A new version of the Church’s LDS.org website will significantly improve its ability to provide mountains of information and resources to its 14 million members worldwide. The new site is presently at new.lds.org and in the coming months will replace the current LDS.org. New.lds.org is a more interactive, visually appealing and navigable website and the first major overhaul of LDS.org since 2007.
“In designing this site, we asked, ‘What do Church members need, and how can the Church help them?’” said Elder Craig C. Christensen of the Seventy.
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For more than 10 years LDS.org has provided online information to a worldwide Church membership. Over the last year, pages on the current LDS.org website were viewed over 500 million times by over 26 million unique visitors.That massive audience represents Mormons and others from around the world who are seeking information about the Church, its teachings and its programs.
Next week a new version of the Church’s Newsroom.lds.org website, for the news media, opinion leaders and the public, will also launch. It is a major upgrade that will feature a new design and features making it easier for journalists and others to find public information about the Church.
New.lds.org emphasizes the teachings of Jesus Christ and the words of current LDS Church leaders. It allows Latter-day Saints and others to more easily study Church doctrines online, provides Church members with more ways to share portions of the site with others via popular social networking sites and e-mail and has greatly improved search capability to help users search the hundreds of thousands of pages available on the site.
“The transition goes from a repository of information to much more experiential content, rich video and media,” said Elder Christensen. “So it’s a complete movement of where we’ve been. We’re trying to meet the needs of each unique individual and family in the Church.”
The English site will soon be translated into 10 more languages, which, together with English, are spoken by approximately 90 percent of the Church membership: Cantonese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Content on the site falls into five main sections, which can be found by clicking “Menu” at the top of any page:
(1) Our Heavenly Father’s Plan: This section contains a summary of core Church doctrines about the purposes of life.
(2) Family: Here users will find information to help individuals and families strengthen marriages and successfully raise and teach children.
(3) Church: This section provides information about the Church, including a “Church News and Events” page (for news of interest to Latter-day Saints) and an overview of the Church organization, LDS temples and Church history.
(4) Service: Church members will find information to help them carry out Church assignments, teach Church classes and participate in service projects.
(5) Study: This section contains a thorough library that includes Church scripture, general conference addresses, manuals, music, Church magazines and a topical index. This section will soon provide access to Church art, videos and audio.
Church members can use their LDS Account to access information about their respective wards and stakes (congregations), as well as create an online Church study journal and Mormon.org member profile.
On the official LDS Church Facebook page, the Church recently asked for user feedback about new.lds.org. Click here to read all the Facebook comments on the new LDS.org.
Other resources:
Full Mormon Channel interview with Elder Craig C. Christensen:
http://radio.lds.org/eng/programs/conversations-episode-18