BBC News
Design
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Initial Reaction
The web site is attractive and looks professional. There looks to be a lot of content.
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Aesthetics
The web site looks good and matches the colours and style of BBC News on television. The design is quite simple and works well.
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Legibility
The text is clear and legible, but some of the text links to some of the stories are a bit small and could be hard to read for some users.
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Layout
The layout is split in four columns with the main story spanning the middle two. It is well laid out and allows the text on the site to be easily read.
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Presentation
The web site looks good and matches the professional image of BBC News on television.
Navigation
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Mouse Clicks
You can get to most articles in three clicks or less.
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Scrolling
The main headlines and navigation are above the fold, so not much scrolling is required.
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Where are you?
The category you are in is highlighted in the navigation on the left and also in the title bar.
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Search
The search box is displayed at the top of every page. It returns the results expected.
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Consistency
The navigation is consistent throughout the site.
Content
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Home Page
The home page displays lots of information and fits its purpose.
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Updates
The web site is updated regularly and shows the time of the last update and also ticker showing the latest news on the home page.
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Quality
The BBC is a trusted new resource by many. This quality is also shown by its many news programmes.
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Images
All the images I found within news articles where related to the article they were placed in.
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Syndication
The web site provides e-mail news alerts, RSS feeds and headlines you can put on your web site.
Functionality
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Interactivity
There is some interactive content on the site within articles demonstrating certain things, but it could be used more often. Some articles also allow the user to interact by posting comments about them.
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Browser Compatibility
The web site looks and behaves the same in the three major browsers; Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera
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Resolution Compatibility
The web site is designed for a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels and will not expand past 800 pixels wide leaving a lot of white space on the right in larger screen resolutions.
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Errors
I did not encounter any errors whilst using the web site.
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Accessibility
The web site failed validation of CSS, HTML, and an automated accessibility test. However, the site is still very usable for the three types of colour blindness I checked for.
Conclusion
The web site presents a professional image that matches the quality of it's television news programmes. The navigation is clear and concise. News is updated regularly and provides ways to syndicate the content to your web site. There is some good interactive content, but it would be better if there was more.
The BBC News web site achieved an overall rating of 81%
