Website
Introduction
My sophomore year, and first year on Ladue Publications, our print publications rarely interacted with laduepublications.com. We'd occasionally post our monthly stories to the website, but most stayed in print, never to be managed or designed online. But that meant that our work, which we spent countless hours on, was only seen by the few who were able to pick up a print copy. I entered my junior year hoping to change that. As website editor in chief, I took a previously shelved website and staged a full design overhaul. I took on a group of website-only staffers — the first time our publication had ever done so — and taught them the inner workings of SNO, publishing timely and relevant content. I also pushed the larger publication to expand beyond copy-and-photo, exploring multimedia content through Spotify, YouTube and Issuu. Due to these efforts, laduepublications.com won distinguished state and national honors — our first time ever placing.
Recognitions: Superior Overall Online Presence, MIJA (2024); Eighth Place Best of Show, NSPA (2024)
laduepublications.com Revamp
Homepage
Original — May 2023
To push our publication into the digital world, I started by completely redesigning the website. I primarily drew inspiration from collegiate papers — from the Yale Daily News, I learned about website design's rule of thirds, and from the Columbia Daily Spectator I understood how to sort different newspaper sections. Then, I applied the techniques to laduepublications.com. Click on the videos and dots below to explore some of these changes.
Alongside design edits, I standardized the website's fonts, colors and widget styles. The cohesion refined the publication, giving it an air of professionalism that was previously absent. After the initial redesign, I dug into individual pages, creating unique attributes for each section's page to align with their needs.
Section Pages
To personalize each page's design to its characteristics, I looked at individual items that made each section special. In Health & Sports, for example, I added a SNO Sports Results bar that gave updates on each game Ladue High School played (this was later improved by our current website editors in chief). Arts & Entertainment featured things like recipes and reviews, creating an ease in navigation for viewers.
Story Pages
A good website design does nothing without story pages that are simplistic and easy-to-read. When creating the story templates, I focused on a design that was both engaging and informative, highlighting images and graphics up front.
Alternative Templates
Infoboxes
When reporting on the school board meeting, I wanted to include information on the upcoming elections without retracting from the story. This infobox, which featured a black design to delineate from the story, created the dichotomy that I needed and gave website viewers the ability to quickly scan for information that they were looking for.
Long-form Format
Panorama, our newsmagazine, often features pro-cons on a variety of subjects. Transferring this visual difference to the website was challenging with no InDesign to aid me out. So, I used long-form formats — giving separate bylines, and even images, to each story to give the writers the space that they deserved.
Multimedia Content
To increase the cohesion of print and website content, I created/updated the following accounts during my junior year. These were each embedded onto individual stories or the website's homepage, making them easily accessible to viewers.
Spotify
YouTube
Issuu
Streamlining Website Content
As the first website editor in chief that managed website-only staff members, I knew that revamping the website had to go further than design. To allow an ease in posting to the website, and create a work environment seemed just as exciting as our print publications, I created the following guides that encouraged staff members to enjoy their time working on the website.
Instructional Documents
As website editor in chief, I'd spend countless hours formatting small things on story pages, like the byline or featured photo caption, to ensure consistency. To distribute the workload more evenly & teach staff members necessary elements for each web story, I created the following instructional documents. They inform on each story's basic elements, while also leaving room for innovation.
Content Calendar
During the 2023-24 school year, as website editor-in-chief, I implemented a one-week production cycle in which all stories went live on Fridays. While this structure worked well for a newly developing website department, I noticed it had unintended drawbacks. Staff members felt unmotivated, as they couldn't dedicate the necessary time to each story, and once-a-week publication limited marketing engagement. To address these challenges, I collaborated with the 2024-25 website editors-in-chief to introduce individualized deadlines tailored to each story and writer. This shift proved transformative — staff members felt more valued, leading to stronger reporting, and audience engagement increased as content was published most days of the week.
Resource Videos
SNO Sites were a largely foreign concept to my staff members as I took on the position of website editor in chief. To bridge the learning gap in a setting that didn't take up unnecessary class time, I created the following videos explaining basic website usage and posting procedures.
