CBC.ca has undergone a pretty substantial makeover. Most noticable is the front page, which has pushed most news coverage to a separate site: cbcnews.ca. The new front page is largely promotional now.
By and large, I really like the inside pages. Because I’m a radio person, I’m most excited that CBC Radio, after long being the poor second cousin to CBC Television’s beautiful web site, CBC Radio now has its own attractive and functional (!) web site.
But I have mixed feelings about the main page. I’ve never been a big fan of promotional blocks as the primary content unit on web pages. I wish the news content were given more prominence.
Meanwhile, reviews of the new site design are starting to pop up in the blogosphere, including one from Elbow Ruminations:
“Once you do successfully break the surface and delve deeper into the main news page and regional content, CBC.ca is the best Canadian news sources available on the internet. These pages are beautifully organized with video, user comments, podcasts, and links to blogs.”
But the author also believes the site design tries too hard to be cool.
“In the frenzy to deliver on-demand content and cater to hyperactivity, CBC’s mandate to deliver the news has been lost in cyberspace.”
Overall, I think the new site design is a huge improvement. Go see what CTV’s news page looks like, then try ours.
So, what do you think?
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It’s not so much an attempt to cater to hyperactivity as it is to provide the same level of service for the other areas of the organization as we do for news. That’s actually the point of the redesign as I understand it, to provide a network homepage rather than just a news one, and useful dedicated homepages for all the major areas.
There’s going to be pain involved with that transition, but if it means that everyone else gets as much out of the site as News does, it’ll be worth it. Just look at Sports’ online presence now vs. a month ago. If this trend continues…. eeyyy!
Easy on the eyes, easy to navigate. News section works. A pretty nice package.
But does anyone else think they might have their priorities a little of whack? Most people don’t log onto a trusted news site like the CBC to see promotional material. That should be a sub domain or a sidebar, not the main attraction.
Maybe that’s the whole point, to make CBC more than just a news site. If it is, then they are dilute the best thing they have - good, trusted content.
It’s a dramatic improvement for CBC Radio.
I could never understand the logic of the old pages, which made it s-o-o-o-o hard to find network show websites and then forced people to navigate through through that boring dead zone page — it told you about the show website, but didn’t actually show it to you until you hunted out yet another hypertext link.
Sheesh!
One thing I like less about the new pages, though, is the access to regional sites.
Why not a straight up list of regional links on the .ca frontpage as before?
Making people click on a link to access local news headlines and then an additional link to actually get to the regional sites seems like an additional step or two too many.
All in all, though, the .ca upgrade is very pleasing.
one word: AWESOME
As an Canadian living abroad, I use cbc.ca to keep current on Canadian news. I think it’s a great idea to separate the news and sports sites into their own, distinct websites - this allows CBC to feature its radio and television programming on cbc.ca. So for me it should be easy: change the daily bookmark to cbcnews.ca and be done with it! Alas, cbcnews.ca is so poorly designed it risks being deleted entirely from my bookmarks.
First, the “local weather” is a thinly veiled attempt to justify having the advertisements front and centre. What happened to the cbc.ca that didn’t have ads? At least tone the advertising down to text-only ads - Google AdWords is proof enough that they are a sustainable revenue model. This structure means that the user has to scroll down to see past the first 5 news stories.
Second, on the initial loading of the page the user is presented with:
- Navigation toolbar with links to sections and search
- Top story, with story stub - the headline is in giant text here
- 3 seemingly random opinion pieces with large graphics of the reporters in question
- 5 next top headlines in some strange Web 2.0 tab that seems to only be that wide due to the fact that the tabs require that much space (flashy over functional?)
- A video player (more on that later)
- And half of a relevant quote - the rest is obscured due to the fact that the advertisement requires scrolling.
Herein we encounter a common running theme: Flashy over Functional. Yes, Web 2.0 is a good thing. Yes, AJAX controls provide a rich environment especially suited to serving information. No, that isn’t always a substitute for good design. This theme pervades throughout the new cbcnews.ca website.
While the “look” of the page is certainly more current, the huge margins and spacings result in an initial load page that has tons of wasted whitespace. The quote alone takes up a huge amount of space.
As for the video - WMV! If the CBC claims to be the news broadcaster for “all Canadians,” the CBC should choose formats that allow all users an identical user experience. WMV doesn’t play nice with Macs - even with the Flip4Mac plugin (the Microsoft mandated choice) in Safari (the Mac’s default browser), this renders CBC’s content incorrectly. Was the new site even tested on a Mac? Any excuse that WMV allows the CBC to retain its IP is ridiculous, as the end user can save the file to their desktop. Why not use Flash video - a proven technology on a wide scale. It would allow CBC to retain its IP AND provide the same user experience across the board. It would also allow users to embed CBC video in blogs and external websites and drive traffic to CBC. This is mainstream technology with plnty of mainstream implementation options.
