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Home > The Site Doctor reviews the new BBC homepage

The Site Doctor reviews the new BBC homepage

March 10th, 2008
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Each month, we are given the honour of reviewing a website selected by the team at Creative Match. And this month we were asked to review the new BBC homepage. So we jumped at the opportunity to cast an expert eye over all of their hard work, at the Beeb!

According to Richard Titus, the man behind the ‘new-look’ BBC homepage, he was tasked to give the page a “lick of paint”, and in doing so drew inspiration from a variety of sources, namely: Facebook, iGoogle and netvibes.
The objective was to produce a layout that could be personalised,was cleaner, more open and more easily readable, whilst also getting away from the tired blue base colour of the original page.

First Impressions
The design of the homepage is much ‘clunkier’ than its previous incumbent, which provides a less elegant experience than one would expect from the BBC. Initial feedback on the BBC blog has even gone so far as to likening it to a ‘fisher price’ experience. However, the new look design is definitely cleaner and easier for users to read.

Navigation
The new site allows users to personalize the layout, choosing the order of content, which should make navigation a lot easier. However, placing the core navigation below the page fold contradicts this ethos as it forces the user to have to scroll down the page to access content that cannot be featured centrally. 7/10

Content
It’s great to see the BBC adopting the same approach to page content as seen on iGoogle, Facebook etc by allowing users to personalize the content that is important to them. However there are still some areas that ‘jar’ the experience. For example, it is not obvious that you can drag the ‘widgets’ around the page to personalize the hierarchy of information. In addition the main leader board is so large that any content the user does want to feature is pushed to the sides and bottom of the page, forcing the user to scroll down to access it. 7/10

Design
The first thing, you notice on the homepage is that by selecting a tab on the main leader board, it changes the colour scheme for the entire page which implies the two are related when in fact they are not. Changing the colour on an unrelated tab is an example of usability being set aside in favour of aesthetics. In addition, it’s difficult for the user to focus on one specific area, with all of the headlines battling for importance.
Finally, whilst the BBC has gone to great lengths to redesign the homepage, the new design now jars with the rest of the BBC site, demonstrating a lack of design consistency which creates a clumsy user experience. 6/10

Bottom Line
The BBC has achieved what it set out to do; create a layout that was cleaner, generally easier to read and more personal for its users. By choosing your location you can even receive news and weather reports specific to your local area, but, whilst it is encouraging to see the BBC taking these innovative steps, it’s a shame that there are still areas where they have let the design overtake simple usability standards. 7/10

Chris Averill Uncategorized

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