The last two months have been exciting for BBC Radio on digital platforms: in October we launched BBC iPlayer Radio, bringing together all of the BBC's English language radio stations (57 of them!) into one coherent digital product across desktop, tablet and mobile.

We launched our first smartphone application for iOS devices, which has now been downloaded over one million times, easily surpassing our expectations.

We continue to work hard on releasing an app for Android devices which will offer a great experience, and that continues to be our number one priority. More on the mobile app on my colleague James Simcock's blog post.

BBC iPlayer Radio across all platforms now reaches around 6 million UK unique browsers per week, breaking all previous records, which is 30% up compared to October 2011. We are seeing a significant increase (almost one fifth, 18%) in traffic to the product homepage, which receives over a million unique browsers per week, and which in turn is sending higher numbers of people to the individual station sites: Radio 2 saw a 31% increase between September and November, whilst Radio 4 saw a 9% increase.

iPlayer Radio on mobile web

Another interesting change we are seeing is an increase in visitors to both Categories and Schedules. The use of Categories has increased by 83% between September and November (although the actual numbers are still relatively low) whilst Schedules increased by 10%. This is partly due to their prominence on the product homepage and the navigation bar which runs across all pages, and partly due to visitors using new ways to find the content they are looking for. Also, perhaps not surprisingly, more people are using the left/right arrows to navigate through the tabs on station homepages than are clicking on the tab names.

iPlayer Radio catagories

Audience Feedback

The majority of the feedback has been great, with constructive suggestions for how we might improve the product in future releases. There are a number of key feedback themes emerging:

1. Some people miss the overview of what is on-air across all stations. This was previously more obvious on the old homepage (although we still have that view here but it is less obvious and visual than before) and being able to listen live directly from this page.

2. Some listeners, especially from Radio 4, have found it harder to find the programmes they love and want to listen to on-demand, whether using the search facility or browsing.

3. A number of people were put off using the "Favourites" feature because initially it only allowed you to add a single episode instead of a whole series to your personalised list of favourite programmes.

What we've done since launch

This feedback has been extremely useful, and has already led to some changes which we have implemented.

1. The new product homepage was certainly a radical change from what went before it, so I wasn't surprised that some listeners missed the previous page. Our thinking was to make a very simple page which allowed users to quickly get to where they wanted to go, without presenting an overload of information.

To address the specific concern around seeing what is on-air now across all the stations, we are looking at making this much more obvious, so expect to see some changes in the new year. We have also made the homepage tabs addressable, meaning you can bookmark or share them. For example: https://meleleh.pages.dev/radio/#schedules.

2. To help listeners find programmes we have made the "Programmes A-Z" link more prominent, added in the key programmes to the programmes drop down in the navigation tool bar, added more categories, and made a significant change to the way our programme search works, meaning you no-longer have to type the exact programme title, and search results show programmes even if they are no longer available to listen to (after 7 days for most programmes).

Programme A - Z

3. To make the product a more simple and personalised experience, you can now follow a programme series rather than just a specific episode. So when you click on Favourites in the toolbar, you see a list of the programmes you are following, not just individual episode which may have expired.

iPlayer Radio Favourites

On top of this, we have now enabled playback of audio clips (sections of whole programmes) so users on smart phones can listen on the move. This is particularly useful for those who want something short to listen to whilst out and about.

Please continue to give us your feedback via our Feedback page and do follow us on Twitter for frequent updates.

Chris Kimber is Executive Product Manager, Programmes and On Demand, BBC Future Media

It’s been fascinating seeing people’s reactions to the new station homepages over these 4 months, watching as a number of trends became apparent. This post is a current summary of that feedback and a brief look at what we’ve done as a result.

The Radio 4 beta homepage

"Please cut out the pretty graphics and present the info at a glance."

The key thing users have told us they would like to see improved is navigation to core pages that they are used to accessing on the existing homepages. For example, some users found it hard to get to the station schedule, the programme A-Z list, categories or on-demand programmes they wanted to listen to.

