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.

  • Broadcast
  • Data Visualisation
  • Design System
  • Project Info  +
  • Project Info  –
BBC News

2024 US Presidential Election

Background

The US Presidential Election is one of the BBC's flagship news moments. Millions of viewers across the UK and beyond tune in for live results coverage through the evening and into the next day.

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, boradcast directly from the BBC's Washington studio.

As only months before with the UK General Election, I was tasked with designing the on-screen and in-studio results graphics.

Approach

Working with Brand Designers, Motion Designers, Developers and TV operators, I created a new HTML-based set of TV graphics — including lower thirds, on-screen results data and in-studio graphics.

I collaborated closely with UK and US Political Editors and Producers to ensure every electoral outcome and scenario were covered. I re-purposed the design systems thinking I had established for the UK General Election, applying it seamlessly to the US coverage.

Outcome

Broadcast is not my typical format - but rather a transference of design thinking to a different medium.

BBC Senior Directors and presenters were very pleased with the clarity and quality of the results experience.

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.

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Off the back of the UK General Elections in July 2024, we had little over 3 months to prepare for the 2024 Presidential Elections, held on the 5th of November.

Thankfully, we had the already-established branding and design system in place from the UK General Election. However, the two electoral events are 2 completely different beasts.

The challenge for me was to completely understand the US Electoral system, to ensure that design output tells the story as it unfolds through the evening.

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Using the same on-screen positioninig and formats, I created an extensive set of results and visual data cards that would display incoming results in a clear and impactful manner.

I had to cover a wide gamut of results. From County to State level, Exit Polls, incoming and full vote counts, previous results, swing states, Gubernatorial votes, Senate seats, and many more.

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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.

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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.

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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 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.

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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.

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