A Change is Gonna Come

Hey TFC fans, you're used to embracing change by now right? New directions! New Coaches! More new players than you can count! Every year? Wow, thanks Mom and Dad! Anyway, SB Nation and thus by extension Waking the Red are getting in on the act and this post is to give you a sneak peek of the changes about to roll out very very soon. You have already seen the new logo but that is just one part of a redesign that is being called SB Nation United.

The goal of SB Nation United is to make the site even better for you, the reader. That will mean a faster loading site, the ability to display the best and most relevant content at the top of the page, a reduction in clutter around the site, and seamless flow from one device to another (same experience on your phone, tablet, and laptop!). It will also include all of the features that have made SB Nation different from other sites including the comment sections, FanShots, FanPosts, and Game Threads.

The biggest changes that you are going to see as a reader is the front page which will now have a completely new layout that will allow the folks behind the scene to highlight stories in a variety of different covers. These covers will be at the top of the page and show anything from one to five of the top stories. You will still be able to see the rest of the stories though as they will flow below the cover in the normal fashion.

The shift to United will also give us a new toy to work with in Story Streams. If you have ever been on the main site of SB Nation you will have seen these before. They will allow us to add updates to stories as they develop instead of just editing them into the original post. That means that for the reader the newest info on a story is readily available and you can follow along with the story as it progresses easier than ever.

It is an exciting change and a big change. It gives us a lot of new toys to play with but the real aim is to provide each person who visits the blog with the best possible experience which is what we have always aimed to do. To give you a taste of the new look at some of the new features there are a few screen shots after the jump. Hopefully you like, as unlike TFC, we won''t renege and change direction again next year.

The Five Up cover which allows us to highlight the most stories at one time:

The Tryptic cover gives a different look to the top of the while showing three key stories:

Story Steam will allow us to provide updates as they come in an easy to find format:

The mobile version of the site:

The Fan Shot page: