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How we built the new BBC Homepage

bbc.co.uk

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Re: How we built the new BBC Homepage

#21

Post by weavie »

yalooze wrote: post #19
weavie wrote: post #13

They mention using BEM ( https://bem.info/ ) Any idea what it is? The site is not at all clear.

CSSWizardy say it better than me: "BEM – meaning block, element, modifier – is a front-end naming methodology thought up by the guys at Yandex. It is a smart way of naming your CSS classes to give them more transparency and meaning to other developers. They are far more strict and informative, which makes the BEM naming convention ideal for teams of developers on larger projects that might last a while." http://csswi…

Thanks. I dont know why they couldnt just say that on their homepage!

Re: How we built the new BBC Homepage

#22

Post by pgl »

super-serial wrote: post #5

It's like they monitored the front-page of HN everyday for a year, made a list of the top mentioned technologies and then gave that list to their management. Their manager said "Your goal is to write a blog post mentioning each one of these technologies, and add links so it appears in dark-bold-blue text. If we don't have a project using a trendy tech-stack... you bust your ass and get something up and running." The…

> It's like they monitored the front-page of HN everyday for a year, made a list of the top mentioned technologies and then gave that list to their management

Or perhaps those technologies were actually useful for them? I don't know, just a thought.

Re: How we built the new BBC Homepage

#24

Post by ricardobeat »

super-serial wrote: post #5

It's like they monitored the front-page of HN everyday for a year, made a list of the top mentioned technologies and then gave that list to their management. Their manager said "Your goal is to write a blog post mentioning each one of these technologies, and add links so it appears in dark-bold-blue text. If we don't have a project using a trendy tech-stack... you bust your ass and get something up and running." The…

This is extremely offensive to the team that built this product. Why the hate?

Re: How we built the new BBC Homepage

#25

Post by CatsoCatsoCatso »

clarkdave wrote: post #14
Domenic_S wrote: post #3

Tons of tech buzzwords, yet the blog intercepts middle-clicks. I want to open your links in a new tab so I can read them when I'm done with your blog!

It's not just the blog - news.bbc.co.uk also intercepts middle clicks to external sites. Middle clicks on links to other bbc.co.uk pages work fine though. Is it an accident or intentional? Anyone know?

I've noted this to them in their feedback forms before. It's been like that for over a few months. If I recall correctly when the Guardian (uk) was developing their current version under Beta the same problem came about for a short while.

Re: How we built the new BBC Homepage

#29

Post by davb »

ricardobeat wrote: post #24
super-serial wrote: post #5

It's like they monitored the front-page of HN everyday for a year, made a list of the top mentioned technologies and then gave that list to their management. Their manager said "Your goal is to write a blog post mentioning each one of these technologies, and add links so it appears in dark-bold-blue text. If we don't have a project using a trendy tech-stack... you bust your ass and get something up and running." The…

This is extremely offensive to the team that built this product. Why the hate?

I've been using the new design on mobile for a while here and the user experience is awful compared to the old design. Although the parent comment might seem a bit patronising, I think he's right - they've focussed too much on the technology and design fads.

Compared to the old site, there's a lot of "big text", too much of a focus on images (when you drill down into the site) and less on text, and low information density.

Worst of all (for me) - when loading on latest stable Chrome on Android, with a very fast internet connection, the page appears loaded but as soon as I scroll a number of the images disappear and the layout changes. I have to scroll back to where I wanted to be. Lots of scripts, client-side rendering, etc. It's overkill for a site whose focus should be content, not interaction.

While I'm sure the team built a technically impressive website, I don't think they've built the "right thing" and I certainly don't think it's better than the old one (from a user perspective).

Re: How we built the new BBC Homepage

#30

Post by andyjohnson0 »

super-serial wrote: post #5

It's like they monitored the front-page of HN everyday for a year, made a list of the top mentioned technologies and then gave that list to their management. Their manager said "Your goal is to write a blog post mentioning each one of these technologies, and add links so it appears in dark-bold-blue text. If we don't have a project using a trendy tech-stack... you bust your ass and get something up and running." The…

If you believe that the technologies they selected are inappropriate then maybe you could explain why?
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