The Glass Wall

[David]

This month's PCPro just dropped through my letterbox and there is an excellent feature on Website design, mainly talking about aesthetics. The article mentions an 86 page document called The Glass Wall, written by the BBC and describing the design process that they went through when the BBCi website was redesigned last year. Since we're all such big fans of the site, I thought you might like to get hold of this document. It makes great reading but is difficult to get hold of. The BBC are not keen to have it out in the wild. Presumably they intend publishing it at some point. The document is beautifully put together. It's a big download, an 8MB PDF file. Currently, you can get a zipped version here (http://www.tomontheweb.ca/DirectorExtras/Tips_techniques.html) but it's unlikely to be there for long as the BBC are asking sites to remove it when they find it. If it's not there, try this Google Search (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22the+glass+wall%22+BBC+pdf+download&btnG=Google+Search).

[francis]

James' - I think this is the BBC document that I meniotned a few months ago. JB - I'm sure this is the one you printed off and I've seen by your desk. I think I've still got it stashed on a drive at work somewhere. I'll have a look on Monday .

[Tom]

Thank you, David, for an interesting link. It certainly represents an approach to web design. But I found the document to reprenet an essentially directionless approach. The introduction states that "We needed to balance the needs of these users with the needs of our own business." But what is their 'business'. For the BBC's web involvement this has never been defined. They seem to be encroaching on other people's business territory for no particular reason, except a desire for global domination of the information 'industry'.

[David]

I think you're partly right. The whole process does come across as quite amorphous but when you look at the site itself, you know this can't have been the case. I think there is a lot of useful detail in the document but it strikes me that the BBC have been rather reluctant to give away all their secrets - certainly the document is short on overall design strategy.

I have to admit that I am a fan of the BBC website and applaud their proactive approach in their use of the medium. I'm very happy to see my licence fee being spent on this and frankly I don't care that the BBC are moving out into new areas. Just about everything they do is of high quality and for me, they are an important yardstick in a world where quality is becoming less important.

[Tom]

Fair point. But the people whose businesses are being underminded by the BBC tend to disagree (eg the publishers of TV guides who are roasted by the BBC's use of 'free' advertising. I also wonder where the talk about 'Voice Mapping' comes from. I guess the inventors have psychology degrees + experience in the advertising industry.

[David]

I have little sympathy for those companies who bleat on about "unfair advantage". The BBC may be in a plivilaged position but name one private company that wouldn't make the most of such an advantage. I applaud the BBC for being possibly the only publicly funded organisation who seem able to beat the private sector at their own game.

I would guess that as a very large organisation, the BBC find it possible to draw upon whatever skills they think they need when designing a website and this will inevitably lead to the use of all sorts of psychobabble. I think it's worth remembering that this area of design is so new that the rules have yet to be written and colloquial terms are still evolving. Who knows what all this stuff means? But the proof of the pudding (as they say) is in the eating.

[David]

Just thought it might be nice to have a record of what we're talking about. Here is the BBCi homepage from the 24th and 25th November.

http://www.websitearchitecture.co.uk/watson/postimages/bbc01.jpg http://www.websitearchitecture.co.uk/watson/postimages/bbc02.jpg

It's also worth pointing out that this page has a Google ranking of 9/10. That's pretty high and means that it is used a lot and that it is linked to from a lot of other important sites.

[Tom]

Have you noticed that Dabs.com have just switched from fixed colum widths to relative column widths? That was a business decision. It puzzles me that BBCi have not done the same. I've forgotten why I set my laptop to 1400x1050 but the BBC homepage only takes up 66% of my screen. As Nielsen observes, this is a wasted opportunity - and I fear the BBC's decision was a consequence of putting advertising psychologists in charge of their web team. As with the built environment, the only valid policy is to heed the contributions of all the professions. The 9/10 Google ranking is, of course, stunning.

[David]

The fixed column width is a very good point. It's something that I hope will be discussed during James B's seminar on 3rd Dec. You can see why they have had to do it. The content is very ordered and tabular and the expansion of the columns would only have resulted in lots of unsightly "white" space and this would cause a loss of focus on the content. The question is; "is there a better way of arranging the content that would allow a variable column width?"

I have to admit to being guilty of using fixed width columns myself. Actually, I do it all the time (except on this website). So, I have some sympathy with the BBC but I accept that it isn't ideal.

[James]

Hi,

Yes, this is exactly the type of thing I will be discussing in my seminar.

[Phil]

I think what Dabs are doing (and what Amazon do too) is have two fixed width columns either side and have the centre column variable width - this is the column that stretches to fill up the page while the side columns stay the same.

Don't forget though that when you have long lines of text (e.g. in a Tom Turer 1400 wide page ) it's difficult for the eye to jump from the end of one line to the beginning of the next.

Interestingly with the BBC page their fixed width if wider now than it used to be - I guess to account for most people now being at least 800 wide. Maybe they'll increase their fixed width again in a year or two. Mind you, my old mum is still on 640x480 and won't go higer.

[David]

Good point Phil. It's all very well having variable columns but we all know that ideally the column width for text should be less than about 600px. Beyond this it becomes difficult to read. How do we square that?

Here's what the Web Style Guide (http://www.webstyleguide.com) has to say in an article called Fixed versus flexible (http://www.webstyleguide.com/page/fixed-flex.html). Also, we're not the only ones discussing this issue, see Accessibility vs. column width (http://archives.hwg.org/hwg-techniques/3E661B05.1527.1BE2F8A@localhost) and also this article (http://www.khgraphics.com/articles/csstip01.htm) that advocates the use of text columns of just 450px.

[James]

Hi

I have put a copy of The Glass Wall on my webspace. It's 8MB but well worth the download.

http://www.vinylminer.co.uk/theglasswall_bbc_design.pdf

Cheers

[Tom]

Page widths again: as I recall, Nielsen's argument is that fixed width tables result in half your shop window being empty - for people like me.

[James]

As we will be discussing The Glass Wall next week, here's a reminder that you can access the document here:

http://www.vinylminer.co.uk/theglasswall_bbc_design.pdf

It's 8MB, let me know if you want a copy on CDR.

Cheers.

[Stephen Bawa]

James B

Your link to the Glass Wall doesn't appear to work, I'm afraid. Any chance you know of another link to the document, as I'm very interested in having a read

Cheers

[James]

Hi Steve

I did bring this in on a CD but didn't see you for a few weeks and it then slipped my mind.

I removed it from my webspace as I needed the space but I'll put it back on-line and let you know the link.

Thanks.

[James]

Here it is (http://www.websitearchitecture.co.uk/barker/forum/theglasswall_bbc_design.pdf)