bbc.co.uk is one of the most visited sites in the world and sits on a huge repository of content.
I lead a project that looked at the BBC page and came up with a new structure to organize content in a modular way. Once that was established the problem at hand became one of search. How to empower the user with seamless access to what is important, when what is important may be hidden in the past, about to be broadcast or still scheduled in the future... BBC iQ is the next generation of bbc.co.uk
The project was created whilst I was a Service Design leader at Fjord and it took on board the wonderful thinking of Heather and the mastery of Claire Alexandre on the visual design.
A modular architecture adapts to the user, but is not enough.
A visual search such as the one provided by BBC iQ surfaces what is important. Remember that, in high metabolic architectures such as news papers and sites with a lot of editorial activiy, the archives tend to pile up and become stale. Strategies like surfacing what happened 'this day one year ago' in a module, or 'best of the past' in another module, do help take users to the archive. These are strategies that do not challenge or change an existing architecture, they are but small windows into the past, modules bolted on to an existing architecture.
BBC iQ surfaces the past, present and future seamlessly, it reveals an evolution from a modular architecture (space oriented) to a space and time oriented architecture. Plus, it's beautiful.
Here is the video, enjoy.