It doesn't look like any of the main five channels will be taking up Sky News' offer of showing the debate live, instead it'll be on BBC Two after Newsnight. Five probably would have been the most likely to do it, but it's a Europa League night.
I've been trying to watch Sky News this morning, but I just can't concentrate on the news through the mayhem of the graphics. I've never seen such a shocking mess, there's just so much going on and it seems like each corner was designed by an independent team, and then unified only in the live broadcast.
With the full graphic set in place, there are three union flags on screen at one time (live/location bug, ticker anchor at bottom-right, and 'Decision Time' tag above the standard supers); of course, the obligatory logo and clock (mercifully small); a bright yellow breaking news ticker (I get that this is supposed to attract one's attention, but I don't remember the last time I saw Sky News at home, in the office, in a pub, at an airport, or at a station, when *some* news wasn't 'breaking' in bright yellow); and now the perfectly useless opinion poll flippers - giving us up to the second updates on polling data that simply isn't changing with the kind of frequency that would warrant the data's continued presence on screen - eating into the ticker and leaving it awkwardly narrow.
This would be bad enough, but it looks even more crap with the supers that don't align on the left edge with the title above them or the clock below them, and which - due to the 'highlighted text' effect used (rather than a simple block background to the text) - don't align in any way to the right either.
What it looks like is a random scattering of inconsistent components thrown together in the most distracting and irritating way possible.
I agree with the many criticisms that the BBC News graphics are really quite plain and a little bit dull when you see them on a regular basis, but I far FAR prefer that simpler and more boring end of the scale with a chunk of graphics that largely slot and align together to the visual assault I'm currently witnessing on Sky.
Who at Sky thought this was good design? Who on earth thought this was the clearest, least distracting and least intrusive way to present information? Or is the intention to distract me with the graphics so that I don't need to pay attention to the spoken word? In which case, could they maybe just show some cartoons and leave the breaking news ticker up for me?
Gosh, it's so good to get that off my chest. Now, I must find a new bee to stick in my bonnet.
oh thanks Andy, I made the mistake of turning it on thanks to your glowing recommendation and now my eyes hurt. The uneven split screen with election shrapnel flying underneath makes it even more horrific to look at during interviews.
And why is the edge of the clock black? It makes no sense whatsoever. Urgh.
I've been trying to watch Sky News this morning, but I just can't concentrate on the news through the mayhem of the graphics. I've never seen such a shocking mess, there's just so much going on and it seems like each corner was designed by an independent team, and then unified only in the live broadcast.
With the full graphic set in place, there are three union flags on screen at one time (live/location bug, ticker anchor at bottom-right, and 'Decision Time' tag above the standard supers); of course, the obligatory logo and clock (mercifully small); a bright yellow breaking news ticker (I get that this is supposed to attract one's attention, but I don't remember the last time I saw Sky News at home, in the office, in a pub, at an airport, or at a station, when *some* news wasn't 'breaking' in bright yellow); and now the perfectly useless opinion poll flippers - giving us up to the second updates on polling data that simply isn't changing with the kind of frequency that would warrant the data's continued presence on screen - eating into the ticker and leaving it awkwardly narrow.
This would be bad enough, but it looks even more crap with the supers that don't align on the left edge with the title above them or the clock below them, and which - due to the 'highlighted text' effect used (rather than a simple block background to the text) - don't align in any way to the right either.
What it looks like is a random scattering of inconsistent components thrown together in the most distracting and irritating way possible.
I agree with the many criticisms that the BBC News graphics are really quite plain and a little bit dull when you see them on a regular basis, but I far FAR prefer that simpler and more boring end of the scale with a chunk of graphics that largely slot and align together to the visual assault I'm currently witnessing on Sky.
Who at Sky thought this was good design? Who on earth thought this was the clearest, least distracting and least intrusive way to present information? Or is the intention to distract me with the graphics so that I don't need to pay attention to the spoken word? In which case, could they maybe just show some cartoons and leave the breaking news ticker up for me?
Gosh, it's so good to get that off my chest. Now, I must find a new bee to stick in my bonnet.
I agree about the ticker looking a bit cramped because of the polls flipper but other than that I think the graphics are a pretty good effort by Sky's standard. Anyway the new HD graphics will be rolled out over the coming weeks so I suppose these are a bit of a stop gap.
I'm quite liking Sky's look now and the election look is at least an improvement on the regular look, and a nice evolution of it. I get your point about the ticker though, but the poll is a worthy addition so it doesn't bother me really.
The BBC I just find an absolute embarrassment - they had it exactly right up until the revamp a couple of years back, and then went back 10 years. The Election 2010 slug is just so pointless too - at least make use of it by putting the polls or something on it.
I'd forgotten yellow signified breaking news. What colour is it when all the news has been broken? I don't think I've ever seen it.
Black when the News is broken, although it's Black for about 30 minutes during the whole day anyway. They take Breaking News way too seriously. It may not be Breaking on Skynews.com, but you can always bet it'll still be on the channel.