For some Radio 4 users in particular, there was confusion when the initial view of Radio 4 was the “Highlights” section, as opposed to the “On Air Now” space, meaning they found it hard to find the “Listen Live” button. Others found it hard at first to find the podcasts they were looking for.

"I like the new look, but took me a minute or two to find the listen live button."

Interestingly, research found that the most frequent users of the existing Radio 4 site found the new pages least easy to use, whilst those who were less frequent users tended to be more positive about the new designs. This was not surprising, as generally the more familiar a user is with a website, the longer it takes to get used to changes to that site.

"Got to say the beta website looks great. It is a massive improvement on the current website."

On the design front, many people liked the new layout, describing it as “modern”, whilst others felt that the overall impression was of being too dark.

"Generally, I like the difference and I particularly like the boldness and vitality added by the use of the large, simple photos and graphics."

Another key theme was that users frequently wanted to visit a programme page for relevant information, but not actually listen to the programme.

"By clicking, I just started listening to the latest episode, when what I wanted to do was to just discover more about it."

Tablet users, iPads mainly, have told us that they want to listen to live radio streams, and people who visit the sites on their smart phones have said they want to listen to stations including local radio.

We have read through all the emails and survey results, and have already introduced some changes in response. These include:

- Making the main navigation links more visible, and renaming one of these from “Programme Finder” to “Programmes” with a more clearly labelled programme A-Z underneath it.

- Changing the way links to programme work so instead of immediately playing a programme when a user clicks on a link we take you through to the episode page for that programme.

- In the case of Radio 4, we have experimented with defaulting the site to both the Highlights and the On Air Now section, and measured the impact of both. The results (and our statistics) suggest that a significant number of users are looking for the Listen Live button, so we have improved the signposting to that end more clearly.

Signpost to 'listen to what's on air now'

- For national stations such as Radio 2, 3 and 4 we have now enabled live listening on iPad, and have also now fixed the problem we had with playing back on-demand programmes on the same device. We are working hard to do the same for the Nations stations such as Radio Scotland, and English local radio stations, although we don’t yet have a date when this will be resolved.

We are grateful to all of you who have taken the time to share your thoughts. We continue to incorporate your feedback directly into the product, and look forward to your continued support and involvement on our journey to creating a great online radio experience.

Chris Kimber is Executive Product Manager for the Radio and Music product

The planning wall in the Radio & Music product office.

Today sees a significant step towards the new Radio and Music product with the release of new beta station homepages for most of the BBC's radio stations.

This is the biggest change since the updates which I blogged about in February. It is the result of work by Andrew Scott's Radio & Music team in Future Media, and our editorial colleagues in Mark Friend's department, Audio & Music Interactive.

These pages are being released under a "Beta" banner, meaning they are not yet fully complete, and will not yet replace existing homepages (with the exception of Asian Network and 5Live Sports Extra which have already moved over to the product).

The reason we are releasing them now is to gather feedback on both audience needs and technical issues, which will help us ensure any major concerns can be dealt with before the product is launched later this year. Take a tour of the new features on our Welcome Page.

Consistent navigation across stations, showing link to welcome page

The most significant thing about this beta release is it shows how we're working to bring all of the BBC's radio stations together into one easy to use product, replacing the widely diverging designs, back end systems and technology that currently exist.

Our aim has been to put audience needs first, using a combination of usage data analysis, user testing and audience research to ensure that radio listeners get even more from BBC Radio.

The first thing you'll notice if you click around between stations is that we are trying to make things simple by using a consistent template across every station. Once you "get" how one station works, you don't have to re-learn it for a different station. For example, the link to the station schedule is in the exact same place for every station.

Later this year we'll be enhancing the look and feel to ensure that the character of each station is brought out even more.

We have listened to feedback from users and moved away from the pure "carousel" approach that many people didn't like with our earlier test site.

