New WRAL.com website designWRAL is releasing a brand-new website design this Thursday, Sept. 15, with the goal of making it easier for you to find the local news, weather and information you are looking for even faster. You will get a better overall user experience to find all of your favorite content. In addition, our team of experts continues to grow, providing expanded coverage of topics you’ve told us are important, like North Carolina politics, education, family and more.
WRAL.com’s new clean look and easy navigation
The best part about the new look is how streamlined it will be. It will be easy to find anything you’re looking for. Streaming news video will be right at the top of the homepage, including the brand new 24/7 streaming news channel, WRAL News+.
If you click on the menu in the top left corner, you’ll be able to find all the different categories of news and information, from Local and National News to Health, Life, 5 On Your Side and Sports.
Faster loading times
Fast loading speeds are a benchmark of any great website, and the new WRAL.com loads faster than ever, getting you more quickly to the articles, videos, or weather forecasts you need to plan your day.
Re-designed weather front and center
Weather has always been a key reason for visits to WRAL.com, and the new design puts even more emphasis on it. The homepage now has a new 3-day forecast plus detailed information about the current day from our team of meteorologists in the WRAL Severe Weather Center. There also is quick access to the interactive iControl Radar, which is great for checking if storms are headed toward your location.
To get to the more weather, just click Weather in the nav bar on desktop and tablet computer, or click on the “hamburger” menu icon or on mobile. The current temperature and condition icon also will take you to the main Weather page.
There you will find the current conditions. You can type any city name into the search field to get live conditions plus a 7-day, hourly and weekend forecast, all in convenient tabs. Next to the current conditions, tap the map for quick access to the iControl Radar and our new Map Center page.
We continue to offer a live video stream from our DualDoppler5000 radar. Below that, you will find the Weather Feed, which contains timely and insightful posts from our meteorologists, plus custom maps and graphics relevant to the current day’s weather.
Be sure to check out the revamped Map Center page, which graphically displays an array of updated forecast maps and graphics, including the DualDoppler5000 radar images, available in 1-hour and 8-hour loops.
A new improved search algorithm
The improved site search will employ a smarter algorithm to help you pinpoint the content you want. It delivers results faster than ever and will give you the power to find whatever you want with a single tap or click.
BIGGER multimedia
All of the photos and videos on the newly refreshed website will be larger than they’ve ever been. This will make it easier for you to find the stories you’re looking for when you visit the site, so you never miss a detail on the local news that matters to you the most.
More sections in the main site menu
We have separated Health & Life into their own sections. Life is where you will find Family content, including our GoAskMom contributors. Health includes popular topics such as Aging Well, Coronavirus news, and Diet & Fitness news. And if you are looking for SmartShopper and 5 On Your Side stories, they remain under the Consumer tab, along with Recalls and Restaurant Ratings. Lottery drawings can still be found in the Out & About section or by simply searching “Lottery.”
Switch back to the old site
If you don’t immediately want to change your WRAL experience, or if you just miss the old website, don’t worry! WRAL.com will be available in a “legacy” version for a limited time to give you more time to adjust to the new design and find exactly what you are looking for. Remember that the menu and search will be your friends.
Thanks to WRAL.com for this Capcom story & graphic.
