Evaluation

AS Website Evaluation

1.    In what ways does your media product use, develop of challenge forms of conventions of real media products?

The website that I created uses many conventions of other websites which are related to the same topic. The use of language is simple yet effective, and relates to the audience that it is aimed at. It is like a friend was telling you information about the drugs, this is the same as other websites which are looking to attract the same audience. Te language used has worked well as it makes the audience feel safer and welcomed. Also the layout of the page can be compared to other similar products. It follows the same convention of a header banner at the top of the page and having hyperlinks at the bottom of the page which are related to the topic. This is shown in the design of my our website and send users to other websites for more information. The pictures used on each page mainly serve the same purpose as those on real media products as they are to show the target audience how these drugs should look. Although the pictures of the drugs will fairly be the same I have challenged the conventions by adding other related objects into the pictures as well to give an extra effect of attracting the auidence. Another convention that the website I have created links to is the fact that hyperlinks change to a different colour when they are rolled over this indicates to the audience which object is a hyperlink to take the user to the next page which is aesthetically pleasing. However in the production of the health campaign website I have created I believe that these conventions have been developed in order to make the design of my website unique. For example, I have developed the way in which the site works by adding a front enter page which I believe works well as this makes using the site much easier to use as users can navigate around the information they want and also keeps the user interested as it has interesting graphics and a short looping video.

2.  How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The construction of my website reflects the teenage social group as this is what the results of our survey came back. The layout of my website has been re-designed a number of times and I now believe that this layout suits the website more appropriately and represents the teenage social group by being simple and clear to read which will keep the audience interested. The way in which the audience is addressed in the language also reflects this. The images used will relate to the way in which teenagers use and see drugs, as they are not some unrealistic image. The video also reflects the audience by showing young drug users tackling addiction and also taking drugs. This will hopefully get the point across better as teenagers think they are indestructible they may listen more to someone who has been there from there own age group. The people that will get most from my site will be the teenage audience as these will be the main users as the website will appeal most to them and hopeful become known.

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

My website that I have designed and published is a health campaign for teenagers about drug addiction which allows the audience to find out information about drugs and addiction. As my website is targeting a specific audience it will be mainly distributed towards this audience as it will not really appeal to many other audiences. In distributing my website I will show it to the public so that it gets known to the audience that it was created for. This can be done through advertising in a number of ways:

The first is being advertised by TV, as most of the target audience watch TV and therefore would see the advert and if interested would go and find out information from my website.

Another way in which my website could be distributed would be by newspaper as many people in the target audience would also see the advert.

The method of distributing my media product could be from support by an Internet service provider as this would allow internet banners to be shown on well known websites so that it can be easily linked to it straight away. For example a website which could be used would be Google as millions use this website every day. However You can't 'publish' through Google, but you can have Google 'crawl' the site so that it comes up in a search. The software for this would be Apache.

The final way in which my site could be distributed is that if it got bigger it could join up with a larger related institution such as Talk to Frank. This institution could then distribute my website as a link as this site has the mass audience. In all the website I have created would be quite simple to distribute in the methods shown.

4.  Who would be the audience for your media product?

By looking at the results of my survey I have identified the target audience as being teenagers, as these are the main audience that need to find out information about drugs. Therefore the information tells the audience information about the main types of drugs that the target audience is most likely to need it on. Another demographic audience that we are aiming at is boys as from the results of our survey these are the main users of drugs for enjoyment uses. From internet research this is the main way that drug addiction is caused. I also believe that as the target audience being teenagers, it would be most likely be that they would use a website to gather information about drugs rather that another method. This was also reflected in the survey. I feel that in the production of this website I can hopefully educate teenagers about drugs so that they do not become part of the addiction and also indicate the risks to users.

