Comments on: BBC Overhauling Its Website For ‘Swipability’ http://paidcontent.org/2011/09/21/419-bbc-overhauling-its-website-for-swipabiity/ The economics of digital content Sun, 19 May 2013 07:03:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Joy http://paidcontent.org/2011/09/21/419-bbc-overhauling-its-website-for-swipabiity/#comment-85344 Sat, 03 Dec 2011 13:07:36 +0000 http://paidcontent.wp.gostage.it/2011/09/21/419-bbc-overhauling-its-website-for-swipabiity/#comment-85344 From a technical standpoint, the site went live on 29 Nov 2011 without support for the Opera browser on the PC, iPhone or Android. Nor does the swipe feature work on iPad - you have to click on tabs on all platforms to scroll sideways which is next to impossible on an iPhone.

It also doesn’t work on any of the readers for the blind, nor does the font scale, enabling use for poorly-sighted viewers. Nor does it, apparently, work on Firefox for Mac.

Far from being a new wave of form and design for the BBC web site, it has attracted a stream of negative criticism for it’s limited content and poor technical proficiency. Comments to the (over 1200) complaints on BBC blogs have met the predictable response of ”we’ll be upgrading again soon”.

But for me the technical issue of going live with a unfinished home page, for the 5th largest web site in the UK no less, is an incredible mistake, which shouldn’t be glossed over lightly. 

Outside the (protected job placement of the) BBC, anywhere else I suspect, it would have been a serious error…

]]> By: monirom http://paidcontent.org/2011/09/21/419-bbc-overhauling-its-website-for-swipabiity/#comment-85343 Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:24:56 +0000 http://paidcontent.wp.gostage.it/2011/09/21/419-bbc-overhauling-its-website-for-swipabiity/#comment-85343 Magnus, dont assume this is wholesale. Smart designers/developers will always design for degradation so users without touch interfaces have the cues needed to navigate a website (mobile and otherwise) without said touch interfaces.

]]> By: Magnus Jern http://paidcontent.org/2011/09/21/419-bbc-overhauling-its-website-for-swipabiity/#comment-85342 Wed, 21 Sep 2011 21:48:51 +0000 http://paidcontent.wp.gostage.it/2011/09/21/419-bbc-overhauling-its-website-for-swipabiity/#comment-85342 Interesting! Soon you won’t be able to navigate websites without a touch screen… :) Following usability trends is always interesting but I wonder if enough user experience research have been done to conclude that this is the best UI or if it’s primarily based on iPad users thinking it’s cool. A lot more usability testing will be needed on touch screens during the next couple of years to truly understand what makes a great user experience.

]]>