Homepages for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland
The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Homepage in Gaelic, forÌýa userÌýin Glasgow
Back in November when the new ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Homepage launched, my technical counterpart James Thornett and his boss Phil Fearnley described how the team intended to evolve the product over time and improve the homepage for all users.
As homepage editorial lead, I’m happy to announce a significant new development as the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ nations’ homepages become an integral part of the main homepage product.
So what's changing?
From today, if you change your location to a place in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, you will see navigation and content from the country you’ve selected, alongside other content of interest UK wide.
This change enables us to more fully and appropriately respond to cultural, political and topical interests across the UK.
From next week, users who set their location in the Nations will be able to navigate between different editions of the homepage – so if you’re in Scotland, for example, you will be able to see:
- A choice of oneÌýhomepage version for the UK, one more specifically focused on Scotland, or one in the Gaelic language featuring content from ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Alba (pictured)
- Promotional areas in the main ‘carousel’ of the different country editions which will contain more events, programmes and information from local editorial teams
- Local TV and radio listings, weather and, at a later date, news, travel information and sports news.
This week, we’re giving users a sneak preview of the five new homepages before making the final switchover next week:
- - ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Wales
- - ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland
- - ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Northern Ireland
- - ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Cymru (in Welsh)
- - ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Alba (in Gaelic)
Today’s launch marks an important step in the journey towards offering users the opportunity to personalise their homepage.
And in uniting our homepages within a single set of technologies, we have eliminated the need to build, service and maintain separate sites.
This saves money, and means that nations and indigenous language homepages will develop iteratively alongside the UK-wide editions. The site continues to develop so your comments and feedback are very welcome.
Clare Hudson is Executive Editor, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Homepage, Search, and Navigation
Comment number 1.
At 13th Jun 2012, William Palmer wrote:So we either have the choice of a homepage that gives us the international headlines mixed with UK headlines made up of mostly English news and sport or homepages with just the news and sport from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
You do realise that people from outside England are interested in more than just the news from their neck of the woods and would like to see a bit of international news headlines as well as the local news?
If you ask me there should be sections on the main news, regional news, main sport and regional sport all based on the location variable that just seems to be used for the weather on the main homepage. Local news and sports sub-headings should be on the regional news page and regional sports page respectively.
As to the rest, I like the design, it is fresh and very usable. I never really have understand the furore with the new ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ web site layouts.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)
Comment number 2.
At 13th Jun 2012, Chris Hills wrote:May I be the first to ask: why is there no new page for England?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)
Comment number 3.
At 13th Jun 2012, gallgal wrote:what about news from local areas?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)
Comment number 4.
At 13th Jun 2012, Green Soap wrote:Tragic Roundabout strikes again. :(
Complain about this comment (Comment number 4)
Comment number 5.
At 14th Jun 2012, Caadfael wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 5)
Comment number 6.
At 14th Jun 2012, donaldgrantuk wrote:Oh dear, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ didn't listen when well over 1000 people complained about the new style homepage when it was launched. Now it's coming to ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland and I find I'm going to have to change my default homepage again. The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and it's web designers have simply ignored complaints and requests to re-instate the old format and also ignored web experts who say that the carousel type sideways scrolling puts people off. It's certainly put me off and as soon as the Scottish page changes I'll be off. I doubt I'll visit the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ website much after that as it's poor quality with limited information on programme web pages and is hard to navigate. It probably ranks as one of the worst web sites anywhere !
Complain about this comment (Comment number 6)
Comment number 7.
At 14th Jun 2012, donaldgrantuk wrote:And another thing, if the idea is to save money then why is there a dedicated site for Gaelic i.e. ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Alba. A television channel and a web page in a language that is spoken and understood by around sixty thousand people from a population of six million? That's only one percent !
Complain about this comment (Comment number 7)
Comment number 8.
At 14th Jun 2012, Ian McDonald wrote:Hi Donald,
Thanks for your comment.
The question of which services the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ offers is not up to Clare. So you won't get an answer to that comment here, and it's off-topic.
Cheers,
Ian
Complain about this comment (Comment number 8)
Comment number 9.