5.  How did you attract your audience?

I used a number of methods to attract the target audience. As the audience that the website I designed was targeted for was teenagers, the language that has been used throughout is formal however it also gives the impression of being ‘chatty’. The audience would hopefully then be feel more comfortable and welcomed about using the website. However the language used is imformative and gets the point across well. I believe that the aesthetics of the website are one of the most important features in attracting a young audience. The light blue and grey colours that I have used in the production of the website also attract the audience by being calm and soothing which reassures the teenage audience by sending out semiotic messages. Another way in which the audience would be attracted would be by the main enter page which allows the user to select if they would want to find information about getting help or drugs. The website created is more interesting for users to find out information as it is not just a boring website with loads of information about drugs, it makes it quick and easy for different things to be done depending on what the audience want. The use of simple language attracts the audience by not being too confusing so they stay interested in finding out information. The language used is also ‘young and chatty’ which relates to the audience so that its like they are being informed about the risks of drug taking and not being told off that they are in the wrong for being a drug user as there are so many users. The audience response to this would be that they stay on the website and find out the information they need. The fonts which have been incorporated in the design address the audience by being unique and funky and reflect the drug culture by seeming like they are falling apart. This will hopefully indicate to the audience that drugs make lives fall apart. The fonts also attract the audience by being large and therefore eye catching. The positioning of objects on the page are clear and simple which makes it easy to read for the target audience they can see what info they want to find out much quicker. The links to other pages and website have been labeled very clearly by the use of rollovers so the target audience does not struggle with using the website, this will also make the website more efficient and a lot easier to use therefore satisfying our audience. Our website also features a looped video and an image which has been edited in Adobe Photoshop on the front page to draw the viewer in and this is also a persuasive technique to persuade the viewer to carry on using the website. Although the pictures of the drugs will fairly be the same I have related them to the audience by adding other related objects into the pictures as well to give an extra effect.

6.  What have you learnt from the technology used in constructing this product?

From constructing the health campaign website I have learnt many things from the use of technology. The main software I have learnt is Adobe Photoshop, IWeb and Final Cut Express all for Apple Mac. Along with this I have also learnt other skills in the aesthetics and layout of websites. The more I practised these skills not only did I become better at trying to achieve what I wanted to but it became to save me time. The skills I have learnt have helped me in creating an aesthetically pleasing website and will become useful to me in the future.

IWeb: I have never come across this programme before and it has been the main software used in the production of the website. I have learnt a number of skills by using this and it has allowed the website to be constructed. The software has helped me massively as, if my partner or I didn’t agree on the aesthetics of the website then the colours, pictures, fonts and layouts could be easily changed due to the knowledge I have gained from this software. I have learnt techniques of changing the colours of text and the background by using web colours and also how to insert HTML links onto a webpage.

Photoshop: By use of this software I have also learnt a number of skills such as I can now massively edit images that I have taken and imported. I can do this is a number of ways:

-         Change the colour and style of the fonts to match the colour of the background or a picture

-         Crop images to a smaller size so there is not unwanted objects in the image.

-         Change the hue/saturation & brightness/contrast of images

-         Use downloaded brushes

-         Add effects to text so it looks more aesthetically pleasing

I have also used this software to create the main headed banner on the main enter page. This gave the website a higher quality look and relates more to the target audience. Another feature that I used in Photoshop was I installed my own cannabis leaf brush which was used throughout the production of my main media website. Photoshop is very useful software when coming to the design of the website as images can be created to link with the design and also can be edited to improve the appearance of my site. Again the software has helped me as if my partner or I didn’t agree on the aesthetics these could be changed until we both agreed. I have used these techniques throughout the construction of my website

7.  Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In the production of my preliminary task of creating a website for a school my main focus was on the information given on the website as I knew people were just going on the website to find out about the school itself and people already knew what information they wanted to find out. I then tried to reflect the creative arts feature in the design of the website which would indicate to the audience that the school is very art and design based. My attitude and approach to developing my main website has now changed as I focused more on the target audience and making the website easy to use. By creating the preliminary website I have learnt a lot of knowledge about the software that is used in the design and production of websites and also the web servers which would allow me to make our website fully functional and visible to all internet users. The more I practiced these skills not only did I become better at trying to achieve what I wanted to but it became to save me time.

IWeb for Mac was the software which I made the website. The software allows a template feature however I was not allowed to use this as they had to be started from scratch. This took longer to create a website but in hand this was an advantage to me as I learned many techniques in using the software which are then reflected in the main drug website project.

Also by looking back at the preliminary task I have developed skills and experience to be able to create a fully operational and aesthetically pleasing website. Research was very important in the design of the website which got created and I learnt this from the production of the preliminary website. The research that I had to do improved massively in the main website as I needed to know a lot of information about how current related media products work.
It allowed me to learn which was the best ways to make our website aesthetically pleasing but at the same time very informative. Research is also very important as the target audience must be found out, and what they want from the website as they are the ones which are going to be using the website.