Website Evaluation
1 – In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The conventions that I pointed out during my website research were that the logo often appears in the top left corner of the website, and there is often a navigation bar running across the top or side of the page. I also pointed out that often the text is broken up by pictures that illustrate the purpose of the website, to add interest and draw the reader's eye.
I thought I would include these conventions in my own website simply because they work. Having the logo in the top left position makes it instantly visible to the reader, and therefore is a good idea because the viewer needs to know exactly where they are as soon as they access the website. The navigation bar also works because it means that viewers will be able to easily access the area they are interested in and see what the website has to offer in one glance. I especially thought that it is a good idea because children have to be able to understand and access my website. Finally, the images will make the page better to look at and more appealing to the viewer, which is important when dealing with a young audience.
When I planned my website, the first colour I had in mind was green. I therefore decided that the rest of the colour scheme was going to work around the colour green, and project an overall natural feel. I chose green because it seems like a healthy colour – it reminds me of trees and grass and natural things, as opposed to reds and oranges which I associate with fatty foods and fast food outlets.
When choosing text, I thought I would stick to a simple font such as Helvetica or Arial as these are easy to read and look good in all sizes. For my logo, I decided on a font called Marker Felt because it was childish but easy to read and clear. On my website, the text is in a dark green instead of black – I felt black was too heavy and dark green tied in with my background and logo. The colour scheme therefore projects a clean, natural look.
2 – How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I presented the issue of obesity and/or a generally unhealthy lifestyle in children. I was therefore representing children as individuals who can take their health into their own hands and look after themselves, and being able to think for themselves. At the age this audience is; six to twelve years old, they are convinced that they are independent despite the fact that maybe they are not as independent as they think. Therefore they are more likely to make their own decisions about their health. I am also representing parents and teachers as caring about child welfare and supporting the decisions of the younger generation. Older children and teenagers are also included in this, maybe as supports for the younger children; siblings that want to change themselves too.
I tried to represent the site visitor, the children, by including photos of a child of that age, and through the child's interest in the cause, they might perhaps introduce their parents to these ideas, or vice versa.
3 – What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Pinpointing the relation to institution in a website or web-based product is difficult as the website is free and can be accessed or edited by anyone. It is only really moderated by its contributors. This is different from, for example, a radio production because that would appear on a licensed station which would moderate it, and the same goes for television programmes.
The closest link to institution is the web host and domain name registration. A web host would charge for the service they provide and there would be some moderation to the content presented – the web host may not agree with the website hosted or there may be data limits – applied to pictures and video as the space that the website owner rents.
The next link would be the advertising agency. They work by commission for the charity and would be a good source of revenue for the charity.
My own campaign website might work in a slightly different way as my website focuses on raising awareness rather than collecting donations. I have mentioned on my website a chance for fundraising, so that would be the only source of revenue for my charity. Therefore I would not be able to afford to rent a large space for my website or hire a great many commissions from advertising agencies.
4 – What would be the audience for your media product?
My main audience is divided into two groups. The first is children between the ages of six and twelve, of both genders, and I have represented them as being able to think for themselves and make individual decisions as to what they do with their lifestyle and how they go about changing it. The psychographic type of these children is probably a utopian group. Their demographic group encompasses that they are unemployed but could come from a family background that could have a range of incomes. The second group my website attracts is teachers and parents. These people would be between the ages of thirty and fourty, and I have represented them as caring for the young people they live and work with and supporting their decisions to the best of their ability. Their psychographic type would be carers. Their demographic group could vary – the parents could be anywhere between the E group (Subsistence income) and the A group (Higher management or professional), but are likely to be in the B (Middle management) or C1 (Clerical/Junior management) groups. The teachers are in the B group (Professionals).
5 – How did you attract/address your audience?
I had a good idea of how I was going to make the website from the beginning, but I did realise halfway through that I would not be able to aim the website solely at children or parents, that it would have to be a mixture of both.
When planning the website I considered this firstly through the design of my website. I chose to add a navigation bar to make it easy to navigate for children, but I tried to design the website so that it was not childish in the layout and text. I tried not to overload the page with colours or pictures, despite that a child would be attracted to this, in order not to put adults off.
I tried to make the website compelling for both audiences by providing plenty of information for both parties. I made a page informing parents of the charity’s ideas, so that they could be drawn in to the idea.
I then tried to make my photographs and video meaningful for the viewer by accompanying it with text and trying to show my ideas through the photography as the websites I studied did.
6 – What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
For image editing, I used Photoshop. In some ways this was helpful as I learned new things about how it works but in some ways I found myself hindered as I have never liked Photoshop but it was the only imaging software available. In that way I grew quite impatient with the program, so I did not feel I reached my full potential with the program. I used Final Cut Express for my video and I enjoyed the process as it is a powerful and user-friendly tool. I did not have any problems using it. I contrast, I felt quite constrained by iWeb as the way it operates means that creating a website is not a quick or simple process.
However, from all of these programs, I have learned new techniques and done things I have never done before. My creative process was enabled and furthered by the technology as well in that I did things I did not think I would be able to with the technology I was using, therefore it was a good overall learning experience for me.
7 – Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the final product?
On reflection, my school site differs greatly to my main product. My whole process differed as the very first consideration I had was for my target audience. The whole website, the design, layout and even the language and text were affected by the target audience. However I did not have that consideration for my first task because I did not consider the target audience and felt I did not need to. I did not have a target audience then and having one for my main tast has completely changed the way I did things. My design also changed in that it was a charity website and instead of just advertising what my idea was, as in the first site, I had to persuade viewers to my way of thinking. This changed the way I worded my website, and changed the photography so that it would reflect this.
My skills with iWeb have improved the most, out of all the programs I used. I was able to use iWeb at a much deeper level than before, in that I was embedding video and creating graphics for the website.
