bbc 2.0
I believe the BBC homepage has to be able to provide custom content, but it still has to cater for those visitors who only occasionally visit the site. I have tried to squeeze in as much as possible into the 775 pixels wide structure.
First of all I have kept a form of main navigation bar as this is important for consistency across the site. It has kept the main links and I have added a Browse button. When you click this a drop down menu appears with links to the categories and an A-Z. This feature is probably going to be used less as people use search more and more, but it takes the information off the homepage and allows more of the site to be accessed from the main bar.
To the right of the main bar is a short line ‘hello: please login.’ Clicking login will produce a login box, and this will become more apparent shortly.
The large promotional picture is important because it again highlights something the BBC has done. But this area also double up as the search bar, which I’ve named explore.
On the right at the very top is the BBC Media Player button. I think the media player should open in a separate window rather than on the current page for two reasons:
1. To speed up page loading for those not requiring media player;
2. To allow the stand alone media player to be much bigger than it would be on the homepage.
One important feature missing on the current homepage at the moment is a now and next feature. Hover over a TV or radio channel to see what’s on. Each box can be clicked to go to its individual page.
The ‘What’s New’ box is a reserved box for the BBC (as anything else can be customised) to put any information it requires inside. It currently highlights the Radio 1 Big Weekend. It’s important that the BBC can control parts of its own site so that the casual user is not lost in customisation.
Next is the default setup for BBC services, news, sport, local, weather.
I also think it’s necessary that the BBC logo is attached to each service that is provided. On the current homepage if you scroll below the logo there’s no indication that the news, sport and weather are services provided by the BBC. It’s important that the individual coloured branding is included for each of these services. It also brightens the page up a little.
The weather is defaulted to the whole of the UK. The user can hover over ‘today,’ ‘tomorrow,’ or ‘weekend’ and the map will change.
The orange feeds section is unused when not signed in, but contains information to encourage people to create a BBC account.
LOGGED IN
Now click one of the login buttons. The page changes to the customised version.
My ideal use for the BBC site is that somebody would set it to be their homepage and several computers, i.e. at home and at work. The same information would be available in both places.
The example person using this page is not much of a sports fan so he has moved the sports box to the bottom and reduced it to one world cup headline and one Olympics headline.
He is also more interested in technology so in the news section there is only one main headline and the rest is technology headlines.
The weather has changed to indicate the weather exactly where the person is located today, tomorrow and at the weekend.
The biggest change is the local box, which has now included the latest traffic reports for several roads chosen by the user. This way the user can check the traffic on the route to work in the morning, and before leaving work in the afternoon. A favourite train route is also checked. One added link is a quick access to the user’s most local cinema listings.
In the settings for the personalised homepage the user would set their favourite TV and radio station and types of programme they prefer. This is why the now and next is now defaulted to BBC Three and Radio 1. The promotion has also changed to Dr Who.
The previously unutilised BBC Feeds area is now full of links. The user can see what media they are subscribed to. This would more likely entice the use of the media player. Also discussion board topics that are being watched are included. To further add interest in making this the user’s main homepage, RSS feeds from outside sources can be integrated, allowing the user to keep track of favourite sites as soon as they open their browser.
At the top of the main BBC bar the ‘login’ line has changed to include links and drop down menus.
The favourites menu allows the user to store their favourite BBC pages and other websites. This is useful because it means their favourites go with them wherever they go, rather than being confined to their home browser. The ‘recent’ menu is as suggested, the recently visited BBC pages, and recent Searches. These can be cleared at any time. And then the final link is the settings for customising the homepage.
My aim in creating this homepage was to build something that people would use as their own homepage, and lets them get the information they want, instantly. However, it was still important to keep the BBC aspect and continue to show what they are all about and what services they provide.
This site is fully coded and tested on Opera, Firefox and Internet Explorer. It’s fairly standards compliant so should have no issues on Safari. If I had more time I would tidy the code a little and the drop down menus could be much more advanced.
- 18 May 2006 08:34
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Very impressive. I really like the design, gives my browser a bit of trouble rendering all the alpha stuff though. Looks good and the use of changing text on roll-overs is very good.