Building my rebooted:bbc.co.uk homepage - #11: A-Z
As I'm writing for this competition I can't enter it myself - but I'm just running through some of the features I would include if I were submitting an entry.
On my reboot:bbc.co.uk page, I've replaced the whole of the directory section that is on the current BBC homepage, with one long line of letters and numbers, which will lead through to the BBC's comprehensive A-Z index.
Now, the BBC homepage used to have a section like this back in 2002, but it was removed when the page was last re-designed in 2004.
I have to say of all the design decision made on the page during my time at the BBC, there were two things I intensely disliked about the 2004 re-design.
The first was the logo. It seemed entirely designed to work well on television and to sit nicely alongside the BBC's current square logos for BBC One, BBC Two etc. In fact, on the TV advertising campaign, the BBC.co.uk logo background pulsed - and I'm sure that was what was originally intended for the web. Yet the graphic is almost exactly the wrong shape for use as a logo on the web, where it ended up spending most of the time - and it forces that large amount of mostly wasted banner space at the top of the current homepage design.
The second was the decision to drop the links through to the individual A-Z Index pages. I never saw the work behind it - but, essentially on a hunch, I just can't agree with it. Putting the A-Z links up front on the homepage must surely cut down the time people waste navigating through the site - I want EastEnders, I click 'E'. I want football I click 'F', or more specifically I can click 'L' for Leeds United. I want to find out about the solar system, I click 'S' for science, or space, or solar system, or The Sky At Night. Or 'P' for planets. Or 'M' for "Mars, Exploring".
A lot of work was put in by a team a talented information architects at the BBC to revamp the classification of content within the A-Z last year, and one of them, Helen Lippell, wrote an excellent article about the work, which is well worth reading - The ABCs of the BBC.
- 15 May 2006 13:36
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do you not think, that by just having an a-z limits the page? the current a-z lets users browse the site. They can instantly see links and content that they didnt know the bbc did have, or if they did know it was there, (im sure the most popular links are displayed) they can get to it quicker.
I feel displaying the links makes the site a lot more browsable while showing how much content is availible. dont you agree?
Maybe a solution could be to tie it in with the search? Maybe lose the "past searched entries" ( i know you love these... and just list the key heading?? or even include the a-z as well??
By the way, i like your blog, its informative and interesting, i'll hopefully submit my entry soon, while on the subject of submitting an entry, could you clarify a few points? do we get a recipt once weve entered? if not how would we know its recieved? and will the finalists and winners be displayed onced theyre decided so everyone can check them out?
I would agree that the A-Z is much more likely to be used if the individual letters are available directly from the homepage.
But perhaps you need an A to Z of the A to Z's as I have found over 40 different A to Z's on the BBC site ranging from "The A to Z of Herbal Remedies" to "The A to Z of John Peel Artists", and I have to mention one of my personal favourites "Shirley Ghostman's Psychic A to Z".
If I have managed to get all of these A to Z on my "Simply BBC" homepage surely you can persaude the powers that be to bring back the full A to Z of sites to the homepage.