ITV – Visual Design

ITV Homepage 2012
Show, Micro & Corporate Sites
Commercial Take Overs
Downton Abbey over the years

When I arrived at ITV in 2010, their online presence looked like this:

When I left in 2018, it looked like this:

However, there were a number of iterations along the way…

ITV Homepage (2012)

Role Visual Designer
Platform Browser

I was part of the design and UX team that completely refurbished the ITV.com homepage. This is where the ‘living room’ and ‘reading room’ concept was born. The ‘living room’ is the top darker section, where you can catch up on your favourite shows. The ‘reading room’ below, where you went to catch up on the latest news, sports and social media.

The old ‘New ITV Homepage’ – if that makes sense!

Visual Design Guide

I was a key participant in the creation of the Visual Design Guide which is part of ITV’s Brand Pack. As part of an iterative process, the document was always evolving and I was responsible for keeping it up to date and implementing any changes. It had to be pixel perfect with detailed annotations to ensure that developers could build the rest of the itv.com sites – including all of the show, news and sports sites.

The new website increased conversion by 38%, but it also saved the developers a lot of time by having all sites – shows, food, news and sports – have a consistent appearance.

VIEW THE FULL VDG

Andrew Levy
Director of Product & Delivery at ITV

I was fortunate enough to inherit Sarah on my product development team when I arrived at ITV. Sarah displayed a keen talent and vision for design, whilst also stepping forward and demonstrating ambition and a flair for managing work and people. You never had to worry about the quality of the work, and what set Sarah apart was how tuned is she was, and eager to listen. Over the course of my 2 years overseeing the team, I observed Sarah channelling the feedback she received into extraordinary growth, blossoming into a capable leader and a spectacular designer. Sarah is a superstar.”

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Show, Micro & Corporate Sites

Role Lead Visual Designer
Platform Browser

The great thing about creating the VDG and a consistent visual language for the whole site was that we could change the look of the page by simply changing the background image and the ‘accent’ colour.

Before this, the designers and developers would create a whole new look (and set of CSS to go with it) for every single show site… With 5 channels, the number of show sites we had was in the hundreds.

Consistency

The uniform design didn’t just save us time – it made the site look a whole lot more professional. It was the first time ITV’s web presence was on a par with the BBC.

Team Management

I was also responsible for mentoring the junior member of my team to create the show and commercial takeover backgrounds. I’d also meet with the Editorial and Commercial teams to ensure all assets needed were delivered on time. To make life easier for the team I created detailed guidelines and PSD templates for them to use.

View the Online Brand Guidelines

Lead Designer on the ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’ site

Lead Designer on the Tour de France - Travellers’ Guide site

Commercial Take Overs

Role Visual Designer
Platform Browser

Every designer loves to mash a bunch of different logos, assets and styles together into a commercial offering – Don’t they?!

Not…

I wouldn’t exactly consider this section the jewel of my portfolio. However – as a commercial TV channel – this is where the bread and butter came from. So respect.

I also created guidelines that were sent out to external advertising agencies who were creating background takeovers for clients.

View the Commercial Guidelines