UK TV Broadcaster Web Site Design, 2008

As part of a larger analysis of 12 firms across four industries, Forrester applied its Web Site Review methodology to the Web sites of the UK's top three television broadcasters: BBC One, Channel4, and ITV. As a group, the TV broadcaster's Web sites received a low average score compared with wireless providers and newspapers, but they performed fractionally better than grocery retail sites — which were the worst performers. BBC One ranked highest among the TV broadcaster sites, but did not receive an overall passing grade, while ITV ranked second to last of all of the 12 Web sites reviewed. There were usability problems on each site, but our analysis also uncovered a number of good practices. For example, BBC One's site search worked well, Channel4 provided excellent content and exposed subcategories, and ITV used good language and provided users with clear feedback in response to their actions. To improve Web site experiences, customer experience professionals should evaluate their sites to uncover usability problems, focus on fixing problems with known solutions first, make the business case for additional improvements, and use personas to support design decisions.