WEBSITE COMPARISON: BBC NEWS & SKY NEWS
The websites for BBC News and Sky News are both aimed at the market sector ABC1 and are likely to be the first port of call for any informative news by people aged 14 and above. The BBC News website is currently the most popular news website in the UK, recording around 14million unique users each week. It is funded primarily through the television license. Whilst Sky News does not quite reach the same amount of hits a week, it is still a very popular source of information. This comparative analysis was one of my university assignments and has been edited for this website.
Searchability
When conducting a Google Search of “BBC”, a link to the BBC News site was the third suggested result, with other elements of the BBC Website the first two links. Similarly, when searching “Sky”, Sky News is the second search result, after the television site for the company. However, when simply searching “news” on Google, ‘BBC News’ and ‘Sky News’ are the first and second search results. Although, it is fair to say that a website’s popularity is not dependent on SEO.
Layout and Design
‘BBC News’ and ‘Sky News’ look professional and include a search bar at the top of the homepage for easily recovered content. Both websites favour the “three panel layout” proposed by Jeffrey Veen (2001). With only three general regions on the page, there is increased usability as the different regions are distinguishable; optimising the content on the page. This minimalistic and understandable design could be a reason for these websites success as it allows the website to maximise its full potential and purpose.
Navigation
The navigation of the websites remain sophisticated due to the design. The BBC Newswebsite in particular makes great use of interactivity. Hyperlinks are underlined if the cursor hovers over them and the hyperlinks refer to other articles and websites where available. The navigation on the Sky News website doesn’t look quite as sophisticated as that of BBC News; however, this may be due to the emphasis on multimedia. On Sky News the hyperlinks change colour when hovering with a cursor. In addition,Sky News has a feature that links to a person’s “profile”. If you click on the hyperlink of public figure featured on the site, an archive of articles, news reports, feature articles and galleries by Sky reporters are available.
Searchability
When conducting a Google Search of “BBC”, a link to the BBC News site was the third suggested result, with other elements of the BBC Website the first two links. Similarly, when searching “Sky”, Sky News is the second search result, after the television site for the company. However, when simply searching “news” on Google, ‘BBC News’ and ‘Sky News’ are the first and second search results. Although, it is fair to say that a website’s popularity is not dependent on SEO.
Layout and Design
‘BBC News’ and ‘Sky News’ look professional and include a search bar at the top of the homepage for easily recovered content. Both websites favour the “three panel layout” proposed by Jeffrey Veen (2001). With only three general regions on the page, there is increased usability as the different regions are distinguishable; optimising the content on the page. This minimalistic and understandable design could be a reason for these websites success as it allows the website to maximise its full potential and purpose.
Navigation
The navigation of the websites remain sophisticated due to the design. The BBC Newswebsite in particular makes great use of interactivity. Hyperlinks are underlined if the cursor hovers over them and the hyperlinks refer to other articles and websites where available. The navigation on the Sky News website doesn’t look quite as sophisticated as that of BBC News; however, this may be due to the emphasis on multimedia. On Sky News the hyperlinks change colour when hovering with a cursor. In addition,Sky News has a feature that links to a person’s “profile”. If you click on the hyperlink of public figure featured on the site, an archive of articles, news reports, feature articles and galleries by Sky reporters are available.
Comments
Post a Comment