BBC launches new homepage in beta

The BBC's homepage has been given a massive makeover, with the new cleaner offering launching in beta alongside its predecessor and aiming to help people to discover more of the broadcaster's content.

The last homepage design was rolled out in 2008, but the BBC is keen to move forward with an offering that surfaces more local content, as well as offerings outside of the traditionally dominant news, sport and weather.

The new page had been designed to keep the current homepage's snapshot of the zeitgeist, but also to offer up a more interesting smorgasbord of content.

Step change

Phil Fearnley, General Manager of News & Knowledge, BBC Future Media said: "We've made improvements progressively to the BBC homepage since it launched in 1997.

"The beta version launched today represents a real step change: we've rebuilt from first principles to deliver an intuitive experience which makes it easier for users to explore the wealth of BBC content on the web than ever before."

"The BBC homepage attracts over 9 million unique browsers a week across devices and the new page is designed to meet the challenge of serving this mass audience by showcasing the breadth of what we create on the web, whilst enabling the simple filtering which users have come to expect."

The look and feel of the site is obviously taking some cues from tablet applications, something that we should expect to see across the BBC's offerings, and the broadcaster is already in an 'advanced' stage in a new homepage for mobile phones, as part of its 'four screen' strategy.