Posted on February 2, 2010 by by Valeri

A few days ago the ABC announced the redesign of all their Local ABC websites and they went live today.

But did they deliver? are the new ABC local news websites user friendly?, easy to navigate? do they give you a good user experience? are they accessible? sociable? and better than the previous design? I should point out that all the local ABC websites have the same layout and very similar look and feel so I am just going to refer to it as a simple design.

Well, in my personal opinion the new ABC website looks much better than before, the site is clean, easy to browse and much friendlier.

As you visit the website you can see a few major headlines in the frontpage with links to their audio and video versions, you can also see the unaccessible and unfriendly content scroller news feed which in the site is called “Updates”, I don’t have anything against it but when it comes to accessibility that is one of the first features people comment about and I am sure they will get a few complains for it. Their Updates feature contains a link to their “more announcements” page which is a list of all their Twitter Feeds.

On the right hand side you get a big weather feature which looks nice, I have heard some people saying it is a little too big but then again many news websites do the same.

As you scroll down the page you find the Program quick links, the program quick links has two main link tabs, weekdays and weekends but are they suppose to link somewhere? when I click on them they just take me to the top of the page, is that suppose to be happening? maybe not.

Then you have a list of all the ABC programs and their presenters, by clicking on any of the program links you are taken to the programs page where you get more information about the program you select.

Then you finally get to the local, national and international news and events section, I am not sure why they were put at the very bottom of the page but anyway, did I mention I selected ten different articles and I couldn’t find the leave your comments option?

On the right hand side of the homepage you also have the daily program schedule and a link to their live radio.

We could obviously talk about this forever but the point of this is mainly let you know the ABC has a new website and they want everyone to give them some feedback. Visit them at ABC

My final thoughts? the site looks better than before and easier to navigate around it, visit them and share your thoughts.

Some of the local ABC sites are:

http://www.abc.net.au/canberra

http://www.abc.net.au/sydney

http://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/

http://www.abc.net.au/brisbane/

Tweet