Sky Idents

Well I didn't see the original version, but what I see isn't that bad now (it doesn't deserve the response the original design seems to have anyway).

the design and layout of a site is just as important as the content. it has to be easy to navigate and see where the content is. My first reaction when I read your post (before I visited the site) was, why is it called sky idents? by the name i'd expect it to be about idents of sky. but RTE, TV3 etc. aren't owned by sky. Thje only "sky" content you have on there is the few sky1 idents.

Some design thought does need ot go into it still though, for example this page: http://skyidents.piczo.com/?g=50854990&cr=7
the line of images extends horizontally meaning I have to scroll horizontally, people prefer to scroll horizonatlly generally.

It's messy which makes it look like you're not bothered, even if you are. A clean, simple layout will do wonders I feel, and show your content at its best. I notice you link to a number of TV Pres sites, perhaps take a leaf out of their book in terms of layout.

The reason its called skyidents is I am planning to have most of the channels of sky digital in Ireland. First I am beginning with the Irish channels and I will work my way up. I have a lot of idents of other channels which will be coming soon. As for http://skyidents.piczo.com/?g=50854990&cr=7 those picture scrolling across horizontally is the banner and is not the main content. The images and videos will be added soon. As you can see on other pages, there are these banner images too.

One point, never use Piczo.

I have seen many sites made using Piczo and never seen a well designed one.

I'm sure the site could be brilliant, but things like the top banners on some pages being stupidly long and the pages being wider than the computer screen meaning you have to scroll right to see everything.

If you want to make a fairly well designed site, but not pay for it, try www.webs.com
I have made a few sites with Webs (was Freewebs when I used it) and though they didn't look brilliant, they looked better than your site. Here are some examples of my sites made a few years ago:

http://www.freewebs.com/banjokazooieland/index.htm (this one seems to have changed slightly since the change to webs.com. It never used to have that blue banner under the menu links)

http://www.freewebs.com/hopeandfaith06/ (This site is a bit of a mess as I used to have the premium account and it allowed me more links, pages etc, but I stopped paying for it so those extra links stopped working. But I am just using it as an example of design.)

Notice both sites are in the centre of the screen, you don't have to scroll left and right to see everything, etc.

I recommend you have a go using webs.com. If you decide you don't like it, you haven't lost anything.

Don't they teach this at High School's now? I'm sure a young relative of mine who is at High School has been banging on about some website he's been making in IT. They do a draft in PowerPoint, and use Adobe Dreamcatcher or something. Go back to/stop playing truant and go to school and learn these things. It's constant scrolling and a white backer? Sorry, but no.

I missed out on learning about websites by one year.
My last year at school doing IT involved Excel, Powerpoint and Word

The computers did have dreamweaver or whatever they are all called installed, but we never knew how to use them.

PowerPoint - Slide Show
Database - Access
Website - FrontPage or whatever it's named now
3 Main projects.

Thanks for the link, tried using webs, lots of errors and it loads very slow on internet explorer and image options don't work on google chrome, I think I will keep with piczo, the main content on skyident pages is never on a part of the page you cant see, the computer screen is 16:9 so it is hard to judge where to stop the banner. I don't really think it's a major problem if the banner is a bit over. I know lots of people have been commenting about the look of the pages, the first version was very basic, I am quiet pleased with the overall look of the site now, channel pages and channel era menus are currently being revamped to set in with the rest of the site. Thanks for your help.

2 idents added to the TV3 - January to August 2009 section http://skyidents.piczo.com/?g=50854968&cr=7

Ok then.
I haven't used it since it became webs.com. I just guessed it would be basically the same.
If you can though, I would still recommend changing the size of the banner quite a lot. Its little things like that, that really let sites down. For many, the look of the site is as important as the content. If the site looks unprofessional, cheap etc people won't even bother to look at any other pages.

If you can change it, please do.
Also, one other little change, with your screencaps, have little gaps between each pic, and also have all pics the same size. I noticed some images are slightly smaller/bigger and it looks bad when they are right next to each other.

This is my current website: http://www.itvgallery.co.uk/
I'm not saying my website is very professional etc, but I do think it looks ok when people first see it.

Ok thanks for the tips will reduce the banner size and space out the pics. Well done on the ITV Gallery good site

You could make the Help button at the top be a bit more effective...