Yellow peril: BBC gets kicked for garish new sports site

THE BBC has unveiled a new-look sports section on its website, to howls of disapproval and, apparently, pain caused by the garish yellow colour scheme.

Would-be web designers from around the world lined up to run the rule over the bright new design and have their say. And few were positive about the changes, which include a different navigation bar plus a new visual design with "bigger, bolder images" and headlines.

But the most remarked-on feature was the preponderance of bright, almost luminous, yellow on the site. Coloured mastheads and buttons litter the pages and have been forcing many visitors to reach for their sunglasses.

On a blog explaining the changes, written by head of BBC Sport interactive Ben Gallop, visitors did not hold back. "Urgh! The yellow is too much," said one commenter called Blue Spice. "Seriously - will have to stop using this site if all this yellow remains. Awful! It's so bad I haven't explored anything - had to leave in a hurry for the sake of my eyes."

The relaunch became one of the most talked about topics on Twitter this morning. Journalist Alex Chick hit the nail on the head when he commented sagely: "Tweets about the new BBC Sport site appear to be split between those who hate it, and those who work for the BBC."

The last full relaunch of the sports site was in 2003, although the design has been tweaked several times since then. But the BBC is used to getting a negative reaction to its redesigns. There was an outcry last year when the homepage was revamped.

Gallop said the latest layout was designed to help improve live coverage of this year's London Games. He also reminded visitors of how the site had evolved. In doing so, he unfortunately back-linked to a piece he wrote in 2008 in which he lamented how an early version of the BBC Sport site featured a "nauseating yellow background colour." ·