BBC Backstage is the BBC's developer network to encourage innovation and support new talent, and has served to kick-start the developer community around the various feed and API services provided by the BBC. However, as the community has grown there has been a need to enhance the site's features and broaden the audience beyond the developer community.

A new look, wider functionality and a broader appeal
There were a number of key objectives for the new BBC Backstage:

• Refresh the design with a clean, modern, look, and adhere to BBC guidelines 'as far as practical'
• Broaden the audience and cater for non-technical visitors
• Provide a more engaging platform for developing ideas and showcasing prototypes
• Move to a fully supported platform

Headshift engaged in a collaborative effort with the BBC to meet these objectives.

A solution serving many functions
The backstage.bbc.co.uk site needed to perform a number of functions:
Serve as a repository for BBC APIs and feeds documentation, or at least act as a comprehensive index to this information.

• Provide a space and mechanisms to engage with the developer community who may wish to make use of these services that the BBC provides, allowing them to showcase prototypes they have built, discuss new ideas, and interact with the backstage team.
• Allow the non-technical community to gain some insight into how these services can be used, and hopefully, get the non-technical community to engage with suggesting ideas, discussing them, and commenting on the work of developers through the mechanism of ratings and comments.
• Provide some communication and dialogue channels for the backstage team and other interested parties within the BBC.

Headshift built the new BBC Backstage platform according to the above specifications.