Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or change forms and conventions or real media products?

When first designing my website, I did lots of preparation in the build up, researching and making sure I knew what all of the conventions for a website were, making sure that all of the research that took part was put towards my final website. One of the main real-media products I looked at was “Help for Heroes” as it was a campaign website like my own; I used it as base to look back on. I did a full analysis of “HFH” looking at its layout and style, its layout was very effective in that it had one main image with the most important information next to it with the use of thumbnail links with pictures below. I liked that idea so adapted it and used a similar idea for my main layout style of my website. One of the other styles that “HFH” follows was its constant use of the same colours, being very patriotic, using the colours, red white and blue all the way through.”HRH” also had lots of images that were relevant to the information on the website, having images of fallen “heroes” who needed help. The conventions that “HFH” uses are very effective as they make the page look very inviting, being easy to follow but also have plenty of relevant information on the page without make it look too bunched together. This was a tactic that I wanted my website to use, so when thinking about conventions such as colour and imagery, I used “HFH” as a guide to inspire me to new ideas. One of the main conventions that I made sure was consistent was the use of text and the font, it needed to be easy to read but also consistent on every page, being the same size, style and colour throughout, which I felt mine was, using the colour bark blue as it complimented the rest of site which was primarily white and a light blue.

How does your media product represent particular social group?

As I chose a drug campaign website, I felt that we had to target all demographics as drugs can be have an effect on every one, but I did look particularly into youth, this was simply because youth are effected by drugs more. I chose to do a drug campaign because I conducted a survey which showed that among the people I questioned, drugs came back as the most serious. To target the demographic of youth I made sure that all the information was relevant and wasn’t too difficult to read or understand as some youth may not understand all the technical terms when talking about drugs. I mainly used the fonts Gill Sans Light and Ariel, this was because they are easy on the eye fonts that don’t look over the top but can still represent with youth. To make sure that all the information was easily read, I used an informal language throughout every page. I did this by keeping all of the information short in length, and writing the information as if I was talking directly to the viewer, this will hopefully give a positive reinforcement of the viewer when they are visiting my site. .

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

When first distributing a website, it is first seen to be more than it actually is, anyone who has made a website can publish one, doing this makes the site look very professional, authentic and established, making the audience more likely to like and believe in your site. Sometimes a small organisation can be hard to see as an institute but also be seen as more approachable and trustworthy. The website we had made is part of the web revelation from self publishing as its starting ground, self publishing is third party barriers to publishing are done way with, making things published on the internet for very little money, and making a slow progression from a small organisation to a large institution, just like the website “www.Amazon.com”. To become an institution, we could also use advertisements, taking advantage of other sites, using them to advertise ours and be able to receive more viewers to our site, becoming more trustworthy and approachable.

Tomas Noad

Who would be the audience for your media product?

From looking at the survey results I gave out and the all the media product research I carried out, this gave me a lot of inspiration to target a younger audience. Do this I made sure that I used clear fonts with not very informal language, with the aim to keep the attention of the audience, but also keeping it eye catching. At first I felt that the name “Brainstorm” would be a good name to use at it stands out from the rest, and would be extremely recognisable among modern day youth. What I also did to make sure that my website targeted was youth was, making sure that all or most of the photographs and imagery that I used was relevant to youth, have the people in the photos of a similar age of the audience that I am targeting and also having imagery that they can relate to such as “The Simpsons” which I used on one occasion. The colours used also help link to the target audience as it is a predominantly blue which I a popular colour among youth which I found out through y research and planning and the survey results. .

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract my audience, I used many different techniques in my website; these consisted of colours, words, language, font sizes. I used these techniques because I felt that we would get a positive reaction from the audience because we tried to make these conventions relate to them as much as possible. When in the planning and designing phase of the website, I mainly wanted to use the colour blue, one being it is a popular colour among youth but also because it is a calm and relaxing colour, and as it is a campaign website, the main aim of the website to give and offer people help, so the colours you chose need to be welcoming as well as attractive. Even the topic of drugs can relate to the audience that I am targeting as it is a popular and raising problem among youth, so many people of that age are very aware of these types of websites. I made sure that all of the information that I used was in very small amounts and didn’t take up a lot of the page, this would have made the website very boring and pushed people away, so I made sure the website consisted of small but very effect sections of information. I used font size 12/14 all the way through so it looked neat and tidy, this helped with the layout and made it look professional instead of very busy and a packed unorganised website that it could of been.

What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

While going through the process of both of my websites, I personally have learned many new skills and techniques, and especially through the main website. I have learned how to make a website for a start, starting off as a beginner was difficult, but I picked up the skills quickly, being able to add images and other applications to my site. I also learned how to create slideshows and a video presentation through “final Cut Express”, using this for both of my sites. The main improvement and skill that I have, learned over the two websites, is the use of” Photoshop” I have learned how to crop photos, recolor them, and add effects to them, so that they match the style of our website. We also leant how having a relationship with the audience is very important, making sure that we related our layout and conventions to our target audience, because then we would be able to make sure the audience find our website attractive and will enjoy viewing our website.

Looking back at preliminary task, what do you feel you have leant in the progression from it to the full product?

Mt attitude and approach to website design has changed dramatically when coming to the end of my main website because I feel more in control and more confident when using the software. All of the skills I picked up during the course of the year have improved; this is due to growing experience using

Tomas Noad

the different software’s for my website, these being “Photoshop”, and “final cut express”. I am now comfortably able to record and video or take some pictures and edit them in any way I wish to make them work for my website whether it was the school site or the main one. I feel that my progression has shown over the course of the year because when we compare my two websites, they both consist of images, videos and slideshows but the main website has more effect s, these being things like fades, blends and cut a ways on “final cut express”. Although I have learned many practical skills, I have leant about knowledge of audience, this is knowing about what the audience want in a website and knowing what your target audience want from your website, I have learnt to use my survey and use the results to make sure I get the best of my audience which I feel I didn’t fully get from my preliminary website, so I advanced from that, using as much as I could from my survey on the main website, and looking at some of their reactions after I had finished it, I felt that me and my partner had made the right decisions in design as we had positive feedback.

Tomas Noad