BBC START page
These notes accompany the design and explain the 'whys and hows'.
The web is only 17yrs old. Most people have spent most of their lives without it.
In the UK 40% of people still don ‘t have the Internet; many will be catching up in the next few years.
As well as designing for 17yr olds we ‘re also designing for their parents and grandparents.
It needs to be as simple, functional & transparent as possible.
My entry is really an ideas pitch.
I see the site as a MAGAZINE.
What impresses me most about the BBC site is breadth and depth of its content.
I ‘ve tried to give people as many ways to find things as easily as possible. And to highlight non-news areas.
The Start Page is an entry point to the site.
I renamed it START:
a) Because ˜Homepage ‘ has two meanings.
One of the buttons on the glue bar across the top- - Set as my homepage - makes ANY page in the BBC site someone ‘s HOMEPAGE on their PC. (eg I like to start with news.)
b) The bbc.co.uk Start Page is where people start to access sections or start to search for information.
Other buttons on the Gluebar (across top) take people to News, Sport, TV, Radio, back to the Start page, back to Search and there ‘s an Add to My BBC Picks. (Bookmarking is included in MY BBC - see below.) The second Search box on the present site “ at top - looks like an afterthought. It ‘s not clear if you ‘re searching the web or BBC Index? It ‘s unnecessary.
I also find people like long text boxes so they can see what they ‘ve typed.
I ‘ve put buttons to the Children ‘s/Teens/Jam sections right at the top under the gluebar to make them obvious & access easy.
I do like the nice shiny vector buttons on many web 2.0 sites (I've put some examples on a page in my gallery), so some logo redesign & using icons to identify topics may pay dividends. I included the future TEEN and JAM brands.
The bbc.co.uk Start Page title area (TR) also contains the accessibility options and buttons to switch from UK to International. I think it ‘s clear what UK & International mean (people will click and find out if they ‘re not sure), so no explanatory text. I ‘d have the current option chosen change to a different colour (As with Bold, Italic etc buttons on a toolbar) to indicate which is the current chosen option.
To the left is the main Search area. I ‘d argue that people should search the Web first then have the option of switching to just BBC. If they ‘re looking for a BBC programme the result at the top of the list anyway. I also include buttons to search BBC News & Sport news, BBC Blogs and CBBC.
I titled the search box ˜FIND' because we Search to Find. (And from Creative Review have also used words like EXPLORE and DISCOVER where possible.) I ‘ve put instructions in the Search box to make it as simple as possible for people as young as 6yrs, as old as 90yrs or from a developing country & using the Internet for the first time.
Can the Search box be programmed to also recognise URLs e.g. www.adobe.com - and connect to that site?
There ‘s options below this to see ˜Most popular searches & new content ‘ (a zeitgeist page) and a ˜BBC Web Directory ‘.
I really like the Yahoo.co.uk Directory. Art and Health in particular. You already have a long list of ˜BBC Recommends ‘ and are looking at your metadata for your site and general archive. Bring it together here and well as in the index etc.
You could have a ˜People ‘s Directory ‘ where people submit sites they find useful.
Below the page is divided into three columns vertically and four rows horizontally. People are expected to scroll.
Keep it all to one 800 x 600 screen and your hiding too much information on other pages. I use colour (badly) to differentiate sections.
It ‘s a flexible layout. Sections could be moved around or swapped if required.
Video Headlines
I ‘d like to play a video of News 24 headlines (with subtitles?) on the Start Page. Even if it ‘s a Flash movie. People are getting used to seeing Video on the page.
If you put a News 24 bulletin on the Start Page it has to play in the screen on the page. At least it ‘s something to aim for.
youtube.com, google/video and other video aggregators can do it.
I think people prefer fast (quick to load & start) above quality.
If there ‘s a big breaking story “ eg London bombings “ when video wouldn ‘t cope - then replace the News video and the Takeaway box next to it with text headlines and images. People want accurate info & don ‘t care how it ‘s presented.
Video generally:
Pop-up windows etc confuse people. Dialogues asking what media player to use confuse them even more. Perhaps when users click on a link they go to a page consisting of a screen that loads and play the video.
As on youtube.com
Then give them the option of opening in a separate screen.
If it has to open in a separate window look at how educators kidzonline.org do it.
But theirs would be improved by having a big CLOSE WINDOW button in bottom right of the window. Look also at:
usatoday.com and http://wcco.com
Have News 24 live streaming somewhere in the site.
Why no mention of News 24, Newsnight, Newsround etc in RELATED BBC SITES In the present News section?
Programme Information: TV Radio Watch Listen One button to take users right into: (Some nice shiny vector buttons would be better that my ovals.)
1) Schedules of TV programmes and links to the main channels & stations.
2) A directory of what Video and Audio is available, current, popular etc.
Make it easy for people to catch up with Eastenders, Women ‘s Hour etc.
Here in Audio people can create their own radio station.
Just a question. With on demand what happens to the watershed?
BBC Takeaway
Everything needed to get alerts, feeds etc in one place. Have instructional videos etc. Make it clear you want people to use this. Make it easy for them to do so.
My guess is it ‘s the kind of thing people set up once rather than chopping and changing.
Promo Area.
As now, but smaller. Some days it could take over the Takeaway space as well. Or it could be a Rotovator most of the time.
In the first column, under the News 24 Video box, are:
News, Business News & Money, Weather and Sport.
