BBC PROGRAMMES

The future of BBC programmes online

Product Strategy · User Experience Design · User Research · Visual Design

With a major technical migration looming, the BBC knew it was time to re-establish the vision for their vast archive of programme websites. We brought BBC employees together around a singular, audience-focused vision.

A lifetime of content to explore 

Looking for your next TV or radio binge? BBC online has it all. The world’s longest running radio soap. All the best bits of the David Attenborough back catalogue. Seventy years worth of Desert Island Discs. A vast, rolling record of content from millions of BBC Television and Radio programmes.

5,034,104 Television & Radio programmes

An archive for tomorrow

BBC Programmes are part of our British cultural heritage. To make this expanding archive available to future generations requires heavy duty technical support. With a planned technical migration on the horizon, the site needed to re-establish its purpose in the BBC online portfolio – and crucially what it offers its audience – the license fee paying public.

Experts, assemble!

Any large legacy product comes with a pool of passionate opinion about where its future lies. To facilitate a speedy consensus, our team gathered experts from across the BBC for a week-long sprint. The objective: to define the core benefit of the proposition.

Unpicking the product’s purpose 

The power of many! The team shared a wealth of insights and asked the big questions. Unpicking the core audience benefit, pinpointing what it has to offer that’s different in the market, and identifying the most valuable parts of the product.

In with the new

“Connecting you to your shows” – the refined purpose of the BBC Programme websites emerged as that of a connector. It serves audiences by connecting them to the programme information they want and directs them to where to watch it. Search for ‘when is Blue Planet II on?’ and it will deliver, along with a wealth of content from the show. A valuable reference and tool for connecting to the shows we love.

The future. Illustrated.

Images make the unreal real. With its purpose defined, we set up shop with our BBC colleagues to bring the proposition to life. With practical implementation at the heart of the strategy, our designers expressed a vision for what the future of the programmes websites could look like to stakeholders – getting them excited about what it could be and helping move forward.

5 million programmes. One vision.

We re-established the core benefit of the BBC’s online Television and Radio Programme proposition around audience needs and brought internal teams together around a single vision.

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