BBC revamps website to improve swipe usability

Homepage receives a makeover to cater for the tablet market.

The British Broadcasting Corporation is in the process of redesigning its website, adapting to the market change as the number of tablet users grows and PC users slows, the Apple iPad alone sold over nine million units in Q1.

Tablets require the user to operate the touchscreen through swipes and drags and the BBC is recognising this with a beta version, which includes content carousels.

BBC has said: "We’ve made some changes to your BBC Homepage. We hope they will make it easier for you to find more of what you want from the BBC.

"When we looked at the homepage and asked audiences what they thought about it, it became clear that we could make the page work harder to showcase more of the BBC’s output on air, on TV and online.

"The beta provides a first glimpse of core design principles that will underpin the reshaped BBC Online, which take into account changing user behaviours including the preference for ‘swiping’ through content – increasingly intuitive given the rise of touch-screen smart phones and tablets."