2008 BEIJING OLYMPICS WEBSITE
20.08.08
During the course of the Olympics this website will undoubtedly be up there with the big boys in terms of the number of hits that it takes. So what do we make of the site?
As with any website, first impressions definitely count. Aesthetically the site looks amazing. The only 'issue' that we could see with it was that the Beijing Olympic logo was a little on the small side, however that's being exceptionally picky.
With so much going on, it would be easy for the site to look cluttered but the effect is spacious and clean and all the priority information is available to the user immediately.
It's interesting to note that the homepage unlike the rest of the pages opts for a sidebar rather then a header. This is undoubtedly to push as much of the most important information up the page as possible, whilst reducing the amount of scrolling required to navigate the home page.
The sheer quantity of information is astounding, especially when you consider that 10708 athletes are competing at this Olympic games and each and every athlete has an individual profile! This obviously makes up only a incredibly small part of the site but is really shows that all the stops have been pulled out to provide the user with absolutely any information they could require.
Advances in technology since the last Olympics also mean that users are a lot more hungry for highlights and live feeds and want to be able to catch up on any piece of action at the click of a button. The site does not let visitors down on this front with an abundance of highlights and live action. If the mood should take you, you can even watch what is happening outside the venues when the action is taking place, or even see inside venues where no action is taking place?
As with any global event the fun doesn't stop there. The site has to be translated into several languages and the design itself adjusted to adapt to the cultural differences of the way web pages are normally displayed in the relevant country. This has been done to perfection ensuring every visitor is guaranteed of a memorable user experience.
As with everything else at the Beijing Olympics the bar for the Olympic website has certainly been raised and the London 2012 site will have to go some to maintain, if not better this effort.
