BBC — 500 Words Competition Website

(Requirements → Prototype → User Testing)

Client / Sector: BBC — Media / education (children’s writing competition)
My role: UX / Information Architecture + Wireframing
Phase: Campaign lifecycle design (pre-competition, live submissions, post-competition showcase)

Problem

The BBC 500 Words children’s writing competition needed a campaign website that worked across three distinct phases:

  1. Pre-competition — build awareness and interest
  2. During competition — support entry submission clearly and reliably
  3. Post-competition — showcase winning entries and outcomes

What I did

  • Defined the end-to-end site structure to support different user goals across each campaign phase (parents/children/teachers not specified, so kept general).
  • Designed clear journeys for:
    • learning about the competition and how to enter
    • submitting entries during the competition window
    • exploring and reading winning entries after the competition
  • Produced campaign wireframes and page-level structures using OmniGraffle.
  • Iterated wireframes with stakeholders/design to ensure content and submission journeys were understandable and feasible.

Key decisions / considerations

  • Kept navigation and content simple to suit a broad audience and a time-bound campaign.
  • Treated submission as a primary task flow (minimise confusion and drop-off).
  • Ensured the post-competition experience celebrated winners and made content easy to browse/read.

Outputs

  • OmniGraffle wireframes covering:
    • pre-competition landing and information pages
    • competition submission flow and supporting pages
    • post-competition winners display / content pages
  • Campaign site structure / IA aligned to the three-phase lifecycle

Outcome

Delivered the campaign website wireframe designs enabling the BBC 500 Words competition to run across awareness, submission, and winners showcase phases.

Methods / Tools

Information architecture; journey mapping; wireframing (OmniGraffle).