Sneak peek at new BBC website design

The new BBC website revamp will feature a universal media player, improved visual clarity, and a host of design changes, the state broadcaster announced in a blog post this week.

The BBC said that "we set out to broaden our ambitions; to create a design philosophy and world-class design standards that all designers across the business could adhere to. We wanted to find the soul of the BBC. We wanted something distinctive and recognisable; we wanted drama. We knew whatever we created needed to be truly cross-platform and that we needed to simplify our user journeys".

The Guardian called the new design "tidier" than the previous one, which had been launched fully 12 years ago, and said that the emphasis on typographical details was down to the influence of Neville Brody, the head of Research Studios. Brody's firm, according to the Guardian, "helped the BBC design team to apply the BBC's new design philosophy, described by … its own key terms modern British, current, authentic, compelling, distinctive, pioneering, joined-up, universal and best".

The new website is due to be launched in "a matter of months", according to the Guardian.