The Wardman Wire

I haven’t seen anyone else in the Political Blogging space mention it, so I thought I would draw your attention to the new trial webpage design for the BBC website launched before Christmas.

You can view the design here. Here is a screenshot:

The philosophy is to make the homepage much more “configurable” - so you can select the type of content you see from that offered by the BBC.

Background

The BBC’s “Acting Head of User Experience at BBC” Richard Titus, is the man responsible, and he explains the background on the BBC Internet Blog:

I joined the Beeb after moving to the UK with my wife just over a year ago. I needed a fresh challenge and was excited to be part of a truly world-renowned media company with a public service remit which makes it 100% user-focussed. For me, the BBC is one of the last great important places.

So when the BBC’s Internet Controller Tony Ageh suggested - or, should I say, vehemently recommended - that we give the BBC homepage a “lick of paint”, it seemed the ideal way to get my head around the BBC and its immense universe of content and services.

We drew inspiration for the new page from a variety of sources.

It was a no-brainer to move to a layout that would be cleaner, more open and more easily readable. There was also a desire to get away from the tired and monotonous blue base colour of the original page.

Read it all.

Here is also a presentation about the BBC approach to web design:

Wrapping-Up

I haven’t made any judgements yet - except that I like the analogue clock, and wonder whether 1024 pixels is perhaps too wide.

Looking around, other people have commented, including some delightfully curmugdeonly comments by Mark Boulton - obviously something brushed his fur the wrong way (perhaps the phrase “web 2.0″).

Web 2.0 design nonsense

This is a shame. The BBC, in design terms, used to be a leader in the field. In one fell-swoop, they’ve turned follower. The trends, from a few years ago, are all over this thing. From the ‘Beta’ label and the rounded corners, to the gradients. Why? I honestly can’t think of a sensible response as to why they’ve gone down this route. Hasn’t Facebook proved you don’t need to have reflections or curved corners to be ‘Web 2.0’?

All the different views are worth a look.