BBC News
2024 US Presidential Election
Leading the design of the BBC's on-screen and in-studio data graphics for live election results coverage.
Background and context
Fresh off the back of the UK General Elections held on the 4th of July, the design team and editorial set about hastily preparing for the US Presidential Elections, set for the 5th of November.
With this Presidential election building up to be one of the most important elections in modern US times, there would be extensive live rolling coverage, broadcast directly from the BBC's Washington studio - presented by US Chief Presenters Caitríona Perry and Sumi Somaskanda.
Role and approach
Just as only a few months previously with the UK General Election, I was tasked with designing the live on-screen and in-studio results graphics.
As Design Lead, I was part of a small team that included the US Political Producer and Art Director, to establish the sequence of events and requirements throughout the course of the live coverage.
I also took a deep moment to properly understand the US electoral system, as there was much activity involving 50 States, The Senate, and Gubernatorial voting, and of course - the Presidential result.
Additional to the on-screen and in-studio wall graphics, I also had to design for an interactive touch screen, allowing for presenters to showcase results, calculations and potential scenarios.
This was a highly collaborative project, consisting of many moving parts. All designs and specs were done in Figma.
Outcome
Broadcast is not my typical format - but rather a transference of design thinking to a different medium.
BBC Senior Directors, Producers and presenters were very pleased with the clarity and quality of the results experience.
As with the UK Election design system, the US templates I designed will serve future US Elections. It was a real privilege to be a major part of this election output once more, and for my work to form part of BBC New's legacy.
The 'condensed tally' space was also re-formatted for this election. Where the UK Election requires multi-party representation, the US is pretty much a 2 party race.
There was an additional output method that the US Presenters used which wasn't used for the UK General Elections - an interactive & live-results touchscreen.
I worked on the UX & UI design for this touchscreen, which allowed the presenter to interact with previous and incoming results via a map (County to State level), view latest incoming results in tabular format, toggle between previous results, a calculator to showcase result scenario's.
The BBC's Washington studio is notably smaller than the London based studios. This also meant the in-studio 'Catwalk' screens were smaller too.
This screen would be used as more of a studio backdrop for key state and rolling results coverage. I therefore designed a set of impactful screens to showcase 'projected wins', 'The Race to The White House' and the eventual declared winner. The white vertical line represents the split between the 2 studio screens.
Below are some screens captured from the Washington Studio and live TV coverage. It was quite surreal to see my work seen by millions of viewers across the world.
