The first element of the website that viewers see is the cover, making it the most important part of the site as a whole, thus it was the first thing I changed when I redesigned the website the first time, in my junior year. That year, we had a very minimal staff; therefore, the Story Paralax which covered the last introductory matrix was not right for what our output would be. With only a couple of stories a week being published, and the vast majority of our manpower focused on the print editions, a new version (inspired by SNO Site Award Winners) which only highlighted one story in a carousel style would complement our output much better. In the space that was now left open to the left and right of the carousel, I placed other media that would be useful to the viewer, but wouldn't be outdated as a result of our lack of manpower. For example, The Battle of the Classes Scoreboard, latest Print Edition, and Trending Stories, which I'll touch on later.

The 'Announcements' tab, also known as the 'Breaking News' ticker, was an addition in that same first redesign, as a way to provide viewers with up-to-date information while also not having to rely on writing full stories to provide it. Not only is it useful to add a little extra flair to the cover of the site, but it also provides a good mechanism to get information out to our audience quickly. For example, we use it when new coaches get hired. We obviously write stories about those events on the day, but to get the information out even faster, we use the ticker. I would also love to have it on the mobile site, but SNO does not allow that.

In the second website redesign (My Senior Year), I polished some cover elements, but mainly focused on the depth of the website, as well as the mobile site. On the older versions of the site, the story categories were simply listed in a very boring, unseparated manner. Now, they are vertically separated and have a marquee story followed by multiple older, smaller stories. This helps promote the recent uploads in a cyclical manner by allowing them to naturally cycle out as they get older. Also, from a purely aesthetic lens, this new format is more appealing to the eye and has a clear focus, rather than everything being flat and similarly sized. 

Part of the new design applied to the depth of the website was a new level of variety in media and widget division. Now, with all of the stories condensed into the left 2/3 of the site, the right 1/3 opened up. Here, I placed new widgets, some of which were downloaded from plugins, and others were found in the depths of SNO's widget options. Including a social media feed provides viewers with a direct connection to our social media, and can help boost viewership, the calender/upcoming dates section allows us to give readers important date information; it is simple to backload, and also is just another Wando-related information piece for our audience to continue coming back for.

One important reason I include so many pieces of media is to provide as many outlets for each of our staffers to see their hard work on the site. We have the print issue on the front matrix, which allows all the writing and design within it to be easily viewed by web-only readers. Further, our social media widget puts more eyes on the work of our social media staffers, as well as giving writers the chance to have their story featured in a post. Our statistician editor puts in the sports scores, and to motivate that, his quick reporting of the scores is recognized on the front of the page. Yes, the variety of media is ultimately for the reader, but its usage also spotlights our entire staff.

During my junior year, a struggle that the website had was the frequency of gallery uploads. That year, we did not have the manpower to have a website editor, so all of those responsibilities fell to me. As a result, any galleries that needed to be posted had to go through me, and often disagreements would occur as to whether the photographer or I should caption the images. To streamline the process, I created profiles for them and taught them how to upload their own galleries.  Since then, we have had new galleries uploaded weekly, if not more often. Recently, our advisor allowed photographers to upload their galleries without captions, which further streamlined the process.

From an editor's perspective, the Trending Stories widget as part of the cover is a very underrated feature of the website. Every staff has its top-tier writers, and I think often other staffers can envy their success. The Trending Stories widget promotes sports, entertainment, and opinion stories. This has been a mechanism to appreciate writers whose work may often go underappreciated as compared to large hard-news, big feature stories, or major print stories. Also, it reminds the whole staff that hundreds of people visit the website every day and read their articles, which invigorates their motivation to keep writing and working on their stories.

Wando Athletics Marketing, affectionally known as W.A.M. is a two-year-old program created by our advisor, and its students have been creating outstanding graphics and promotional material for the athletics department. They use the same room, desks, and programs as Tribal Tribune staffers do, and are our friends, so to help create a win-win, we started including their work on our website last year. Not only does the website now have more high-quality media displaying important information, but it also promotes a deeper cooperative connection with W.A.M. staffers. W.A.M. staffers have recently been integrated into the Tribal Tribune as their own section, further progressing the relationship between the two programs.

Of course, I cannot serve as the website editor or editor-in-chief forever, and so it is my responsibility to teach, train, and enable the next generation of website editors. Currently, one of the W.A.M. workers has become our new de-facto Website Editor. I have taught her how to upload stories, integrate galleries, inline images, pull quotes, info-boxes, and change story design options, and what will soon follow is her learning about the intricacies of website design, color mixing, and widget customization. I will leave her ready to takeover this website without issue, however much that may stress me out in the short term.