ITV.com Discussion Thread

I hope this will mean a complete overhall of the site by the end of the year. Whilst some pages are fairly good - Corrie, ITV Player etc.

Some are really bad and theres to many different layouts - they need to come up with a couple of good layouts and stick to them on all the pages.

Also whilst it has improved a lot they still need to sort out the Adverts for video's/ITV Player freezing. 4od seem to do it alright- as the ITV site videos can still be quite juttery.

Well after my above post I wasn't far off - Instead of the end of the year like i hoped, it suggests before Q2 2011.

In the Media Guardian article it says


Also says that


http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/aug/03/itv-online-micropayments-project-canvas

According to the interim results presentation/pdf under "Transform ITV.com into a destination site" is...
- Improve navigation and viewing experience
- Richer, deeper relationship with viewers
- Extend range of programme sites
...and in the '3 months of rapid change' section is a tick next to "Investment for ITV.com agreed".

Yeah in another part of the presentation it says something along the lines of " a £75m fund, with the majority invested in itv.com.

They need to start from scratch. I think they should take a BBC approach and do it in phases, though - but hire a new team of engineers to develop a new foundation for a scalable site, and some decent designers who can enforce a "Visual Language" across the site.

They need consistency but also to allow each programme site to be unique and suit the show, to enforce the brands and their characters.

ITV Player needs to be relaunched again to be on par with the iPlayer and make a name for itself, and be something viewers will happily use as an alternative to the televised broadcasts, like with the BBC. They need to make it easy for viewers to follow shows even if they live busy lives and miss the broadcasts.

They need to make it slick, very slick and very rich with content. They need it to be consistent and amazing, and simply glossing up what's already there won't work; it's too random.

I suggest they start with a new codebase and visual language, and launch the most popular and important sections first, whilst junking obsolete sites even if they won't be replaced. Then they can phase out the old design fully to a deadline, and begin to build.

www.itv.com/yorkshire/weather

Weather is unknown?

It is now back working,
Donals picture has been updated at ITV London

New X Factor site:

http://www.itv.com/xfactor

The ITV Player seems to be broken at the moment, no idea why. No programme listings anywhere, and even search is blank! Oh dear

Agreed with comments on the page about changes that need to be made.
There have been some good things to come out of this year though, the new site design pages have been a major improvement on the old style pages, there are though many pages that are still present on the site that feature the old style. Something that looks drab and out of date.

Things like ITV 1, 3, 4 pages still using this style should be upgraded without question. ITV 2 has been given a massive overhaul which looks good and works well and should be rolled out to at least its main station ITV 1. Its as if ITV 1 is far less superior at ITV.com to ITV 2.

The ITV Player upgrade was a massive breathe of fresh air but still is lagging behind BBC's iPlayer. ITV Player will probably never be as good as BBC iPlayer, that's understandable but with the video player buffering every five minutes I usually opt out as much as I can for watching any full programmes at ITV.com.

The News, Sport and Weather have been a vast improvement and like these other sites like the Tour De France, Britians Got Talent and X Factor are all pages that the ITV.com team should be proud of. The design is not terrible like some pages and even though BGT and X Factor may have been outsourced it still is part of ITV.com.

And lets not forget about Loose Women and This Morning, two sites that look terrific and have shown that ITV.com can make nice looking websites if they put there mind to it.

What I do not want though is are TV Shows being put on page designs like 'The One Show' http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007tcw7. Which to me look very bland and basic.

GMTV's replacement Daybreak begins this September and I hope that the site is up to a high enough standard for ITV, I am not sure who is controlling the site whether it is GMTV's web team or ITV.com. Maybe they have got a new web team who knows. But hopefully it is similar to This Morning. Constantly updated, nice design and easy navigation. Full of content. We will see.

The site is far from perfect as I have said I agree with what people have said and hope that in a few years time ITV.com will not be a site that people choose to avoid but a website that will be hard not to avoid. Things have been on the up and lets hope they keep on going further.

Coming soon to ITV.com the ITV.com Blog.
http://blog.itv.com/itv/
Found by a bit of messing around of the URL's

intresting - wonder how long thats been their?
It says "Not Found Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't here." so it still needs finishing.

On the side panel it says "Welcome to the ITV.com blog. This section features news of the latest developments on ITV’s flagship website as well insights and observations from the team. It’s also a chance for us to exchange ideas and listen and respond to your thoughts."

So instead of on here moaning bout the probelm's with the site, we'll be able to directly tell them.
At least the will be talking our views onboard.