New look for BBC

In December the homepage of many internet users in the Uk is going to change – well in reality it won’t properly change until January unless they actually decide to view the new version – but thats a technicality.

What am I waffling about? OK I’ll tell you – bbc.co.uk has lived in its current form for a fair few years now – the blue/white boxes and the large image at the top – people know it and whether you like it or not – it works.

But there has been calls for more interactivity on the homepage, for more flexibility and for more emphasis on what the BBC offers across the output.

Well this is what the new look bbc.co.uk will do when it’s launched, as a preview in December and then fully (with the old homepage being turned off) from January 2008.

As you can see from the image – everything is bigger and there is less to see. Well actually there isn’t that much less but it uses newer web technologies to allow you to view multiple things in each box.

It’s basically bringing the homepage into line with some of the stunning new designs being introduced across the rest of bbc.co.uk (see BBC Music, Nature, Lifestyle) and makes the whole things easier and more personal.

You even have a big link at the top of the page to customise the homepage – at the moment this just allows you to drop or add a selection of pre made BBC widgets but I’m sure this will increase in functionality over time.

You can even change the colour of the homepage – although not permanently.

The colour thing seems to be tied to the main promo space – so the colour of the page depends on which of the four options you choose – in this case Radiohead, Top Gear, Spooks and Robin Hood.

This is a nice touch and really draws attention to the main promo and in turn will make it a much more valuable place for promoting what the BBC is doing – across TV, Radio, Online and Podcasting.

The search box is also MUCH more prominent – mainly thanks to the top bar (that appears on every bbc.co.uk site) being dropped from the main homepage – this gives the site much more freedom.

The directory has moved to the bottom of the page.

All in all I think this is a great development for the BBC – but there is still a chunck of work that needs to be done in terms of adding functionality and being able to create custom widgets – say a features widget for your home town.

For example – in the settings I’d like to be able to put in my post code and have it customise the whole homepage to where I live – so news from the news online site for say Hemel Hempstead, weather for Hemel, what’s on in Hemel and stories from the Where I live site for the town.

But that’s not overly important – the functionality is there to customise things so its just a matter of time.

Nice one – and it will launch December as a ‘see our new homepage’ and then fully in January.