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Over at the BBC Internet blog, Richard Titus has just revealed the new (beta) BBC homepage, which he describes as a lick of paint. Interestingly, in contrast to Mike Smartt's recent tale of the inception of BBC News Online, this project only took less than three months to develop internally. It is very Web 2.0 in terms of the interface - gradient fills,smooth hide/reveal elements, big top bar and generally quite Ajaxy. Allin all, quite nice looking and relatively customisable. But there are two things that I feel are potential snags. First, the fact that the colour scheme seems to be dictated by theBBCs own ad/teaser block feels rather strange. By clicking on colouredtabs representing featured trailers, the enitre colour of the page changes to a different, but equally strong (garish?) colour. Forexample, if you click on Christmas food, everything on the page adoptsthe colur of plum pudding. I don't really understand why. Also, thistechnique makes the BBCs own teaser (which is basically an internaladvert) far too dominant. Second, whilst you can choose which news categories to display andhow many elements of each to show you can't change the ordering. Thismeans that people like me who want world news with a little bit oflocal UK, technology and politics will always have to scroll to seeworld news, because it is always at the bottom of the list, althoughstrangely it is at the top of the list when selecting preferences.
Oh yes, and the design sees the return of the old BBC clockas a retro-cool Web 2.0 design element, which I have to admit I do notentirely dislike, even though I am known for an obsession about wastingvertical space in headers just to accommodate non-functional elements.
BBC, Richard Titus wrote:
So when the BBC's InternetController Tony Ageh suggested - or, should say, vehemently recommended- that we give the BBC homepage a "lickof paint", it seemed the idealway to get my head around the BBC andits immense universe of contentand services.
We drew inspiration for the new page from a variety of sources.
BBC,Richard Titus wrote:
It was a no-brainer to move to a layout that would becleaner, more open and more easily readable. There was also a desire toget away from the tired and monotonous blue base colour of the originalpage.
BBC, Richard Titus wrote:
The widgetization adopted by Facebook, iGoogle and netvibesis clearly weighted strongly on their initial thinking. They wanted tobuild the foundation and DNA of the new site in line with the ongoingtrend and evolution of the Internet towards dynamically generated andsyndicable content through technologies like RSS, atom and xml. Thistrend essentially abstracts the content from its presentation anddistribution, atomizing content into a feed-based universe.Browsers,devices, etc therefore become lenses through which thiscontent can be collected, tailored and consumed by the audience.
This concept forms one of the most important underlyingdesign and strategic elements of the new homepage. The approach has theadded benefit of making content more accessible, usable, and moreefficient to modify for consumption across a wider array of networksand devices.
BBC, Richard Titus wrote:
As time went on, our aspirations grew and we realized that many of ourgoals fora "new page composition layer" required technology and infrastructurewhich would be new to the BBC (examples including PHP and AJAX).Followingdetailed dialogue with developers Nick Holmes and Fraser Pearce, werealized it would be possible to deliver many adaptations using ourexisting services and then add features and functionality as new BBCinfrastructure is rolled out. Keep an eye out for incremental improvements as the homepage continues to evolve.
The key features of the homepage are:
Simple,clean and beautiful, the final design, we hope, is visually strikingyet unpretentious. The masthead showcases the BBC's new online branding.
Personalization:youcan choose the content that interests you by adding and removing thecontent boxes via the "Customise Your Homepage" tab. This allows theuser to edit the type of information they'd like to appear. Soccer fans(pardon me - football fans), for example, can now add up to eightfootball stories to the sports box. The user can also create their ownpage layout by rearranging the boxes in the layout of their choice.
Localization:Userscan now set their own location, enabling them to access local sites,weather, news, radio and TV schedules without the hassle oftenassociated with user journeys to local content. (Talking about theweather: as a newly emigrated Yank, I failed to grasp the gravity ofthe national controversy around the weather icons. I feel they are amassive improvement on those of the previous homepage, and in keepingwith BBC tradition, we'll continue to refine them based on userfeedback.)
Simplicity: the customization is intuitive andincludes an interactive demo and tips to guide users through theprocess. It is also unobtrusive – if the user has no desire tocustomizetheir page their experience won't be compromised. TV and radioschedules show what's on air now and on tonight and allow users tolisten live directly from the homepage. There are also links to themost popular On Demand shows for each radio network.
Search:Thesite is much easier to read and scan at a glance. At the top of thepage there's a search function (now reduced from two search boxes toone), and at the bottom a full directory of all BBC sites and a link tothe A-Z, allowing users to quickly find what they're looking for. Youcan refine your search by shrinking the field to just news and sport,oraudio/video. Users who simply want to be entertained can choose one ofthe four main tabs to focus on a particular promotion of interest.
Nostalgia: the new homepage also manages to incorporate eccentricity alongside innovation, and integrates a BBC 1 analogue clockinthe top right corner. This feature was initially punted as a bit offun,but feedback revealed that users find this icon, a homage to the"goldendays" of analogue programming, bizarrely reassuring.
Thisversionis called a "lick of paint" because it hasn't massively changed thecontent of the homepage. But it reflects, I hope, how the BBC ischanging: it helps to empower the user to find, play and share more ofwhat they want, when they want. By adopting a collaborative andflexible approach it has taken less than three months for the newhomepage to come to fruition. The response to our internal beta testinghas been overwhelmingly positive. The redesign is part of an ongoingconversation with our audience.Forthcoming services and the new pagecomposition layer will deliverfurther visual refinement andpersonalization. For now, all this customization is saved in a cookie, but from January we hope - with the launch of Identity-to incorporate this data into your unique personal user profile. TheNew Year will bring more treats including video on the homepage and aniPlayer widget. In short: watch this space.
Christmas Theme...
Check out the site the new homepage,spendsome time on it, personalize your experience, and take a moment toleave a comment here or to click the feedback box in the upper right ofthe homepage. This page is the beginning of a conversation betweenthe BBC and you about the page; I hope that you'll join us, as allconversations are better with an honest open dialogue.
Richard Titus is Acting Head of User Experience & Design. The BBC Homepage Team – a special thanks:
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