As the readers of the paper may have noticed, The Allen Flame looks completely different this semester. The transformation was spearheaded by the Flame’s managing editor, Lindsey Temaat, and Bruce Symes, the paper’s advisor.

In addition to changing the look of the “flag,” or the title at the top of the website, the staff also made adjustments to the color, layout, and accessibility to the site. There are three menus, two at the top displaying different categories of articles — Feature, Sports, Student Activities, News, Opinion, Health and Archives — as well as buttons for the Home, Staff, and About pages. The menu at the bottom of the site now features links to students’ MyAllen Portal, Allen Community College’s website, and the local newspaper, The Iola Register.

Another new feature is the Flame’s Twitter feed on the site. This year, there is a social media editor, Marquese Garrett, and as a result the paper has increased its Twitter presence.

“In all honesty I really like the overall layout of the website,” said sophomore Flame staffer Brogan Falls. “It’s convenient to the user while also being entertaining to look at.”

According to Temaat, her favorite thing about the innovative new look is the flag and new colors. The staff met and voted on several options for the makeover, and the results can be seen throughout the site. She agreed that the new look will draw in more readers.

“The readers don’t want to read something that looks old or something that they’re used to,” she said. “For example when someone wears a new outfit to school, or somebody dresses really nice, people’s eyes are immediately drawn to them.”

A crucial component of the Flame’s new “wardrobe” was the oversight of Symes.

“I like the way the students have taken ownership of the Flame this year, including the new look,” said Symes. “While we have to keep in mind things like branding and consistency with the college, I think the creativity and expressiveness of the students has come out in the new product. I especially want to commend Lindsey for taking the lead on the new look.”

Temaat shared that she was thankful for the opportunity to be heavily involved in the process with the rest of the staff.

“I think we have a great team this year, and I love how on-board everyone is with trying new things. Readership is going up and up, and we are just getting started,” she said.

Since Sept. 17 when this staff began posting on the Flame, the site has had 14,989 page views. This is a staggering comparison to just 2,464 total page views from Sept. 17 2016-Feb. 13 2017. In addition, the staff has increased the average time spent on each page from just 25 seconds to 32 seconds per view, and reduced the bounce rate. The bounce rate of a website is the percentage of viewers that visit the home page and then exit without reading a story or clicking on a category. During this time last year the site’s bounce rate was 73.25%, a very high percentage of individuals not reading stories. This year that percentage is just 22.5%. Statistics gathered from Google Analytics.