Huzzah: new news
The BBC has finally rolled out its new news site, months after it updated its main homepage. And I like it, except there are a lot of points which I don’t.
The good news
It’s about time. I have got fed up of looking at the dull, minute layout that was the old version. Initial thoughts are that it looks great. They have padded everything out which gives everything more room and makes it stand out that much more. They have used dark grey instead of black text which gives the whole page a much lighter and welcoming feel. Black text is one of my biggest pet peeves, and I cannot remember the last time I used it on any of my sites.
Well. Apart from the padding, the text changes, and making the layout slightly bigger, I can’t see what they have changed. Which is good. I don’t want to have to learn a whole new site. So congratulations on making the site new, but not new new.
The bad news
A positive is in fact a negative. Due to everything being padded out more, there is now too much white space. Looking at the News Front Page I have to scroll a long way down to reach the bottom of the page. I don’t want to have to scroll, I want to visit, skim, and move on (I don’t like the BBC’s RSS, they pack too much into it).
The way they have made the layout is wrong. Sorry, but it is. A fixed layout for one of the most visited sites on the Internet is a big, big, big mistake. I use a 800 x 600 layout on my wee MacBook, and millions of other people also use this resolution. I can’t see the whole page, and I have to scroll down 16 miles to the bottom. My fingers need a rest after all the scrolling.
This problem is really emphasised by the fact they have 2 headers. The top black one is completely pointless, it has a search box and 2 links. Move the search box to the right of the red header, and the links to the right of the Page last updated text. 70 pixels automatically gone, and more of the important stuff visible. This is where the Firefox extension RIP really comes into play.
But…
Although they have made a few mistakes which will hopefully be cleared up soon, I like it. I prefer it, even. I like space, but I prefer cluttered designs which help me find what I want quickly and easily. Do I prefer this version, or the previous. Well, this version, no doubt about it. It’s new, but not new new. Everything is in the same place, which means I don’t have to learn a whole new site. I don’t know what’s up with those “Have your say” quote boxes though, they be fugly.
1 Buck wrote
2nd April, 2008
From my stats the number of people using 800x600 is pretty tiny but I agree for a site that big they should care enough to consider them. Their site looks oddly similar to every other news site out there.
I do agree the double header thing is lame. On a default IE6 install even running @ 1024x768 the top 1/3 of your screen has no useful information on it. I think that entire black box needs to go.
I’m going to have to give RIP a try. It looks pretty cool. Thanks for the suggestion.