Has something funny happened to the rhythm of refreshment in the online presence of BBC News ?
The News website launched in 1997; there was an overhaul in 2003, to make pages wider, and fit in with some of the design elements of News 24; in 2010, the vertical list of options on the left hand side moved to the top. UK users were left with a lot of white space - valuable ad space for readers coming via bbc.com. The first News App also launched in 2010. The last major refresh came in 2015, under editor Steve Herrmann, with designs that were 'responsive' to the device you were using - smartphones, tablets, laptops and pcs.
Given the white heat of change in the world of apps, it's a tad surprising that we've had to wait until 2023 for a new News App, currently rated no higher than two stars by reviewers on the Google Play Store. It may have something to do with the arrival of the separate "Product" re-imagining of Design & Engineering, in 2021. At that stage, the NAO were sceptical that there was a real digital strategy....
What's odder still is that this latest iteration seems to have been done in a rush, and complainers are told "the app is still in the early phases of development".
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