BBC Evolution
My Design:
I wanted a page that while in keeping with current BBC homepage design, added the key elements of the brief while making it as customisable as possible and was a natural evolution of the page in design, content and technology.
All the content on this design can also be seen below the image on my entry.
I did this by realising and asking why users came to the BBC site, by asking a range of BBC.co.uk users. I found what content was important to them and why they came back. I asked what they wanted to see and how vital each section was to them. I then studied the results and came up with a range of concepts and designs, and settled on the one you can see here.
Implementation:
Firstly; I haven't re designed the logo. It wasn't asked, all other examples from the gallery showed that either they had ignored brand guidelines of the BBC logo and re designing of the logo could distract from the page layout and structure.
The next element I looked at was the search bar, I think a simple uncluttered approach is needed. Look at AltaVista and Google to show you how it should be done, as few components as possible in a clear and concise manner.
Important user links were considered next. Such as help, log out, version and My Details. It is important to have these links in a 'non-fussy' and highly visible area, so if at any time a user could refer to them. I see them working as mouse over's, so when a user puts their mouse pointer over versions for example, another menu would appear on the right of these links displaying the different versions available, including language and device.
The final section of the header was the divider, this is to divide the content and give prominence to the date and the page configuration options. I see these links working in a similar fashion as live.com and other related pages. A user would click Add Stuff and this section would extended downwards displaying all RSS feeds, widgets and a space to add urls to feeds not in the categories. The configure option would give users the abilitiy to remove content from the main page, change colour schemes, order and number of tabs in all sections. From this link, every aspect of the page can be customised, from language to location.
Most boxes have icons in the top right corner, which lets a user do a number of things, the first icon is refresh, which will refresh just that box for new content. The question mark is help, which when moused over or clicked will open a small window in the same fashion as Live.com, this help will have a number of topics that can help any type of user. The spanner icon lets users configure all options available for that box, from colour to content, what tabs are displayed, language and where feeds are taken from, for example, what inbox and podcatching software to use. Finally all boxes except the personal box has a close option, I chose to take it off the personal one as users should not be able to remove this box. All boxes except the personal and main BBC article can be moved by clicking on the header and dragged, like Live.com.
The main BBC article (its hard to know what to call it, mine is displaying Beckham winning the world cup) is very similar to the BBC page and there is no configuration, refresh, help or close option. This section would work the same way Amazon.co.uk works, it would notice what interests you and what you have looked at previously, then suggest appropriate content. So if you looked at cooking pages often, users would be notified of new recipes here, or in my case, football. But the BBC could also force content here if they wished, for example if a new episode of their next big series was available or on that night, it would appear here. Users could also cycle through several suggested articles here.
The news and sports sections work as detachable boxes, so if some users don't care about sport they can make the news one bigger or vice versa. I think this is a good evolution of the BBC home page. Headlines would appear with descriptive text, the [reveal] text would work in a same way as Live.com's [more] feature, it would display the text and supporting images in a similar kind of pop-up box as the configure options mentioned before. Check Live.com how it would work. The tabs at the bottom would be mixed and customised as the user would want. Once clicked the content in the respective boxes would be displayed. It works in the same way as the CapitalRadio.com/player audio player works with now playing tab. Its unclear at this stage the future of the BBC and how the current news and sport AV player will continue when iMP is launched, I think both will work in conjunction of each other at the start and a user is given the option of either launching the current iPlayer or d!
ownloading the latest headlines to the own iMP service. Finally, users can either blog, share or get the RSS feed. By pressing the blog on that page will launch the blog for that section, for example if on the football tab; it will launch the football blog page. Clicking the share icon would let a user send an article to someone else. The Rss feed icon would work as previous incarnations. I contemplated introducing a ticker like scrolling news, which can be seen at the Top Stories at newsnow.org, when you get to pages with many articles, a user can scroll down to see older articles, but I thought this doesn't add to many benefits and if a user would like to see more articles, they can click the headline link to take them to the news headline section.
The iMP box could be called BBC media but this section could also include a users own media such as non BBC podcasts etc if it possible, but that is a minor point. Again this section could be totally customised for what content the user wants, from what appears, to where it does, what tabs are available and what material they have looked at before. It is all fairly self explanatory, with links that will launch the external iMP player, I didn't think it would be wise to play media through this homepage, this would allow users to navigate away from this page if they wanted, it might also worry users about clicking other links on this page if they thought it would disrupt the media stream.
The Browse A-Z is also pretty self explanatory, although users can customise what sections appear by clicking the configure option. The list can be kept fresh by tracking what pages have been visited and those links appearing more than others, and suggested similar content. But i still think its important to have pages that have never been viewed on display, so users can find new content and be reminded how vast the BBC site is.
One of the most important sections in the page is The RSS feeds and Widgets: this area would be totally customisable. Any feed, widget, game, player, stream or content could be added here. It is very similar to Live.com. I have chosen these as examples, but a user can put whatever they want, wherever they want, they can also customise each feed by clicking the configure icon. Mike has listed in his blog many examples and what he sees important to him. I don't agree with all his ideas. but thats the point of this section, users can put in all types of content and customise it to work for them. From past conversations, to your hotmail inbox. The content isn't just limited to the right hand side, they could place it anywhere.
The first area in the content section is devoted to the user, they can upload an image or icon of themselves, see what unseen inbox items and other new content is available to them. Users could configure this section to either open the link in a new window or they can appear in a drop down section, like the mail, messenger and weather section on the new yahoo page
All the RSS sections would have this customisation available, they could either open in a new window or display the content in the same content box.
The footer is slightly tougher, im sure the BBC would have specific links and content that need to be entered, also I was 100% sure what size to make it, whether it should span the whole page or fit neatly below A-Z, either way, a footer would appear on the site.
How I interpreted the brief:
We want to allow Internet users to go into their own BBC space containing all the content they're interested in, all the TV shows they like and all the things they've played with on the Web. We need to come up with a personalised BBC homepage that will provide users with a starting place for their journey through BBC content and beyond
Personalise
Add stuff
Archive
modify
Configure feeds
Media heavy
Media player
Podcasts
Your information first
Configure, add delete, comment, read all, more [al la live] Messages Inbox Favourite shows Local to me Share information Comment blog All content at your fingers Consider how these systems work and what elements can improve the BBC site?
Myspace
Last.fm
Live.com
Wikipedia
- 24 May 2006 17:19
gallery
comments post a comment
i think this design is deffently the best, looks smart and easy to use, i would vote for this one.
I really like this design, I feel that it is one of the best submitted, and the one I most feel obliged to comment on.
Many submissions suffer from lack of consistency, style, potential for future development and most importantly imagination. However this I feel has these qualities in abundance.
The individual sections are segmented by location and colour allowing the user to understand and expect what to find. It also is structured in a simple and yet ordered fashion. The headline / main topic is top centre attracting the eye, all the other sections are intelligently structured underneath.
The use of tabs are also a simple yet important inclusion, this allows much more information to be available without moving from the home page. They also allow much more potential information to be present without overwhelming or cluttering the overall appearance of the site.
The overall style is clean and looks deceivingly simple. It allows the user to access what they want and feel welcomed at the same time. Importantly it has still the search facility and a ‘help’ button located at the top.
However i feel that the most important factors behind this design yet something missing from the others is the potential to upload and display the users personal information. This is an important feature especially in terms of future developments and the amount of 'cookies' that are stored on our home computers.
Overall I would grasp the chance to have this submission replace my current homepage.
Even more so after England win the world cup!
Extremely user friendly. I like the well-organised content, especially coloured blocks system. Manages to keep the original BBC spirit.