BBC Referend-erm?

• Fully responsive mobile-first site

• Designed to engage 16 and 17 year olds voting for the first time in the Scottish Referendum

• Provides a platform where no question is to big, small or “stupid” to ask about the referendum

• BBC News stories and features

• Quiz questions pushed out daily over social media

• Ask your own question about the referendum

How did the project come about?

• Sept 2013– BBC Connected Studio workshop in Glasgow– 1 day, 20+ teams, 2 minute pitch– Brief: How to engage 16-17 year olds voting for the first time in the referendum?– Wireframes created for pitch– Concept selected for build phase

• Nov 2013– Build phase– 2 days, 4 teams, 10 minute pitch – Refine concept– Build a working prototype– Pilot project was approved

• Feb 2014– Proposal meeting with BBC in London– Discussions on how to build the site

• Mar 2014– Interface build

• May 2014– Site launched

What part did I play?

• Connected Studio– Helped to generate ideas– Provided technical expertise to compliment creative input– Hosted a focus group with target audience

• Build studio– Built a functioning prototype from previous wireframes – Reacted quickly to feedback received on the day– Live demonstration of prototype during pitch

• Proposal meeting– Listened to the client’s requirements– Advised the best course of action to develop the site

What part did I play?

• Project build– Unavailable for the build due to other priorities– Contractor hired to complete the work– Provided support and direction to contractor,

with regular check ups to ensure they were managing their workload effectively

– Functionality that the contractor needed assistance with was developed outside of working hours

– Liaising with technical team at BBC wherever necessary to ensure a smooth transition to the live server

Our approach

• Site built using WordPress as a CMS

• Question functionality added via a custom plugin

• Front-end built using Grunt, LESS, jQuery and QUnit

• Why this approach?– Technologies that we were already familiar with– Grunt and LESS significantly speed up development– QUnit is a good novice-friendly unit testing framework– WordPress flexible enough for our needs– Experience of building custom plugins for WordPress– Content editors already familiar with WP admin pages

Testing

JavaScript code was tested using QUnitUser testing carried out by PM and client

Category filters

Choosing answers News feed AJAX calls

Project hurdles

• BBC wanted to use a Tumblr blog– Did not want to host the site on BBC network– Impression that “target audience are using it”– Wanted site to be close to its audience

• Asked to make the site work in Tumblr– Evaluated a number of options– Struggled to find an elegant solution– Platform was too limited for our requirements

• Constructed an argument for not using Tumblr– Research showed little use of Tumblr with Scottish teenagers– WordPress allowed better scope for customisation– Hosting could be provided with an Amazon web server– Tumblr could still be used as a social media channel

• End result?– Client was persuaded away from using Tumblr

Project hurdles

• Last minute amends were required to the site– Radio 1 Academy event– Contractor no longer available– CSS bugs and extra functionality requested by client– High profile event with much time and effort invested

• Additional resource required– Project Manager approved overtime– Extra developers brought onto project– Knowledge of project helped bring them up to speed quickly– Liaised with PM to ensure all outstanding tasks were

completed– Developing late into the evening

• Site was ready in time for the event

What next?

“Ask” Referend-erm? sister site created for Radio 1 Academy event

What next?

Promoted across BBC online channels

What next?

Helped to secure additional BBC work including projects for…

What next?

Ideas refined for future projects

Thank you for listening

Questions?