Greater control over your radio

With greater accessibility to radio comes greater control over content. One key feature that we are prioritising is the ability for the user to "Favourite" programmes and clips, by clicking the "Add To Favourites" link.

This allows users to save items to listen to later, and quickly get to the content they want via the Favourites page, giving a more personal and simple experience.

Add to Favourites

We have made this feature available to logged-in users only, so you can quickly get to your Favourites wherever you are and on all your devices. As more and more people use multiple devices - laptops, desktops, tablets, smartphones - this really makes sense.

So, if you see something at work you want to listen when you are at home, simply log in, click the "+" button next to the item, and quickly find it again via Favourites later.

Over time this feature will become widely available on all radio pages.

Discover more great content

With this beta release, we have made listening live extremely prominent (most online streaming is to live radio, not on-demand), creating a large space where we will progressively enhance the live experience.

Currently we are offering just the basics around the on-air programme and what's coming up next, but in the future we will use this space to surface more relevant content and context, whether that's related links or audio clips, archive content, live video, audience feedback or synchronous programme information.

The live tab offers information and content that enhances the live experience.

Alongside listening live, we're using a "tabbed" approach to present a wider range of content to users in a digestible manner. By having separate tabs which you can click though, we can expose content grouped by, for example, genre (e.g. Radio 4 comedy), automation (e.g. Popular Shows) or by editorial curation (e.g. Highlights).

Responsive pages

In line with the BBC's four screen strategy, to allow access to BBC Radio when and where you want, we are working to make the new station homepages work in a responsive manner across desktop and tablets, regardless of screen size. By "responsive", I mean that the homepages will detect and adapt to the particular device you access them on, giving you the optimum size and format for the screen you are using.

Unlike the new TV channels sites, for now we have taken the decision to offer different views of the station sites for mobiles (from the same code base) to ensure that as many mobile devices can quickly access BBC Radio on the go as possible. We work closely with the TV & iPlayer team, so will learn from what they are doing with a fully responsive design for the future.

Let us know what you think

Lastly, and most importantly, we want to hear from you with your thoughts on the new station homepages. You can complete a survey, send us an email (radiobetafeedback@bbc.co.uk ), comment below, tweet with the hashtag #bbcradiobeta or use our Feedback page.

Screenshot of Radio 3 Station Homepage on an iPad oriented in Portrait

Chris Kimber is Executive Product Manager for the Radio and Music product

Related posts (added June 12):

• Mark Friend, the Controller of BBC Audio & Music Interactive
• Steve Bowbrick, Interactive Editor, BBC Radio 3

The new Radio homepage, compared to the previous version (behind)

This week we have released several new elements of the Radio and Music product, which I will explain in this post.

Since my last post in December we have been busy releasing features and fixes every three weeks, listening to audience feedback sent in via our feedback form and also through formal user testing.

In January for the first time we offered the ability to customize the main BBC Radio homepage to the stations of your choice. This means that you can remove stations you are not interested in but keep the ones you like, and add your local station.

Personalise your stations

You have to log-in to the BBC to do this, so that you can access your personalised Radio homepage from all of your computers - at work, at home, and, with this new release, from your smartphone. This is one of the first times that the BBC has enabled sign-in on a mobile browser site, so we look forward to your feedback.

bbc.co.uk/radio on mobile

We have built on this basic personalisation with the addition of what we are calling “Favourites”. From within the station views (e.g. Radio 2) you can click the "+" button and add any audio or video item to your own Favourites list. You can then access your list by clicking “Favourites” in the top right of the navigation banner.

Again, you have to be logged in to do this, so that you can add items to your list from one location, and access them quickly from another. Currently you can add a programme episode or a clip, but not a whole programme series - but we’re working on adding that functionality.

We tested this new feature with a range of different age groups and it was universally welcomed as a great way to capture radio programmes or clips that you want to listen to at a later time.

