New BBC homepage coming for smartphones, tablets and TVs too

To roll out in coming months

New BBC homepage coming for smartphones, tablets and TVs too

21 September 2011 10:37 GMT / By Paul Lamkin

If you thought that the BBC's new homepage looked like it'd be a perfect fit for a smartphone or a tablet, then you'd be right. The homepage was built with Auntie's "1 service, 10 products, 4 screens" policy in mind - and a smartphone, tablet and even, possibly, a TV version will be coming soon.

"It shares a design principle that we've seen in tablets and mobile phones and we've heard from reviewers during testing over the last couple of months that it feels quite natural to them because of that," said James Thornett, product manager for BBC Homepage.

"We are already looking in advance, and thinking about how this would appear on a mobile platform. With the user interaction and design, you can see how tablets could easily be adapted and we are also talking with our colleagues across the business of TV. There are interesting discussions around the converging of TV platforms in the future as well."

Thornett also explained how the redesign of the homepage is part of a wider initiative, and is a configuration that will be eventually spread across the wealth of the BBC's online platforms.

"Visually and in terms of the technology used, this is the biggest change that we've made," he explained. "We built it from the ground up and we believe it to be an intuitive, time and location based experience for users.

"When we set up the strategy in January, we set up a very clear user experience vision to run alongside our technical product delivery and you're starting to see some of that bare fruit now.

"I would expect you to see, within the course of the next few weeks, months and years, the rollout of the design front and this kind of interaction and style across all of our sites."

Thornett explained that a blanket redesign of all of the BBC's sites in one go was an impossibility, not just down to the size of the task, but because there would be a risk of alienating the huge readership.

Have you checked out the Beeb's beta homepage yet? If so, let us know what you think using the comments below.

Full tags
Online, BBC Online, BBC, Tablets, Phones, TV apps

share print story pdf email story

Recommended articles

Loading

Hot tablets

The best new tablets hands-on, rated and reviewed

Wanted

Best iPad 2 apps

We detail the best iPad 2 and iPad apps in the app store Which iPad app should you download?

Windows 8

All the features and details of the new Microsoft operating system explained What's new in Windows 8?

iPad 3 rumours

What comes next? We look at the possible features, leaks, images, specs and more

Pocket-lint poll

Q. Will you be buying a PS Vita?

Vote YES Vote NO

» LAST TIME
When asked Will Samsung be making a mistake if the Galaxy S III isn't shown at Mobile World Congress in February? 51% said yes and 49% said no

Honeycomb tablets

We detail all the latest Honeycomb tablets. Which tablet's got Honeycomb on board?

Hot tablet brands

All the latest tablet news

Which tablet?

Buying a tablet, what should I get? Our guide to the best tablet on the market