At 15th Jun 2012, donaldgrantuk wrote:With respect Ian my comment is very much on topic. Clare touches on it herself in her last paragraph. The idea of the new homepage is to save money and yet a homepage is being provided in a language spoken by around one percent of the population of Scotland and a much lower percentage of the UK population as a whole. I cannot see the justification for that ! After all every Gaelic speaker is bi-lingual and so has no problem reading the English language version.
Are you able to tell us how the main ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Homepage has performed in respect of unique hits in the five months since it's launch compared to the old homepage in the five months before it was replaced. That to me would be the best indicator of value for money.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 9)
Comment number 10.
At 15th Jun 2012, William Palmer wrote:To be fair Donald, Gaelic speakers are licence players too and the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ are exactly the people who should be providing services to the smaller communities in the UK.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 10)
Comment number 11.
At 15th Jun 2012, donaldgrantuk wrote:True William but the point is that they are saying the whole revamp will save money. I'm merely pointing out how they can save more. However they could have saved even more by leaving the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ website as it was last November. It was user customisable but where it failed in ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s eyes was that it didn't point users in the direction ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ wanted them to go. It wasn't broke, most people were happy with it but they went ahead and 'fixed' it. Ian McDonald himself moderated a now closed blog that had well over 1000 comments that indicated that the new style format wasn't popular. I don't recall seeing any that were in favour !
Complain about this comment (Comment number 11)
Comment number 12.
At 15th Jun 2012, Clare Hudson wrote:Afternoon all, it's been a long week but here's my first response.
Firstly, to Chris Hill’s point - it is true that we do not provide a specific homepage for England as we do for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This is because it would not be sufficiently distinguished from the main UK page as viewed from England to be worth maintaining. The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ does not provide any national services for England that are equivalent to Radio Cymru or Radio Scotland, nor does England have its own devolved government. We have English regions as opposed to ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ England, and these provide more local services as part of News.
Donald - we are constantly developing and evolving the homepage; we know that users want to personalise and customise their experience and are busy determining how we will deliver it to them. This commitment was underlined when we made personalisation of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Homepage the main theme of a recent Connected Studio event held here at ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ North.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 12)
Comment number 13.
At 15th Jun 2012, William Palmer wrote:Any chance as to a reply as to my post, and an explanation why my second post was deleted when the post I was replying to was deleted then restored?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 13)
Comment number 14.
At 15th Jun 2012, William Palmer wrote:Opps too quick, I see it's back.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 14)
Comment number 15.
At 15th Jun 2012, donaldgrantuk wrote:Thank you for your reply at #12 Clare and also thanks for upholding my appeal against the removal of my comment #9
With regard to determining how to deliver a customisable user page might I suggest (with my tongue very lightly in my cheek) that it could be easily achieved by re-instating the old homepage. That allowed me not only to determine the content I wanted on the page but also to take into account of the broadcast region I am in.
The new format has far more content and far more choice but that is not always a good thing. Very often the saying 'less is more' holds to be true and it certainly does in the case of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Homepages.
I would however still like to know unique hit figures for the main ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ homepage before and after the new format was launched.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 15)
Comment number 16.
At 18th Jun 2012, Clare Hudson wrote:Hello again Donald.
As my colleague James Thornett blogged a short while ago on these pages, we haven't seen any significant change, post v4 launch. Around nine million users are still accessing the homepage each week.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 16)
Comment number 17.
At 18th Jun 2012, William Palmer wrote:So I take it you can't be bothered replying to my posts Clare.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 17)
Comment number 18.
At 19th Jun 2012, Clare Hudson wrote:William, I have read your comments - thank you. As I mentioned above, the team are working on allowing users to customise their page so they will have more choice over what they see. At the moment, you should get the local news for your area.
Clare
Complain about this comment (Comment number 18)
Comment number 19.
At 19th Jun 2012, fluffyferret wrote:At the risk of sounding like Victor Meldrew I do not believe it!
My homepage used to be the main ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ homepage until it was changed drastically reducing the content with the dreadful carousel across the top. I started using the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland homepage which was just what I required in a homepage. The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland homepage has now been changed incorporating all the things I disliked about the new ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ main homepage.
I answered a survey on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland homepage a few weeks ago. I told them how much I like it and how much I disliked the main homepage I was forced to leave as it was difficult to navigate, hard to find relevant content, the background colour was harsh and bland. And where is the local news on the new ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland homepage?