It’s worth noting here that these Favourites are not the same as the ones you can see in the main iPlayer site, or in the Radioplayer console, but that will change so there is only one set of radio Favourites. Tell us what you think by commenting below, or filling in our feedback form.

There are two more innovations with our mobile sites that I want to highlight. Firstly, we now have mobile browser sites for all of the BBC’s stations, not just the national networks. So that means you can access all of the 40 English Local Radio stations and the six Nations stations on your smartphone.

Simply navigate to https://meleleh.pages.dev/radio/ on your smartphone, and select your local station. You can then click on “Edit Stations”, log-in, and save your preferred choice of stations so that next time you visit you get straight to the stations you want.

editing your stations on your mobile

One point to note is that whilst we now have live radio streams for all stations, there’s a few more weeks wait until Local Radio and Nations stations are available for iOS devices such as iPhones. If you have a Windows or Android phone it will work fine, but Apple lovers will have to be a little more patient!

Lastly, we have introduced an easy way to find your local radio station. Simply visit the site on your smartphone, then select Local Radio, then click on “Use your location”. This will then map your current location to the nearest three local stations.

using your location on your smartphone

If you have already given us feedback or left a blog comment, then thank you. If not please do let us know what you like or dislike. We read all of the feedback we receive.

Chris Kimber is the Executive Product Manager, Radio and Music, BBC Future Media

The Asian Network and 5Live Sports Extra now have new homepages

Since my last post in November we have released several new elements to the main BBC Radio homepage and this blog post will briefly explain what is new, and how we are starting to build the new radio and music product.

If you've already given feedback, thank you. We know that changes to a site can be disruptive but we are reading all your comments and looking to continuously improve the way that we bring you the BBC's radio and music online.

The new navigation bar on the Radio home page

The main change you will see is that we have introduced a new navigation bar at the top of the screen. Audiences regularly tell us that their main aims when visiting a radio station site are:

• to see what's on and listen live to one or more stations
• to listen to a programme they missed
• to find out programme information such as music played or names of guests

So, the main Now On Air view allows you to listen live to any station in one click, and in the new product navigation at the top we have made it easy to switch quickly to a different station ("Stations") and to find a programme page (via "Programme Finder") where you can listen again or get programme information.

The new local radio box

We also received feedback that people missed the ability to navigate to programmes via categories (or genres) so we have included a Categories link in the main product navigation. This takes you to a categories index page, or if you click it from a station view (e.g. Radio1) it will offer you direct links to the most important categories for that station.

Similarly many users prefer to find content by using the schedule, so we have included that in the navigation too. Again, the link is contextual, so if you are on the Radio 4 view the schedule link takes you to the Radio 4 schedule.

We have had some initial feedback that the new product navigation is easily missed, meaning some people can't find the things they are looking for, so we are already working on ways of making it more visible and integrated into the page. If you have thoughts on this please give us your feedback.

On the main Now On Air view we have made three main changes:

• there is now a Local Radio space alongside the national and nations stations, so users can quickly find their local station
• there are links to all the nations stations, such as Radio Cymru or Radio Foyle
• we have changed the logic around 5live Sports Extra so that if there is no programme currently on air then we promote the next programme, rather than simply saying "nothing on"

One important change is that we have rebuilt the scrolling carousel which you see on station views (e.g. Radio 2) to ensure it is easier to use, and that it is fully accessible to people who use screen readers.

For example, you can navigate through the content using the Tab key on your keyboard, without having to click your mouse.

Radio 4 mobile home page

On mobile we have released new browser sites for all the national stations, which you can access by simply going to the same address on your smartphone as you would on your computer.

For example, if you go to www.bbc.co.uk/radio you will get an appropriate version of the site for your phone.

The feature set is basic right now, principally the ability to listen live, find out what's on now and next, view the schedule, and link through to listen again via the iPlayer, but this gives us a platform to build upon and add new functions that the audience are asking for.

Once we have the correct audio streams for the nations stations and local radio we'll add those in too. That should be early in 2012.