Obviously news is a personal thing. When I visit, I want to see a lot at a glance, and I don’t want to scroll down 3 pages to see relevant news. See BBC America for an example of what I think is an effective presentation: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/default.stm
CBC: There have been innumerable redesigns over the past few years. I challenge CBC to take the user-driven approach that has worked so well with many of CBC’s own projects (Zed, Radio 3) and open the CBC News API to the public for a public redesign challenge. It would cost CBC very little, and would draw a large audience to CBC’s website. Obviously opening the API would add security and load considerations, so providing a static database of sample data would suffice. Let the public decide on which redesign they prefer and, better yet, offer users the choice. A modern, validating website made with the latest technologies would bring CBC firmly into the 21st century.
Call it CBC Remixed, and promote it on TV and Radio. Now we’re talking…
The radio site isn’t quite functional. I like having all the live feeds to pick from, but right now in my time zone, and in the NL time zone as well, it says “to be announced.” To be announced when? If the program is on the air right now, surely someone must know what it is called. Yesterday while Cross Country Checkup was on, two or three of the feeds had other program titles (Tapestry, Writers & Co).
I want promotional material on the main page. Or, better, I want to be able to subscribe to a feed of promotional material. What’s on today, tomorrow, next week - across all the English services, all in one place. (I tried signing up for email notices, but nothing comes.)
[...] CBC blogger Tod Maffin likes the new look for his beloved CBC [...]
why is the typeface so damned big? is this bad css or a bad choice of typeface?
I have been keeping cbc.ca as a homepage for over 7 years for a reason: I can go (used to ) through all the headlines and get informed at a glance or in a couple or minutes, whether it was breaking news, Canada, World, or Regional news. It was simple and effective: no images or media content in the core page but if you wanted it you could get it, all in the same site!
That was the difference from “the rest”
Now for the last months but specially for the last days i have seen the main features of the website dissapear: O.K i don’t have to click on anything to get my local weather ( great feature!) but now is so big on the left side that i have to scroll down more, and even when you click on news, you get still a little bit of everything. That should (has to, actually) happen in the portal but when i click on NEWS, that’s what i want and sadly not what I get.
I think that Main page is full of content and it reminds everyone that there is Radio, TV, contests and many many other things; as they call it is a portal of content. I applaud the idea and the execution. I think it leaped CBC from 10 yrs in the past into the present. Obviously the idea is to be appealing to everyone, kids, sports people, teens, etc. And I think cbc.ca finally succeeds in finally becoming the bonding agent for CBC news, Radio, TV, and everything else.
CONGRATULATIONS ON THE PORTAL, WELCOME OT THE 2000′S
Having said that:
1.-After experiencing the new site i looked for a place to complaint and when i found it it said that the opinion forum was CLOSED!!
How ridiculous is that they kept it open for a few hours and then you could not submit any opinions on the new design, then i came to this website that I love by the way and as soon as I saw the opportunity decided to spend 20 mins writing this trying to recover my Homepage; which once gone makes you feel like the net is not the same, looking around for a new page is as exciting and pleasant as test driving for a new dentist. I hope this and these other letters get to the proper ears and listen to their audience, after all only the loyal and regualr users take the time to write a letter like this.
2.-The weather applet: i like the concept and the design of it from last week (upper right corner) Now that is on the upper left corner, is too tall/high and you have to scroll the page, more now that you have three full pages on the main page. How about reduce its hight or extend its content all along the top of the sreen?
3.-Finally i leave my main complaint for last: The news!
Like i said: I understand and actually like the visual design of the new main portal, but when I click on NEWS, I want NEWS, not a mini-repetition of the portal with content that I am not interested on like:
Last Updated: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 | 8:37:12 AM ET
SOFTWARE - INTERACTIVE - WASHINGTON FILE
..Then a little bit of HEADLINES …Then:
ARTS - PHOTO GALLERY - CONSUMER LIFE
EYE ON THE WOLRD - DUTCH TREAT - HEATER MALLICK
….And then finally, the NEWS and their different SECTIONS: World, Canada, Health, Arts and Entertainment, Technology, Money etc.etc.
This is what i consider the meat and potatoes of CBC, This is the thing that made me use CBC as my homepage. Nothing like simple and effective TEXT, to keep you informed.
Bottomline: could you keep HEADLINES AND NEWS SECTIONS TOGETHER without gaps and move all the different ICONS to right (and left if you are considering Widescreen users)so that you have the “beef” in the center in simple text format and keep all the icons on the right somewhere with the Videos, Blogs, Photogallery, Podcasts etc.