I now have to change my homepage AGAIN.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 19)
Comment number 20.
At 19th Jun 2012, d shirlaw wrote:Just visited the Scotland page - on the far right hand column with the sport news, there are two sections - "³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Sport Scotland" and "Scottish Football".
In the latter, each of the links ("Scottish Deadline Day as it happen…" etc) are to three stories published on the 31st January 2012 - an error surely?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 20)
Comment number 21.
At 20th Jun 2012, William Palmer wrote:Clare, I know there is local news headlines for my area, what I don't see is the point as they often doesn't change for days on end. What I want to see is the main news headlines and the regional news headlines on the same page. I am sick to death of having to click though countless pages or search for relevant regional links buried at the bottom of pages purely because the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ put the needs of 50 million of it's users as a lower priority than the users of one city.
Giving us a choice of the main news and local news that doesn't change for days on end or regional news and local news that doesn't change for days on end is not giving a proper choice.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 21)
Comment number 22.
At 24th Jun 2012, boo453 wrote:England forgotten again.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 22)
Comment number 23.
At 26th Jun 2012, Laurence Grove wrote:My initial reaction to the new ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland site was that of subservience to that of the UK: UK is the first link under the title, London 2012 is at the top of the page, and last I looked it told me that the London 6 o'clock news was currently showing on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland. And are the listed 'most popular' programmes really those of Scotland?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 23)
Comment number 24.
At 26th Jun 2012, Laurence Grove wrote:Instead of heaving sites for 3 of the nations plus a UK site, why not have a site for each of the 4 nations and no UK site.
To suggest that 'England = UK' is insulting both to England and to the other nations.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 24)
Comment number 25.
At 29th Jun 2012, GrumpoMcChief wrote:Why do I have to reset my Scottish options every time I log on to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ site ? I have tried to change my postcode on the site several times with no success. It always opens on London ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳. Keep it up ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ you are just confirming what a lot of us in Scotland already think, you are London centred and helping the Independence argument.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 25)
Comment number 26.
At 29th Jun 2012, tinman wrote:Another ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ page I don't visit anymore because of the bad design. I am now down to just the news page from a regular visit list of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ homepage, sport, weather, programme, nations, radio. Whilst the news page is far short of being in the best web design category it is the only one which is readable at the moment.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 26)
Comment number 27.
At 29th Jun 2012, donaldgrantuk wrote:I've been away for a couple of weeks Claire and it's pretty obvious now with my first internet access in nearly two weeks that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ aren't going to listen to their users, or if they do it will be because of diminishing hit figures. The site is a mess and frankly has absolutely nothing to offer me now. The only thing that will have me using the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ website on any sort of regular basis would be re-instating the old style homepages. I'm sure an awful lot of people feel the same way as I do.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 27)
Comment number 28.
At 6th Jul 2012, Tony wrote:Totally miffed, now got to find a new homepage, I started using ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland's page as my homepage when the new carousel came out. It was a good way to avoid it albeit with less functionality than the older ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ homepage. I really miss the old ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ website with modules etc, oh well worse things happen. It only costs my license fee.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 28)
Comment number 29.
At 10th Jul 2012, Jamie Nicholson wrote:Hi. I work in the Homepage product development team and wanted to reply to a couple of the comments made:
In comment 25 by 'GrumpoMcChief', firstly thanks for reporting this and I'd like to re-assure you this behaviour is not specific to Scottish audience members. The likely cause of this is that you have cookies disabled (either completely or just for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳). You can read more here:
/privacy/cookies/about/?source_url=/privacy/bbc-cookies-policy.shtml
If you can verify that cookies are enabled and you're still getting this behaviour then you might have found an issue. If this is the case then we'd be grateful if you could provide your browser version and exact steps to reproduce. This will help us diagnose the problem.
In comment 20 by 'd shirlaw', thanks for spotting this. You're right - it wasn't correct but we have since made a change to ensure the correct Scottish football stories are appearing.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 29)
Comment number 30.
