主播大秀

This blog post is about the new features we are launching to support coverage of the General Election, to update you on the performance of the new App and Website, and to talk about some of the things we’re doing in response to .

Digital General Election

Central to our approach is that the best of 主播大秀 content should be available across PC’s, mobiles and tablets, and the new App and responsive website make this possible. You can now see some of those features live as the Election campaign starts:

The 主播大秀 News app has been updated to include a special Election 2015 hub that provides access to all the election coverage and, for the first time, access to all interactive Visual Journalism content such as poll trackers and results maps

Our Election Manifesto Guide isproviding a complete breakdown of policies party by party in a format that can be easily embedded in articles or shared on social media

There is , listing all the candidates, and an interactive quiz that users can test their knowledge of how well they know their constituency

We have rolling running every day, using the 主播大秀 Live product developed by 主播大秀 Sport, that highlight breaking news and allow users to listen or watch live to the best of our political programmes on TV or on Radio.

Engagement with the new App and Website

Since launch there are some very encouraging trends with the new site and news app:

• SEO rankings for top news search terms have improved which we hope will mean introducing more people to 主播大秀 News, particularly for the World Service.
• Over 2 million people have personalised the new app, and on average they follow about 8 topics per user
• We have seen a steep increase in the amount of video consumed; about twice the amount per user
• Over 250,000 people have set their location on the new website.

Visits per user on both the new app and website have remained constant, but on the app we have seen a drop in the number of articles read per user which we are investigating to understand the cause.

Since launch we’ve run a series of targeted focus groups with different types of users to understand what they like and don’t like about using the new apps on Android and iOS.

Changes being made in response to feedback

There has been a huge amount of feedback to the changes on both the app and the website, most of it highlighting things that people don’t like about the new designs. We take this feedback very seriously; it has all been analysed, and used in conjunction with the data about how people are using the site to prioritise our product backlogs.

Some of your suggestions have already been implemented or will be live in the next two weeks:

• Improvements and fixes to accessibility on the app
• Fixing the preview widget on Android apps
• Making it easier to find Nations indexes (Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England) from the desktop navigation
• Introducing Watch and Listen Live buttons on the website
• Introducing a new Breaking News banner on the web

Three key themes, that have been common in feedback, are being investigated and will be introduced after the General Election:

• Increasing story density on the app
• Investigating use of a wider colour palette on the web
• How to make the website scale more effectively on larger displays

We will continue to keep you updated with our progress here, and really value your continued feedback.