Sky News Beta Website

Dr Lobster* · Thu 26 Jun, 2008 19.10

http://beta.news.sky.com/skynews/

i guess this is probably being discussed over at tvf, but i feel this monstrosity really requires it's own thread.

I don't know about you, but the new sky news website is definitely a step backwards, there is so much wasted space with huge fonts, stories are crammed into a centre column with the weather and other redundant information crammed on the page.

i rarely visit sky news for my main news fix (mainly, because it's shite and unpleasant to navigate) but if the website does go live in it's current form i can't imagine i'll visit it at all, it's just horrible.

what do you think?

Gavin Scott · Thu 26 Jun, 2008 19.27

Its just rubbish, isn't it.

My eyes don't know where to go. All the jumbo text is competing with the other giganto words.

Didn't look at it before and I wouldn't now.

lukey · Thu 26 Jun, 2008 19.31

I completely agree. It might be because I'm so used to BBC News now, but it just has a natural 'path' for my eye to take around it, even before going below the fold.

With this site, the Flash video loop at the top is clearly meant to be the first destination, and yet it tells me so little, so I scroll down, desperately hoping to find a clear weighted agenda. There isn't.

On top of just being ugly, it fails functionally, and whilst I don't have much interest in the current Sky News site either, I can at least get some idea of what's going on at a brief glance.

The first thing they have to lose is the black nav bar below the masthead. The lame content does not justify that kind of height.

Comparing the Sky and BBC treatment of the double murder story, above the fold on my screen, BBC News has a video, four paragraphs of copy, and a series of links to other stories in this case. Sky has 30 words and two Sky+ adverts. Nothing about it gives me the slightest incentive to switch.

Ant · Thu 26 Jun, 2008 19.34

Awww, it's 'Web 2.0' gone wrong, isn't it? I don't see a problem with the current site.

A new version of Sky News Desktop Alerts is over-due, I think. Half the text is just jibberish for me.

Sput · Thu 26 Jun, 2008 20.01

Oh good god. It's yet another site in the style of The Sun and Daily Mail. These things are awful: you have no idea where to look, where to find anything and it seems suitable for only one demographic.

Jovis · Thu 26 Jun, 2008 20.36

It's just disgusting, isn't it?

noelfirl · Thu 26 Jun, 2008 22.17

I think this is just again a demonstration of how IMO Sky News and all its attachments have been separately lurching from one look to another without any consideration for creating a coherent design that will last for any amount of time. It seems almost inevitable now that at least once a year there will be a significant change in design for the website, the on screen graphics and indeed the schedule, and none of them since the 2005 look have been really better then pretty mediocre.

Sput · Thu 26 Jun, 2008 22.19

Perhaps it's that they've tried to transplant their on-screen style onto a website. Whoever thought of that should be sacked if that was the idea.

all new Phil · Thu 26 Jun, 2008 22.48

The whole of Sky News - the channel, the website, everything - I wish they'd just redo it all from scratch. It's abysmal.

Nini · Thu 26 Jun, 2008 23.29

Unlikely, Sky News is the redtop press in televisual form and it's website must follow suit in everything being painted out really big and in bright primary colours so their viewers don't get lost and become confused.

It fits their demographic, loud, somewhat obnoxious and a good deal left of 100 in the IQ ranks.

nwtv2003 · Fri 27 Jun, 2008 09.20

all new Phil wrote:The whole of Sky News - the channel, the website, everything - I wish they'd just redo it all from scratch. It's abysmal.

Which is what they did in 2005, and that look was superb, it fitted the channel well, okay it had it's faults, which were mainly the three headed version of Sky News Today and James Rubin, other than that I don't know why they had to change it there.