At 21st Jul 2012, GrumpoMcChief wrote:Hi Jamie, Thanks for responding to my comment. I can confirm that my cookies are enabled. I am an Apple Mac user using the most recent version of Safari. My problem is not with the Home Page per se but if I click on the TV section of the home page to check on the programme schedule it will not allow me to set my post code to ensure I get the Scottish schedule. Cheers. GrumpoMcChief
Complain about this comment (Comment number 30)
Comment number 31.
At 23rd Jul 2012, Jamie Nicholson wrote:Hi GrumpoMcChief - you are right that the schedules on the TV page (/tv/%29 cannot be set by location and don't have a link to your location setting on the Homepage.
However, the daily schedule in the 'What's on' section of the Homepage does provide you with this. You can set your preferred TV & Radio schedule here and it will remember this by cookie. So if you select ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Alba for instance as your TV schedule, then this would be remembered next time you visit the page. You also have a quick link to view that 'Full Schedule' from there too.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 31)
Comment number 32.
At 23rd Jul 2012, GrumpoMcChief wrote:Hi Jamie, THanks for the reply. I did find the links to Scottish content on the full schedule but having set my preference to ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland it still reverts to London each time I return on both TV and Radio. GrumpoMcChief
Complain about this comment (Comment number 32)
Comment number 33.
At 23rd Jul 2012, lucas42 wrote:Just a quick question about the languages (and no, I'm not going to ask why Irish is missing, I know that one never gets answered ;) ).
How did you decide what approach to take with languages? I mean that here you've gone with a different page per language (like on iPlayer), but other ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ sites (like the new radio ones) use the browsers' Accept-Language header to serve different languages at the same URL.
Is there some sort of official ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ policy on when to use each option, or does each site just make it up as they go along?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 33)
Comment number 34.
At 25th Jul 2012, Jon wrote:Hello there,
One of the good things about living in Wales is the opportunity to access services of all sorts with some sort of local flavour. Unfortunately, this is a double edged sword. Due to the recent changes, Welsh Rugby Union is now a section in my sporting column of the home page. I enjoy a bit of Rugby, but other sports (football, cycling and others) come a long way ahead for me. There are lots of people in Wales (particularly South Wales) who are mad about Rugby, but where I live in the North, football is far more important and not just for me.
As it happens I am English but have lived in Wales almost all my life. The Welsh Rugby Union section grates every time I log in and I know this sounds like I am being ridiculous, but I am considering changing my homepage so I don't have to see it!
I like the News bit where it has National and International News stories and Local News below it. It doesn't work in the same way with sport. If I select that I live over the border in Cheshire (just a couple of miles away) will everything change? I imagine I will lose the local news then too, if that worked.
If I could have a Football section like I used to have, it would be just fine. Now it's like the difference on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳1 between Final Score (heavily football based as I like it) and on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳1 Wales with Final Score Wales (heavily Rugby based). I do feel it's a bit condescending to be honest - I live in Wales, so I must want Rugby!
Any ideas how I can be less annoyed?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 34)
Comment number 35.
At 25th Jul 2012, Robin Moore wrote:Hi,
I'm leading a project to roll out services for the Nations and indigenous languages across the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ products, including working with the Homepage team on the recent changes.
To answer Lucas42's question in comment 33. Different approaches have indeed been used by different parts of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳. While we are in the process of aligning these, there is often a good reason why different approaches have been taken.
In the case of the Cymru and Alba homepages, we know Welsh and Gaelic speakers use both their language and English language homepages and therefore wanted these pages to be addressable separately i.e. different URLs. Using the browsers' Accept-Language header in this particular case might have made navigating between English and other language content rather confusing.
We are currently working on creating a single ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ language setting which will move between products. You can see the first implementation of this (including Irish!) in the bottom left of bbc.co.uk/radio
On Jon's comment 34, I quite understand your problem. We decided to go with Welsh Rugby Union on the Homepage in Wales because football more regularly appears in the top 4 UK headlines and audience figures for Welsh rugby stories are consistently higher in Wales; but as you say rugby isn't everyone's favourite.
The Homepage is being improved iteratively and I know the Homepage team are looking at increased personalisation options in the future. In the interim, we will be reviewing what sport we offer on the Wales version of the Homepage in a couple of months, and we'll be taking your and other users' comments on board.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 35)
Comment number 36.
At 26th Jul 2012, Jon wrote:Thanks for your comments Robin, nice to be heard!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 36)