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Posts tagged ‘interface’

6
Jan

Inspiration into flattery?

The BBC has long been the beacon of inspiration for many a person in all aspects of the creative industry.

This NeXT workstation (a NeXTcube) was used by...
Image via Wikipedia

The BBC introduces a genre of programming and other TV networks take that genre on in their own way.

The BBC introduces a style of web interface and very quickly other sites start to introduce elements of that design style and language.

In some cases they just copy all the elements outright (from Your Site is Valid).

Then again some take the basic concept for what it is (a great example of user interface and interactivity design) and does it in their own way.

And then again still – some copy a bit of both – the elements themselves, the design style AND the navigation, interaction structure.

The latest site I’ve noticed doing just that came to me in the form of a television channel recommendation from my father in law.

Its an Iranian English language news channel called Press TV and its web presence bears a remarkable resemblance to the BBC news site.

presstv

You can see it at http://presstv.ir

The left hand navigation is the most obvious – the gray bar with red line at the end to show the area you’re on, then when you move to a section with sub-indexes it drops down in exactly the same way the one on news.bbc.co.uk does.

The actual index area is almost identical to the generic BBC news online index and the story page is layed out almost identically as well.

bbcnews

bbcnews_old

In fact the even the social bookmarking links are more or less the same as on BBC News.

BBC News in August 2005 (includes BBCi navbar)
Image via Wikipedia

Now the site isn’t identical in every way – the right hand navigation is very different, the top and bottom layouts are very different and not every index uses that style.

But the basic structure is close enough to the BBC site than can be put aside as pure coincidence.

However, this is where some would get all indignant and cry foul play – personally I think its a good thing.

There are so many sites online with piss poor user interface design that when something clearly works – I think it should be embraced and used across the board.

OK so PressTV.ir uses a similar colour scheme and layout – but if they can’t take it from a public service broadcaster who can they – share and share alike and in turn make the world wide web a less confusing place.

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15
Sep

Wide BBC Pages

As more of the BBC website moves into the shiny wide format (it looks so much better than the old style) I thought I’d try and pull a fairly comprehensive list together.

BBC Wide

If there is anything missing from the list below – leave a message and I’ll add it in. I’m also planning on expanding the list so that it includes information and tags about each site to make it easier to search and find.

New launches since this article was written
Update (21 October 2008)

BBC Lifestyle
BBC Ouch!
Watchdog
Bloom
The One Show
Eurovision
Celebrity Scissor Hands
Spooks
Songs of Praise
Autumnwatch
The Real Hustle
Silent Witness
Blue Peter
Timewatch
History
Big Cat Diaries
British Style Genius
Weather Beta

Also:

BBC One
BBC Two
BBC Three
BBC Four
BBC TV
BBC Alba

And:
BBC 7
Electric Proms

The new BBC Local sites should be launching late this year early next – with Bristol moving first.

More links

Arts & Culture (website)

Arts & Culture

CBBC (website)

CBBC

Entertainment (website)

Entertainment

Food (website)

Food

Gardening (website)

Gardening

Health (website)

Health

BBC News (website)

News

BBC Sport (website)

Sport

Switch (website)

Switch

Archive (website)

Archive

Parenting (website)

Parenting

Religion (website)

religion

Ethics (website)

ethics

Help (website)

help

Drama (website)

drama

Music Beta (website)

music

The Culture Show (website)

Topics (website)

Liverpool 08 (website)

Strictly Come Dancing (website)

Comedy (website)

Britain’s Missing Top Model (website)

Bonekickers (website)

The Wrong Door (website)

The Restaurant (website)

Be On a Show (website)

History (website)

Family History (website)

BBC Cymru (website)

BBC Wales (website)

BBC iPlayer (website)

Programmes (website)

1Xtra (website)

5Live Sports Extra (website)

6music (website)

Asian Network (website)

5Live (website)

Radio 3 (website)

Radio 1 (website)

Today (website)

Science and Nature (website)

BBC Bloom (website)

Oceans (website)

Newsbeat (website)

BBC Tickets (website)

BBC Three (website)

Massive (website)

Mischief (website)

Beauty Season (website)

Thread (website)

Lilly Allen (website)

Last Man Standing (website)

Heroes (website)

Spooks Code-9 (website)

Texx and Flipside (website)

The Wall (website)

A-Z (website)

Eurovision (website)

Who Do You Think You Are? (website)

Tess of the D’Urbervilles (website)

Merlin (website)

Last Choir Standing (website)

Doctor Who (website)

Casualty (website)

Britain from Above (website)

Big Cat Live (website)

The One Show (website)

Cambridge Folk Festival (website)

Genius (website)

Maestro (website)

Out of the Blue (website)

Gardeners’ World (website)

Dragons’ Den (website)

Chinese Food Made Easy (website)

Proms (website)

Glastonbury (website)

Reading and Leeds (website)

Radio 1 Big Weekend (website)

T In the Park (website)

Zombie Movie (website)

Annual Report (website)

Lab Rats (website)

Hampton Court Flower Show (website)

Radio Scotland (website)

BBC NI: Milk Cup (website)

Scotland Learning (website)

GCSE Bitesize (website)

Curse of Comedy (website)

The Passion (website)

Sunday Life (website)

Graham Norton Show (website)

Made in England (website)

BBC HD (website)

White Season (website)

Young Musician of the Year (website)

I’d Do Anything (website)

The Speaker (website)

Have I Got News for You (website)

Springwatch (website)

Chelsea Flower Show (website)

Languages (website)

Headroom (website)

Radio Foyle (website)

BBC Homepage (website)

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5
Sep

A lick of paint

PaintingI’m a big fan of the Revolution range of themes by Brian Gardner and as you may have noticed if you’re reading this at upyourego.com – I’ve implemented a new one.

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12
Jul

Added value or extra cash?

A lot of people listen to BBC Radio stations on the internet and even more listen to on demand show – both music and speech based ones.
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25
Jun

All New iPlayer

The BBC iPlayer and the BBC iPlayer Radio have joined together in a love embrace that sees the two share a single interface.
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10
Jun

Radio going wide?

The BBC has been gradually launching all its new websites and some of its older and more establishes ones in the new wide format.
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16
May

Imitation, flattery and the BBC

I have an a blog post in draft I’ve been putting off four about a month now that asks the question “what’s wrong with the new BBC Homepage?” The premis being that I like so why doesn’t everyone else.

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10
Apr

More from the BBC

When the BBC started re-launching its sites into the new design language (with the big black bar at the top of the page) there were a LOT of complaints.

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31
Mar

New BBC News

I mentioned it late last night and it seems to have already happened – BBC News Online has got it’s new look and my first reaction – it’s a stretched version of the old look.

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