Lastly we have been able to migrate two of our national radio stations' homepages onto the same platform as the radio homepage. So, for the Asian Network and 5Live Sports Extra, the homepages for these stations have now permanently moved.

We are very keen to hear from you, so if you are a regular user of these two sites in particular, please give us your feedback or leave a comment on this blog.

Chris Kimber is Executive Product Manager, BBC Radio & Music

The new radio home page shows what's on now across the networks

Two months ago in September we released a Labs version of the BBC Radio homepage, which I blogged about here. Since then we have made a number of improvements based on our backlog and the very useful feedback from visitors, and today the new page has replaced the existing Radio homepage at bbc.co.uk/radio.  This is the first step on the ladder towards a new radio and music product which will launch in 2012.

“I like the clean layout of the site as a whole. The homepage is great, with a good overview of what's on.”

“It focuses on what's on right now, which is completely correct. Overall I think it's nicely laid out and well organised”

Slightly surprisingly for us, the orange status bar showing the progress through the current programme proved particularly popular.

“The new layout is great and the bars to show you how much of the show has passed is really helpful!”

Most people found it simple and easy to use, with easy access to listening live being singled out by many.

“Clean, simple, immediate click to live listen.”

“Love that you can see and play everything on the one page and can channel hop.”

A number of people left feedback about what they saw as a lack of local stations on the page, whether that be an English local station or the Nations stations such as Radio Scotland or Radio Wales. A few people also mentioned that the Nations language stations (e.g. Radio Cymru, in Welsh) were not more prominent, and that the site was not available in those languages.

“What about local radio? Radio Wales? Radio Scotland? And all the local radio sites?”

“integrate local radio into the home”

There were also a number of comments about the perceived lack of colour around the radio stations.

“I dislike the fact that the background is white, and there are less colours”

“there's not enough distinction between the Live panel and the audio clips”

The horizontal scrolling carousel also provoked some feedback

“The scrollable program timeline on the individual station sites seems to be arranged the wrong way around.”

Radio 4xtra viewed via the radio homepage

We have read every single piece of feedback given, and combined with our own product backlog have made some changes with today’s release.

Radio homepage on mobile

These include:

• You can now choose to view the "site furniture" (eg the phrase "on air now", but not the programme information) in Welsh, Scottish and Irish Gaelic languages
• We included Radio Scotland, Wales and Ulster on the main Now On Air page
• We introduced a new radio homepage for mobile users, please try bbc.co.uk/radio on your smartphone
• We better integrated elements of our music site so you can see the latest music collections without leaving the site
• We have introduced a Programme Quickfind tool to allow you to quickly access your favourite programmes
• Music track now playing information is now presented where we have it
• We ensured that the site performs better with screen readers to help users with sight problems

This is very much a work in progress so we haven’t dealt with all the issues raised, but there are lots of changes coming over the coming months where we will address them, and more.

Please let us know what you think of the new Radio homepage by following the feedback link or commenting below.

Chris Kimber is Executive Product Manager Radio and Music, BBC Future Media

A screenshot of the Radio 1 Labs release

Today marks an important (if relatively modest) step for BBC radio on digital platforms, as we release a Labs version of the new BBC Radio homepage.

I'm an Executive Product Manager in BBC Future Media working on what will eventually (sometime during 2012) become the Radio and Music product, in line with the BBC's strategy for a small number of cross platform products, as outlined by Director of FM Ralph Rivera and previous Director Erik Huggers.

Today is the very first step on the ladder, as we have spent recent months building the foundations and are now keen to start to get feedback from users on this release of the Radio homepage.

Working with a multi-disciplinary team I am responsible for steering the direction of the product. We do this based on usage of our current radio and music sites, such as Radio 1 and Radio 4, and the extensive research we have carried out with radio listeners, mixed with some strongly held views from technical and editorial teams about the potential user experiences for our content and brands in the digital space.

Our first release is very much a Labs release, which means it's not completely ready to replace the current Radio homepage.

