InForum.

The added features continue a revitalization of the site, a process that started last October when InForum launched to combine the newsrooms of The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, WDAY-TV and 970 WDAY. At that time, the new InForum provided a one-stop shop for all the news worth a view online.

“At the center of all of our products -- print and digital alike -- is content,” Schroeder said. “The new features and functionality we’ve added to InForum will allow our readers to more easily discover the content they want to read, when they want to read it.”

The features added aim to meet readers’ everyday needs, including finding content they love, discovering trending articles and accessing favored video content more easily. (New readers are encouraged to sign up for notifications and exclusive promotions for upcoming updates.)

Although these site features have been released, this collaborative effort among the newsroom, InForum technology staff and its readers is ongoing.

“We will never stop updating InForum, or any of our other news properties either,” Hatlelid said. “Not every update will be this big, but we won’t ever stop improving how we deliver news.”

Have feedback about any of the new features? Submit your feedback here.