a new global visual language for the BBC
Yesterday, the BBC announced the launch of the long awaited redesign of its website. This
site is viewed by millions of people daily, so will therefore affect a large amount of people in the UK and abroad.
The BBC wanted to create a fresh, new, up to date design, focusing mainly on usability and visual aesthetics, boasting that the new design changes are the most significant since 2002!
So what has changed with the design of the BBC website over time, and what new features are available for the public? The following article explains all!
The BBC website began its with this very simple design.
It was a basic offering with two sections to the site. Over time it has grown to encompass a great deal more. However due to the organic way in which the website evolved and the old structure of the business, with dozens of small design teams working independently of each other, the site had a fairly schizophrenic nature once you delved into its depths.
About 2 years ago, after printing out the site onto what has now become jokingly known as the “Wall of Shame” we decided to embark on an ambitious project, called Global Visual Language 2.0, with the aim of unifying the visual and interaction design of bbc.co.uk and the mobile website.
We created a new wider, centred page template to take advantage of wider screen resolutions and for the first time created an underlying grid.
We rationalised the hundreds of different banner styles into a new global and local branding and navigation system.
We discontinued the scores of different audio and video players and created a universal .
And we redesigned the homepage creating a visual style that began to ripple through the site and onto the mobile platform.
We”ve lived with and loved the distinctly “web 2.0” design for a while now and it”s done us proud. However, time”s moved on, and in autumn last year we decided it was time to resurrect the project.
We set out to broaden our ambitions; to create a design philosophy and world-class design standards that all designers across the business could adhere to. We wanted to find the soul of the BBC. We wanted something distinctive and recognisable; we wanted drama. We knew whatever we created needed to be truly cross-platform and that we needed to simplify our user journeys.
We didn”t do it on our own. We pulled together representatives from across the business, led by the project”s Creative Director, Ben Gammon, to form a Global Design Working Group, and we created a GVL Steering Group to help manage and direct the course of the project. We also went out into the industry to find a partner to co-create the styleguide: Neville Brody and his agency, Research Studios.
After going through a tender process in which we invited six agencies to pitch for the work, we chose Research Studios because we felt they had demonstrated a good insight into the BBC, its public purposes and they way in which it functions. We were also impressed with the work created for the pitch and Neville”s back catalogue of work.
Together, over the last four months, we”ve spent countless hours and created countless iterations of designs, components, mastheads, footers, polar maps, word documents, pdfs and grids… and whilst it”s still a work in progress, I”d like to share with you where we”re at with both the design philosophy and the latest version of our global visual language styleguide.
We wanted to create a design philosophy, or a set of values, to unite the user experience practitioners across the business. We settled on nine keywords which we think sum up what we”re about and what we”re trying to achieve:
Modern British
We want to create a modern British design aesthetic, something vibrant and quirky that translates outside our national boundaries.
Current
It needs to feel current and reflect what”s happening in the UK right now, in real-time. We curate a timeline of Britain and create links to the past – to our rich archive.
Authentic
Wherever we are heard we need to sound authentic and relevant, warm and human. We want to reference the BBC”s iconic design and broadcasting heritage. We value the trust placed in us.
Compelling
We engage our audiences with compelling storytelling. Our voice ranges from serious and authoritative through to witty and entertaining.
Distinctive
We stand out from the crowd. We strike a balance between overly templated, cookie-cutter design and beautiful anarchy. We are bold and dramatic.
Pioneering
We pioneer design innovations that surprise and delight. But we take our audiences with us.
Joined-up
We view all services and platforms as one connected whole but deliver experiences that are sensitive to their context of use.
Universal
Our services are open and accessible. Our interfaces are simple, useful and intuitive.
Best
Our ambition is to be the best digital media brand in the world.
Armed with our new philosophy we began creating conceptual designs for various properties: BBC news, homepage, search, iPlayer, programme pages and the embedded media player.
Through doing this work we began to distill the essence of a new visual style. I”m going to take you through some of the key elements, starting with the page grid.
We took inspiration from many sources. What we were trying to achieve is an underlying grid system that was flexible enough to enable many unique design variations whilst still feeling coherent and considered.
The new grid is based on 31 sixteen pixel columns with two left hand columns that can be split into four, and one wider right hand column, which accommodates the ad formats that appear on the international facing version of the site.
We”re looking to create the effect of interwoven vertical and horizontal bands, making a feature of the right hand column across the site.
Along with the 16 pixel vertical grid we”ve also for the first time got an integrated 8 pixel baseline grid so that we can align elements on a page both vertically and horizontally.
A key feature of the new GVL is a much more dramatic use of typography. As well as Gill Sans we”ve introduced big bold type in Helvetica or Arial and restricted variations in size so that we have much greater consistency across the site.
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