The BBC is a serious news organisation; does extensive business coverage and Business should be on the front page. I ‘d move all consumer pages (Watchdog etc) into Money to make it a comprehensive personal finance section.
Weather. Now under News. Detach it from local. Give people the ability to show a local summary on the Start Page. Click on the button “ click on the name of your local BBC Station and it ‘s done. Click on the Green Weather box and go into the main Weather pages. (They can click Your Local BBC to go to their local BBC website.) Sport. Comes after Weather.
The middle column is the EXPLORE section. I ‘ve placed it in the centre to emphasise that bbc.co.uk is much more than news.
Much as with the current Browse sections, but I ‘ve re-categorised them.
It ‘s now: Entertainment, Music, Drama, Comedy, Children ‘s and Learning (The big six) followed by Health, History, Lifestyle, Natural World, Arts, Science, Society and Technology.
Everything to do with wildlife programmes, conservation etc goes into Natural World.
It could also include links to gardening for wildlife topics etc.
Learning is separate from Jam to emphasis that there adult learning content.
Science becomes more a hard science section and environment section.
There ‘s a new Technology section. There ‘s enough tech. stuff to warrant it (It doesn ‘t appear as a section anywhere except in News) & I suspect people are very interested in it. After all, what the BBC is doing now is technology driven!
There ‘s also a new Arts section. There ‘s enough Arts programming. Culture show, Big Read, Newsnight Review etc. I ‘d move Film into it but also have a link to it in Entertainment.
Society remains much as it does, but should include links to The Magazine etc. At present Society seems to be a section where anything that doesn ‘t fit other sections ends up, but also include parts of other sections. Eg Health, History. Parenting, Relationships etc.
A general point. I think the site has grown organically but it ‘s now worth totally rethinking how you categorise and group subjects and topics. From the ground up.
For example: I always look at the technology news.
A clearer link on the technology pages to: Click Learning - Information Technology Collective, bbc.co.uk/fivelive/technology/blog
and other related pages would be really useful, not just the video/audio clips.
I ‘m sure there are other related pages in bbc.co.uk that I haven ‘t come across.
Under the Explore categories is a button to Show All Topics from all the Explore categories “ including News & Sport. (Not the full A-Z index. That ‘s too big.) This is to help people see what ‘s available and what they might be missing. Also encourage them to browse.
Under that a Button into the BBC Catalogue (Archive).
Under that one into BBC Publications.
The BBC has a lot of subject based publications “ I surprised more isn ‘t made of them especially as they relate to the topics on the website.
Could content from the magazines be archived on the website?
The History & Wildlife magazines are excellent & I ‘d love to be able to get articles from past issues online. They ‘d also add to the subject sections.
People could also request email alerts about issues, subscribe etc.
Could BBC books that go out of print be available as ebooks to download?
The right hand column is about readers Participation, Personalisation and BBC Local.
Personalisation: I see three levels of user interaction.
Level 1 Without signing in users can browse, download & comment on some articles.
Level 2 By signing in users can submit comments. (People need to be told its free, its reassuring.
Inside a personal page they have three My Picks folders:
My BBC Pages, My BBC Videos & My BBC Audio. (deliberately like Windows XP “ so people are familiar with the concept.) By clicking on the Add to My BBC Picks button in the gluebar they can build a list of favourites.
I ‘d let people sort by title A-Z, date and category.
This could work like a social bookmaking service whereby their picks join a communal list so they can see what others have found, what ‘s most popular etc.
I wouldn ‘t have tagging at this stage. Categorisation should be by the BBC.
Tagging is: A) a difficult concept for some to grasp. B) Done badly by many people. Their cloud billows in size and they end up giving more and more tags in the hope of finding something again.
A bookmarking service I think is well designed with useful features is blinklist.com
Could people create their own radio/video playlists from the archives? Drag links from Audio/video to a Playlist folder and then be able to play them in sequence?
I realize the Rights payments issues would be enormous. But I ‘d like to be able to line up “ say “ a couple of Goon shows, A Hitch-hikers guide followed by a J Peel festive 50 & play them in sequence.
By registering users could alos start a blog. There would need to be some editorial overseeing. (Many blogs are short lived. They require commitment, some writing skill and something to say.)
Would the BBC want to offer an email service?
A (People ‘s) classified ads section? (This could just be free items/volunteer requests.)
Level 3 As a more advanced option users could personalise their pages and add their own tags to picks. This would be aimed at more experienced users. I don't think people should personalise the Start Page.
Rather have their own page. As with Yahoo ‘s My Yahoo or Google ‘s Personalised Home page.
Your Local BBC. Click on the Set button “ click on the name of your local BBC Station and it ‘s done. The name appears in place of Your Local BBC. Then click on it to go to the local BBC website.
Under the three columns is a DISCOVER bbc.co.uk section. Like the current Worldwide Wonderland this contains a selection of sections from the BBC site. The editor ‘s choices as it were. I ‘d change them every day. It ‘s another way of helping people find new things.
The Discover section could alaso be replaced with a gallery of users pictures or videos.
BBC Cumbria just won a webby for their video work, could more be done to showcase the local BBC sites work on the national site?
At bottom of the page are:
Invitations to users to contribute images or stories. This can be repeated in News.
Invitation to users to contribute to the new Eyewitness project.
Also a means of reporting broken links and giving feedback on the site. Feedback should be encouraged.
Under that all the corporate/legal links.
Tim Dennell
- 16 May 2006 14:05
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