Today, Denver Athletics officially launched their newly redesigned denverpioneers.com athletic website. Sure, we have seen the new look over the past several weeks but the final version has been released. Of course, as we all know, software is never really complete.

An athletic department team, led by Angel Field – Assistant Athletic Director, worked with a group to design a new layout that was more fan friendly. 

While some of the changes are more subtle such as the colors and layout, the new website is intended to be more user-friendly, especially for mobile phones – users will no longer face color bleed that often made the right side of stories unreadable. Also, another design goal was to reduce key strokes and screens so users could better navigate the site. And the new format is expected to feature more video – something consumers are looking for, especially when it comes to feature stories and a behind-the-scenes glimpses into Denver Athletics.

As with most software design, the team worked with a vendor that specializes in athletic websites and customized features to meet the requirements of DU athletics. Many pages are ‘busy’ and there are plenty of opportunities to give money (as are all college websites these days) – but featured stories are easy to find as are team schedules.

It does take some getting used to ordering tickets on-line for the first time. The upper menu bar “Tickets” takes you to the DU Ticket Office page. To actually order on-line tickets, just go to the bottom pop-up banner “Tickets on Sale Now” which appears at the bottom right of the page – it was there in front of you all the time.  Also, if you use Pioneer Vision, navigate to the Fan Zone tab and scroll down to the Multimedia header at the bottom of the page to find Pioneer Vision. (We found the drop down menu bar to be balky at times on our mobile phones when we paged down to the Multimedia header and Pioneer Vision.)

It will take some time to get used to some of the changes but they are a significant improvement over the old site. And we like the improved digital quality, increased number of videos and links to Instagram and twitter – which also are key drivers of traffic to the site. And Pioneer Pipeline, a weekly athletics feature, allows fans to review the prior weeks games and outcomes.

(Now, if they only can devise a filter that blocks North Dakota fans from buying hockey tickets, that would be perfect.)