Project details

For over 15 years, the BBC has provided extensive coverage of the UK General Election on their news website. Our task was to collaborate with various BBC teams to create a cohesive experience for users interested in the General Election.

The focus was primarily on the top banner of the election pages, summarising the counting results, and the detailed results pages, including the 650 constituency pages. The results pages had 55 million views in the first two days.

My role

Lead UX Designer. I led a team of 2 UX designers and an information architect, managed stakeholders (editorial, marketing, product, engineering, and other design teams), and developed the vision for the user experience.

I encouraged my team to improve their skills in presentations, workshops, and research, transitioned our processes to JIRA for better alignment with engineering and visibility, and managed timelines across three elections: local elections, the General Election, and the US presidential election.

Challenge

This project was complex due to its ethical and legal implications. Additionally, the General Election's timing, called by the Prime Minister at any time, added unpredictability.

My initial limited understanding of British politics posed a challenge. We aimed to create an experience using the banner as an anchor for all election coverage on the website, ensuring users always had onward journeys and opportunities to learn more.

The audience, "everyone in the UK," had diverse needs, from those with no political knowledge to those familiar with every detail.

Solution

We developed a carefully crafted journey allowing users to gain a complete at-a-glance understanding of the election while offering deeper dives into the details and intricacies of the results. The solution included:

• A dynamic banner in various states
• Comprehensive results pages for the UK, Nations (England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland), and 650 constituencies
• Welsh language versions of the banner and pages

Process overview

Discovery

Review of past research:
Analysed insights from previous elections (local elections, Northern Ireland Assembly, 2019 General Election) and recent research on democratic participation to define user needs.

Personas and audiences:
Focused on underserved audiences by reviewing the personas and audiences the BBC caters to.

Requirements gathering:
Collected requirements from editorial, product, and engineering teams.

Design

First iteration:
Created initial banner and page designs based on previous feedback, iterating through multiple review rounds with different teams.

Workshops:
Conducted multiple workshops with various teams and colleagues to ensure all legal and user requirements were met.

Testing

Early testing:
Began testing designs early to meet objectives such as clear navigation, at-a-glance result views, and differentiating between exit polls and actual results.

Participant diversity:
Recruited participants from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, regions across the UK, BBC users and non-users, and varying levels of political knowledge.

Results

The final product provided accurate and clear election coverage, meeting the needs of a wide audience.

The election results pages garnered an overwhelming 55 million views, demonstrating the effectiveness and reach of our design.

Get in touch

Send me an email: hi@dianamundo.com or get in touch via LinkedIn