Method creates new Radio Times website

Method has worked with BBC Magazines’ in-house digital team and broadcast design group Meta Broadcast to create a new website for the The Radio Times, which aims to target ‘hunter-gatherer’ viewers.

Torchwood

Radio Times owner BBC Magazines is in the process of selling the Radio Times, along with 10 other non-BBC-branded titles, to publisher Exponent.

Method was appointed to the work by BBC Worldwide following a pitch in October. Method was asked to align the website with the print magazine to try to reach a younger audience.

As part of the project, the team developed a Watchlist app, which is designed to compile and share content, as well as receiving viewing recommendations tailored from user behaviour.

Radio Times editor Ben Preston says the website is designed ‘for the new age of the hunter gatherer’. He adds, ‘Radiotimes.com will help our readers hunt down what they want to watch and gather up the great shows they’ve missed.’

Readers can follow their favourite programmes and films, be alerted to when they’re next on or repeated, shown where they can be found on demand and, if a new series is planned, find out when that starts.

A new film section and a local cinema search will feature, as will a ‘buzz chart’ pooling real-time feeds to interpret the most talked about programmes and films.

Method creative director Áthila Armstrong says, ‘There’ll be buttons to set preferences. People will be able to pinpoint programmes just as they would mark them in the magazine.’

Armstrong says the look has been governed by the print magazine with ‘shared typography and the same feel in body copy and headlines’ plus a title banner ‘which will reflect the changing colours used in the magazine’.

Radiotimes.com has launched in beta and is expected to relaunch fully within a week. 

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Comments
  • Peter Riches November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    The new web-site is a graphics mess – there are bits nd pieces all over the pages, with no central logic. Surely most visitors of the site want a simple listing of programmes, without all the highlighted rubbish. This can come later if people opt for it. I shows an arrogant disregard for the core viewer.

  • Bob November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    This all sounds great. The reality, however, is that the single best UK TV listings website has been destroyed with thoughtless design and a complete lack of understanding of usability.

  • Daniel November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    In a way good, though miss the complete lack of searching for a programme and having a display of all scheduled broadcasts of that programme. Should be the kind of thing it’s easy to find (as it was on the old site).

  • sal pinto November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Change for the sake of change. Radio Times had a perfectly good website that worked with all browsers.
    The new site is confusing, overloaded with graphics – hence slow, and fails to work properly.
    Best avoided

  • dominic November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    ‘Method was asked to align the website with the print magazine to try to reach a younger audience.’

    How patronizing to assume cos Im younger that I
    will think ‘ wow- new fonts and crap gossip- oo what a cool design’
    Its not – it doesnt do what you need, it doesnt even work! it just tries to tell you what to watch-
    Dont you get it Radio times doesn’t need to be cool! its not that kind of magazine!

  • ankush November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    no comment

  • tim linnell November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    it’s dreadful – the old site worked well, this one is slow, crowded and looks diabolical, And it’s virtually impossible to figure out. What a total disaster.

  • Graham Smee November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    A big thumbs down from me too.Have complained but to no avail.

    Have looked for a substitute and find the following to be very reasonable. http://digiguide.tv/

    See the “Whats on Now” panel and click on the “View more programmes” link.

    Choice of dates, Grid view or List view. Type a prog name into the search box at the top and a list of showings will appear.

    The Beeb having sold out will be unlikely to revise their disaster I think.

  • Tony N November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    The new layout is really poor. It is cluttered, overloaded and not what I want. In the “new age of the hunter gatherer” we expect information to be displayed clearly and concisely, not split into 9 or more different panels that requires scrolling to see key info. Whoever signed this off obviously bought into some corporate geek speak rather than trusted basic judgement.

  • Designers United November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Poor typography. Poor creative direction. Poor skills altogether.

    Fire method. Re hire poke. Or hire someone else.

    Method, get better professionals. This is clearly sub par.

  • Michael Awford November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    So glad I’m not on my own in hating the new “downgrade”, I’m sure I’m not alone in just wanting to sit down and print off the programmes I may want to watch, I dislike being told what I like from some rubbish algorithm that has no chance of working out how my brain works. Judging by the response so far I think the new owners of Radio Times may be concerned at loss of advertising revenue as previous users jump ship for a more useable service. RESTORE THE OLD VERSION !

  • David Cole November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Unspeakably awful. Usual old story I suppose – new people in new jobs have to take new initiatives and the mess that is the new RT website is the result. What a waste of money.
    I’ll just have to find another site for the listings.

  • Duncan Hill November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    I’m not a big fan of the new design (probably because I’m used to the old one) but even worse, it’s just been confirmed that the new Radio Times website will not carry Videoplus codes due to the high cost of the Videoplus licence.

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