BBC Homepage

Team

• Project sponsor – BBC Marketing, Tony Ageh
• Product owner – Tony Ageh
• Project team Members
  • Programme manager – Tim West
  • Design lead – Byju  Sukumaran
  • Editorial Lead – Christopher Binks
  • Technical Lead – Nick Holmes (Murray Walker, Lee Harker)
  • Development Producer – Jo Bellingham
• Project Manager – Christina Nsamba
• New Media Research – Nicola Palfrey

Background

I have been involved in the development of the BBC Homepage for a number of years and iterations.

In 2003, Fitch, a design consultancy employed by BBC New Media, recommended that the BBCi brand be broken into two. The new brand for the website should be bbc.co.uk while the brand for interactive TV should remain BBCi. At around the same time as Fitch delivered this report, BBC New Media was given its first top 12 marketing slot for May 2004.

The two key elements behind the campaign are the public service nature of bbc.co.uk and its distinctiveness from anything else available. bbc.co.uk must make people feel in touch with their world and their community. The home page promotional space must reflect what people want from the site as well as the main marketing message.

Because the BBC Homepage has such high traffic, it means it’s a political minefield within the corporation. There are many powerful stakeholders, all of whom will protect their own interests and their bbc.co.uk homepage presence.

Objective

• Supporting the new logo and campaign
  • Depth and breadth of content
  • Significant visual change to signify new direction
• Improving usability
  • Legibility
  • Number and relevancy of links (clutter)
  • Accessibility
  • Friendliness and tone

Methodology

I managed a team of 3 user experience designers and an Information Architect to meet this task. We first gathered all the research and findings about the homepage (Fitch had yet to start on the branding of bbc.co.uk).

We unpacked the brand message and mapped it against usability issues to prioritise areas of change. We also studied current behaviour patterns of the existing homepage users - highlighting daytime work week, off peak and weekend trends.

(click on image for larger view)


We then set about finding visual methods to reflect the brand statement. Both of these were tested on core and potential new users in focus groups and usability labs.

Results

Simplified page structure,




Increased accessibility (increased contrast, font size, link spacing, legibility and simplicity of information flow), decreased links whilst still reflecting the the depth and breadth of the bbc.co.uk service. 



More colour options for the promotional space to enable better sub-branding and impact. (http://www.bbc.co.uk)

The homepage still has room for improvement and growth, in its rendering and role within bbc.co.uk.

Other changes - A-Z index - created single column for improved scanning and increased font size and contrast.




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