NZZ.ch becomes faster and more user-friendly

The new website now fulfills the technical requirements for a series of further improvements, according to a press release issued on Wednesday. Beta.NZZ.ch went online in November (Werbewoche.ch reported). Since then, the NZZ.ch project team has received thousands of valuable feedbacks from the readership, derived improvements from them and implemented them continuously. As of today, Beta.NZZ.ch will now completely replace NZZ.ch. The design of the new website was developed by NZZ's internal product designers in close collaboration with the editorial, technology and marketing departments. The reduced design and the list arrangement of the articles facilitate orientation. Thanks to responsive design, the content is optimally displayed on all end devices - regardless of whether NZZ.ch readers want to quickly find information on their smartphone while waiting at the streetcar stop, scroll through a picture gallery on their tablet at home or get an overview of the day's top topics on their desktop in the office.

The project team developed all elements starting from the smallest screen. Only when the solution worked on the smartphone was it transferred to the larger formats. For example, all elements on NZZ.ch are now "touch-friendly", meaning they can be activated not only with a click of the mouse, but also with a tap of the finger on a smartphone or tablet. On NZZ.ch, readers can share articles more easily via social media, and comment functions, blogs and video contributions are now also available for mobile users. In addition, the NZZ.ch website now loads three times faster.

Starting point for further developments

In addition to the visible improvements, significant technological optimizations have been carried out in the background of NZZ.ch, such as the introduction of a new paywall platform. It is now also easier to log in and register. The changeover to the new version is the starting point for a series of further developments in the coming weeks and months. Steven Neubauer, Managing Director of NZZ: "With the new NZZ.ch, we have laid the technological foundations for the agile implementation of new products and functionalities and the further development of the journalistic offering for NZZ customers. Today's changeover is just the beginning. We will continue to work hard on improving usability and content offerings for our readers."

One example of this is the new "Briefing", which focuses on NZZ.ch is currently in the test phase. The briefing is an up-to-date summary of the news situation and offers the most important information of the day at a glance at any given time. Anita Zielina, Editor-in-Chief of New Products: "The briefing is a self-contained container that summarizes the most important information for the reader in just a few minutes - as briefly as possible and as detailed as necessary. Initial feedback has been very promising."