Never in all my years have I seen a home page design that has caused so much controversy. In the days when, RSS feeds and web apps such as netvines and igoogle are deemed to rule the waves - why is there still such a cufufle about one page.
Personally, I think the new beta home page is a real step forward. True, it does not have any new content and also true, its a cookie based system - meaning you have to set it up again on every computer you access. However, the home page has come a long way from being the political war zone it once was. Greg Dyke once stated that he could see the problems with the BBC simply from looking at the home page - a manifestation of all the political infighting on one rather naive HTML page. Far from being less important, the home page does have a purpose. It exists more as a shop front to inspire confidence on the experience the user is about to embark on. It is no longer just a catch all wayfinding tool - the BBC is way too big for all that.
Much praise should be given to the BBC for allowing the user to customize what they want from the BBC. Its a brave step forward that has taken far too long to filter to the top.
And that analogue clock…despite being utterly pointless, I love it!
2 responses so far ↓
jay harlow // Dec 17, 2007 at 6:39 pm
hey graham! i can only imagine the controversy, but it sure isn’t apparent to an outside observer from looking at it. very well done! i’ll be showing it around my studio…
my only question is: why does the skin color change when i select one of the rather cryptically-named choices beneath the large image!? seems to serve no discernible purpose (not that everything must)…
anyhow, not available for the international version so i guess i don’t need to worry about it : )
Graham // Dec 20, 2007 at 7:46 pm
I have no idea why they choose to make the skin colour change on the main promo interaction. Its a cool bit of functionality, but totally out of context. They would do better to follow the Radio 1 interaction.
The controversy is from my colleagues and peers, some of whom are ex BBC (which I am now, BTW).
Good to hear from you Jay. I trust things are going well for you back in the U S of A
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