There are many features we'd like to introduce which are on our backlog, but instead of waiting another month or so we are keen to allow you to preview and feedback on the work, allowing us to catch any major issues before it goes fully live, and add some of your feature requests to our backlog.

The Radio homepage serves multiple purposes: for some it's a quick navigational page to get to a radio station's website. For others it's the destination itself, allowing you to find out what's on right now, and listen live to any BBC station via the Radioplayer pop-out console. Our Labs release makes both of those journeys easier, but also presents each stations' most recent and most popular on-demand programmes and clipped highlights (where available). For example, Radio 1, 5 live and Radio Scotland.

It also allows you to move very quickly and easily between this radio station overview via a new toolbar at the top of the page, which mirrors real life behaviour of radio listeners most of whom listen to more than one BBC station. This extends the concept of a "station tab" which exists on the current BBC Radio page and, importantly, does not replace the existing network homepages which are prominently linked.

We are still experimenting with various new ways of presenting all this information and content, and for now, we'd love you to have a play with the new Labs radio homepage and click the feedback link to tell us what you think.

Chris Kimber is Executive Product Manager Radio and Music, BBC Future Media

We have recently increased the sound quality of our music and drama podcasts from 64kbps to 128kbps.

When we launched the podcast service in 2007, we had only speech-based podcasts, and we felt that 64kbps mono was a nice compromise between sound quality and download time/bandwidth usage. Following deals with the royalties collection organisations in the UK (PPL and PRS/MCPS Alliance), we started to offer podcasts containing short clips (30secs) of clean music [more detail at Radio Labs] - you can browse these at the podcast directory.

We've now had a rethink about what these music-based podcasts sound like (and some of our drama and comedy podcasts which contain background music), and have decided that 128kbps stereo would better suit this type of content. So you can now enjoy the Radio 1 Mini Mix, 1Xtra Drum and Bass Top 10 and Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone - or any of the 32 music podcasts - in decent-sounding stereo. The same goes for The Archers, Silver Street and Friday Night Comedy from Radio 4.

I'd be interested to know what people think of this - has it made a difference?

That's not all. We have also introduced a number of new podcasts taken from Radio 3 output since the initial launch. So you can now subscribe to CD Review - Building a Library, Composer Of The Week and World Routes, all available - among other Radio 3 podcasts - here.

We've just conducted a review of our podcasts which included audience research, an internal quality review, and an external (and therefore possibly more objective) review of both editorial and technical standards. In the main, the results were positive, and where they weren't, we are working hard to improve things - particularly around inconsistent audio levels. The good news is that this will soon mean more choice for podcast lovers, as the total number we offer is likely to rise.

In case you're wondering, we are currently serving about 16 million downloads per month across the entire range. This is fairly impressive, but I can't help thinking that figure is just going to go up as more and more people discover the joy of having high-quality audio snacks on their MP3 player or phone.

Here's my personal list of favourite BBC podcasts:

• Mark Kermode & Simon Mayo's Film Reviews
• Adam & Joe
• Zane Lowe's Hottest Records
• iPM
• Jazz Library
• 1Xtra Hip Hop Top 10
• Jonathan Ross

What are your favourites?

Chris Kimber is Managing Editor, BBC Audio & Music Interactive. Photo of Chris by Ian Fenn.

"We're now in our second week of rolling out our music based podcasts. This is big news for Audio & Music interactive and we're pretty excited about it.

Why? Well we've been offering radio programmes as podcasts since late 2004 now, but so far we have not included any commercial music for rights reasons. We have included unsigned music from various new/unsigned radio programmes such as Radio Northampton's Weekender and 1Xtra's Homegrown shows, but up to now we've had to offer speech-only podcasts from radio stations who mainly broadcast music..."

Continue reading here.

Chris Kimber is Managing Editor, BBC Audio&Music Interactive.

N.B. Photo of Chris taken from Ian Fenn's Flickr stream.