To be honest, I'd give it 65%, the big text doesn't look brilliant in places and I think perhaps use of something like cufon and a nicer font rather than arial for the headers might have been wise. The header however looks better than on the homepage.
Also worthy of note, due to the use of flash on the homepage the "more" link doesn't work properly due to flash's habit of orcing itself to the front.
Another point, I note that it's currently hiding in a /dw/ subfolder, wonder why as its rather untidy looking. Also the classic site is retaining the old barlesque, I wonder what the plan is for that, I presume at some point they'll change the header like they did when they replaced the grey menus with the black version.
On a different note, regarding the BBC News changes, can anyone in the know suggest whether this involves a CMS change or whether its just an upgrade to CPS? Will we finally get nicer urls? I know they're suggesting they'll let us know on the blog but I'm so darn excited I need my geeky spoilers.
It's really nice that's it's broken out of the normal 960px (or whatever) - but the fonts seem a bit large all round and I'm still unsure about the very top black bar. Will see how it plays out with the other sites though.
Another point, I note that it's currently hiding in a /dw/ subfolder, wonder why as its rather untidy looking. Also the classic site is retaining the old barlesque, I wonder what the plan is for that, I presume at some point they'll change the header like they did when they replaced the grey menus with the black version.
I noticed that the classic website main page has been updated to remove the link to the (very) old main page. I think the use of a /dw subfolder is due to an older version still lurking and the wish not to place content in a 'series' sub-folder (ie. /s4). Personally I think /dw sub-folder should only have been used whilst beta testing the new site and that once live to the public the new site should not have used this folder which makes the URLs look a bit messy in my opinion.
It's nice to see the new header uses transparency, though I wonder where the 'BBC iD' links will go. Also as already mentioned the use of flash at the top of the new home page does currently break the menu.
Ignoring my concerns about the new look Doctor Who, I'm not a fan of that site as a whole.
The top banner - to be incorporated across the BBC - is relatively nice and does it's job OK and I'm (sort of) liking the idea of backgrounds that stretch to browser width.
Also there are lots of photos, which is nice.
But why such big fonts? Certainly not cutting-edge design in my opinion.
Ignoring my concerns about the new look Doctor Who, I'm not a fan of that site as a whole.
The top banner - to be incorporated across the BBC - is relatively nice and does it's job OK and I'm (sort of) liking the idea of backgrounds that stretch to browser width.
Also there are lots of photos, which is nice.
But why such big fonts? Certainly not cutting-edge design in my opinion.
A general trend with web design at present is to increase the font size to about 15px instead of 13px. It's the BBC catching up with modern web design trends.
Also worthy of note, due to the use of flash on the homepage the "more" link doesn't work properly due to flash's habit of orcing itself to the front.
Looks like they've tweaked the flash so that when the more button link is clicked/active the flash is temporarily disabled, showing just the background image. Also in the header on the Doctor Who site the 'iPlayer' link appears to be missing, compared to the version on the beta home page.
