(CMR) Cayman Marl Road has introduced a few stylistic changes to our website in order to enhance the reader experience. CMR remains committed to constantly being responsive and adaptive to our viewers wherever possible.
Over a month ago a parent called to share that her 9-year-old son really enjoyed reading our site but thought there was too much focus on Jamaican news and he wondered why that was the case. CMR is Cayman's only news agency that has a regional correspondence that focuses on news across the Caribbean. However, the vast majority of our content still remains focused on Cayman-based new stories and community issues.
Upon further view of the site, it was observed that the regional news segment used photos whereas the section above it was one single story with the featured photo and then text.
This layout gave the impression of the regional content being more prominent on the site. After careful review management decided to flip the style of those two so that the stories posted in chronological order are now more prominent on the home page. The regional stories are now hyperlinked text only on the home page.
It was also observed recently by a local attorney that he too missed the local news stories as he shared “you need to go back to local gossipmongering”. Once the stylistic change was made on Thursday evening he shared that he was “back on board”. Content manager, Sandy Hill observed:
“It's the same volume of information, but it really was about how it was presented that gave a certain impression. Simply removing the article images on the home page gives it an entirely new feel of less prominence and makes it easier for people to see the content directly above it. We appreciate receiving this valuable feedback from our readers so we can tweak our design to be as user-friendly as possible allowing us ot continueally innovate and improve.”
Focusing on business innovation techniques will allow our platform to continue to grow in this community and beyond.
CMR continues to add new show content for 2021 including the launch of its youth program, a sports show, a cooking show and more community and heritage features such as Conversations With …
Another feature that is utilized by many is the text to speech option which reads news articles to you. Rolled out in October 2020 it has an immensely popular addition to the website and got a bit of an update this week. Readers will notice the place of it is at the very top of the article. Now, as users scroll down the page the ability to listen to the article is visible at all times as it now floats throughout the article. Simply clicking on this icon activates the read out loud feature:
Readers with any feedback can reach out to CMR via email or our contact page on the website. CMR will be celebrating it's fourth year in June 2021.
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