A little while ago Broadcast magazine published a piece on a project I’m currently working – the revamp of Radio 1 online. We are only a few weeks into the creative process but already the team have generated lots of great ideas and we have settled on a direction that we feel can deliver the innovative experience we want the Radio 1 audience to engage with.
I think the most exciting aspect of the work so far is that the homepage is a radical departure from where we are at the moment. It really changes the way we think about a typical BBC radio homepage by incorporating live video and real time information. The real time component is key and makes what we are building distinctive, as Ben Chapman (Interactive Editor for Radio 1) mentions in the article, the purpose of the project is to bring the station to life online. To achieve this we are exploring how we can create a homepage that is constantly changing and updating with lots of strong visual information (using a combination of images, video and a strong use of typography) and the use of playful interactions.
This new approach to presenting Radio 1 online will illustrate how we can start using real time info from radio studios in a compelling way and create an experience that makes people want to engage with all the exciting things that Radio 1 does. Last year we ran two trials of a visual radio player (trial one, trial two) that combined real time elements such as text messages, track information and video, it was a great learning curve for everyone involved and the work we are now doing is a significant evolution. At the moment many websites that accompany tv or radio programmes feel very much like very much like supporting material rather than something that’s actually synchornised with what is going on in the broadcast.
Timeliness is important and by incorporating it into the website and enabling people not only to see whats happening right now but also skip back in time and see what they have missed the homepage becomes more than just a compliment to the radio network it becomes an interactive broadcasting channel in its own right.
