Does the clock need to be useful? Others have singled it out as ‘cute’. Perhaps it just adds a little personality?

Good point. I do find the clock visually appealing and yeah, why not?

I agree. The clock definitely sets the design apart. If there were three or four useless widgets around the page, I might point a finger—the clock is tastefully done.

The clock def. adds a touch of class. There are some very notable browser issues with the background. I’m not to jazzed about the color switcher in the main ad, and the module headers are bit too web 2.0 for me. BUT hey its a beta and the functionality is there !

It’s way better than the current homepage, more readable, better organized, but it doesn’t seems to me to perfectly fit the BBC visual communication style.

The clock is a nice reminder of some of the history of the Beeb – it used to be used as a channel ident way starting off back in the 60’s.

http://625.uk.com/tv_logos/bbc.htm

I like the font size.

I do not like the gradient-overload.

I find the design a bit too roundy and the colours come across less serious for a site like BBC – tradeoff of being informal vs friendly.

Although I like the site overall, I have to say that the contrasts don’t work for me: somehow, I find the visual chunking rather confusing, maybe it is because of all the round stuff in between, I guess I am looking for clear lines and can’t really find them. Also, when items are collapsed, they almost disappear on my low contrast laptop screen.

On the other hand, it is refreshingly different, and I think that’s what I find attractive about the site. It’s not just another web 2.0 portal place that is screaming for attention, it’s almost like an Apple gadget that tries to convince you with its unique style :-)

It’s just so big! It makes it look childish and too informal – not great for a trustworthy news source.

Too much whitespace for me. But this custom stuff is cool.

While I agree with Emilio that the beta design doesn’t fit the BBC visual communication style, I am completely drawn to the new design. The whitespace and font size are a welcome relief. I love the contrast and overall layout.

It may be more informal, but comparing the current to the beta is interesting. The sharpness of the beta design is quite unique.

The whitespace does tend to make you think that it’s a bit content-light, I quite like a lot of content on my customised pages (iGoogle being a good example) but the bold approach here means that it works better with less stuff.

The type is way too big. I think it all looks a bit amateur and blog-ish. Much prefer the layout of http://www.rte.ie/news/

I like the ajax panels that allow me to show/ hide, but the overall design seems cluttered to me, and a bit overpowering. Functionality A+, Design C+.