(1) The homepage includes the option to change from the Top News (or editor controlled) view to looks at the homepage that are based on the Most Viewed stories or the Most Blogged stories.

(2) Each story includes tags that users can click on to see other stories on the topic.  Users would also be able to search the entire site by tag.

(3) Ever story allows reader comments and also lists blogs that link to the article.  In addition, users would be able to click on an icon to place the story on their own blog.

(4) A prominent Submit New Tip link would encourage readers to their own content to the newspaper.

(5) There would be prominent links on the site to RSS feeds and mobile versions of content

(6) We used the current USA Today navigation but allow for users to view blogs, videos and tags for each section.  Frankly, the overall navigation of the site should probably change.  But coming up with a better site architecture required a time investment we couldn’t make at this point.  Reinventing the overall site architecture is not a small task.

(7) We gave prominence to the blogs produced by USA Today.  We believe too many newspaper blogs are presented (and written) as an after thought.

(8) Unlike Digg or Netscape, the social features on the site are presented as options.  This allows for people not interested in that stuff to have a normal viewing experience while also providing advanced options for people who want to engage in the site’s community.  We feel we’ve achieve a good balance.