Finally this is CBC NEWS, not Entertainment of Sports, I think you are overdoing it with so many distracting images, and with
ARTS - PHOTO GALLERY - CONSUMER LIFE
unnecessarily big.
Suggestion: how about cleaning the main page of visual distraction leaving only a few icons and add an additional TAB to:
IN DEPTH - COLUMNS - “NEWS FEATURES”
And then put in one page all the icons you want.
That’s it for now CBC. Having a relative who works there and strong family ties to you I am happy for you to try to catch up with the times, Just remember I love you for who you are and I want you to evolve keeping the same values, sense of humour and nerdiness that makes of you…you.
When I am away from home and I get homesick I think of maple syrup, poutine and you, I don’t want to take a break from this relationship, but if you change for bad I think I will and it will be because “is not me, it’s you”
With love;
Your fan.
Aaron: that’s a lot of feedback. As to the ads thing, there’s always been a banner ad in that space, so clawing some space back for the weather widget hopefully represents some progress in that regard.
Flash video has been discussed repeatedly over the years here, and in fact it’s already in use on the equivalent media player on /sports. I wouldn’t be too surprised, if I were you, to see the WMV on /news be replaced in the not-too-distant future. Flash streaming has historically been prohibitively expensive, and not of the best quality, but now that it’s matured as a technology we have more options in that regard.
(The IP argument usually boils down to streaming vs. download rights, and while it’s not too hard to save any audio/video stream, we still have to take account of that restriction. And that’s before we get into limited geographical rights - see Blake’s previous post for more on that. )
I wouldn’t expect to see any CBC API release in the near future. It would be cool though.
dull boy: Improving our scheduling information is also on the cards. Radio is especially challenging in this regard. Said changes should definitely include RSS promo feeds.
Aaron,
As one of the Interface Engineers for CBC.ca, I can assure you we test and
develop for the Mac Aaron. Your detailed and constructive feedback is
welcome and appreciated, and here are a few of my responses.
-All designers and Interface Engineers(Client Side Web Developers) work both
a Mac and PC platform. We prefer a Mac.
-We support A-Grade browsers, but make a best effort for older browsers. We
do not support IE 5 Mac as it is ancient, being about 7+ years old, and
constitutes less than .1 traffic.
-We heard very loud feedback for more weather content. Thus, the weather is
perhaps the very first thing you see. A great deal of effort went into it,
and although I speak just for myself here, I think it is a fantastic piece
of work that addresses user feedback we have been hearing for over a year. I
don’t see how it serves the ads…
-WMV: It’s true, it is a proprietary format. However, it is supported by the
largest share of our audience compared to other formats such as Quicktime(awesome, but low marketshare),
Real(hated by most users and I’ll get to flash later). It does in fact protect our IP when
necessary, such as when we stream live events such as the recent Stanley Cup
Playoffs. Regular Ondemand clips are of course, not IP protected. As far as
Flash video, you will see on cbc.ca/sports the beginning of our venture in
Flash Video with the use of the Maven Flash Video product. It’s a start. Expect to see more develop on the Flash video scene at CBC.ca. We
all love flash, but I invite you to look into the costs of streaming Flash
video over Akamai at a reasonable cost. You will be astounded.
As for validating, I think you will find that this site gets closest to
validating at XHTML Transitional than any other high traffic news and
information site out there. Our homepage renders with 12 errors, which are
for the most part the result of an ancient application(Program Guide does
not encode & as & in urls among other things) that is in the process of being
decommissioned. Compared to the New York Times(332 errors at HTML 4.1) I
think we are doing very well.
I would however invite you to do your own redesign with similar xhtml
structure and post it for the web to see. There is no real API that we can make publicly available, but if you look at the source you should be able to see that most content is output in a certain html structure. Perhaps you have a better idea for
how Ads could be implemented on our site(Not implemented does not count), or maybe you could bring better attention to the News content.
Post it and the design team will most certainly be excited to see what you
have!
–Alan
Want to get text based news… get a news reader like Google reader and subscribe to feeds. It’s only way to fly.
I am pleased to see the daily news archives at the bottom of the news page. (I think this is new; if not I apologize for past epithets muttered under my breath.) It would be great to see this on the regional news pages as well. And also to be able to click for “more” regional news headlines (as is possible with all the national/international news groups).
I am ecstatic that I no longer have to reset my location in the schedules every time I move to the “next day” or another portion of the day. It used to reset to Ottawa (EST) every time time you changed the time period. Thank you for fixing this!
Jay (in the Pacific Time Zone).
There always was a news archive feature - it’s basically a daily snapshot of the news homepage. But it was kind of buried before, and is a lot more obvious now.
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