Evaluation

Here is my website evaluation.

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.

Institution - Web Hosting

Web hosting is the way that websites are distributed. A website is put into the Internet through a server, and companies can upload their website to a server in one of two ways; either, they can buy their own servers and upload the site for free, or they can rent space on an existing server, owned by a different person or company.
Since buying servers is not viable for a charity, as their money comes from donations, and they do not have the money to spare, they will often rent space on a server.
There are many different webhosting opportunities for businesses looking to make their site accessible. For instance, some very cheap hosters will offer a service whereby the layout and content of the websites is very restricted - the service is little more than creating a blog. However, some hosters will provide many options for the sites - a large allocation of space for pictures and videos, different options for ad placement and the opportunity of making revenue through this, and even technical support for the company they are hosting the website for.

The best option for a charity is a host that offers a lot of bandwidth for images, videos and other media that takes up space, for a small price. Therefore the best option, theoretically, for my website would be a very cheap rate, maybe sacificing the size of the website, as my website is not the kind that tries to get donations.

Institution - Advertising Agencies

The role of advertising agencies is to create artwork, posters, web-based media, or any other kind of commission for the company they are hired by. For example, if the WWF wanted to start a new advertising campaign, they would hire an advertising agency to create the media for them.
This would increase awareness of the campaign, and encourage more donations.
The image to the left is an example of the role of advertising agencies.
This image was commissioned by Greenpeace and created by Ogilvy and Mather, an advertising agency that have created work for Ford, Comfort, Nestle and many other companies.
The charity, therefore, would need to have contact with the agency, and inform them of their ideas and what they want the product to acheive.
Here is another example.

This is another image by Ogilvy and Mather. This one was created for the WWF.
The image depicts a sprawling city with houses, stadiums and skyscrapers in the shape of an elephant.
The text reads 'Our life at the cost of theirs?' and the message is that humans sacrifice the lives of animals and rainforests in order to build and extend their own 'lives' - their buildings, structures and roads, excetera. I think this image also denotes that because the buildings are in the shape of an elephant, it seems like 'space' - like an invasion of the animals' space; their territory i.e. the rainforests, swamps and jungles.
The pure black and white of the image also reflects the black and white of the WWF logo.
This image is effective because it includes everyday things like roads and flats which we would be used to seeing. It makes us see those things for what they are - an invasion of the space that animals could be inhabiting. This is what the advertisment portrays and makes us question whether it is worth sacrificing wildlife for our lives.

The role of the advertising agency in a charity's work is very important. It helps to make a brand recognisable, helps to portray to the general public what the charity's intentions are, in a way that the majority of people would understand.

Target Audience Report

My target audience is children between the ages of 6 and 12, and adults who work with children such as parents and teachers. I want to aim my campaign at these groups because children of that age are conscious of what they are eating and start to question at this age. My aim is to make them question their lifestyle and try to improve it. Parents are really the only ones that can help them achieve this, by providing food that is healthy for them to eat, such as fruit and vegetables, and getting them to get out of the house and exercise more. Also, teachers can educate children about the benefits of keeping a healthy diet and lifestyle, and the dangers of not doing this.
I am therefore trying to attract different demographic groups.

(on demo. psycho. + vals)

Sketches - Web Design Planning

I have made some very rough sketches to plan my website on MS Paint. It is a very simple program which I am very familiar with, but I just wanted to set everything out very simply in order to build on it later.
This is the layout for my main page, or the basic layout for all of the pages. They will differ with respect to the content, but the logo and navigation bar will stay where they are to make the website consistent. The background is a pale green - I wanted to build my website on greens and pale yellows because I think of those as natural colours, rather than oranges and reds which I think of as overbearing and unhealthy.

I plan to have a quiz on my website to make it more interactive. The quiz is aimed at children and could be taken on the website or printed by parents or teachers and used as a resource or lesson inspiration.
The quiz gives rough guidance as to whether the child is healthy or active enough and suggests how they can remedy this.
I hope this will entertain the young viewers and give them clear goals to achieve in order to take their lifestyle into their own hands.
I also plan to have a video on my website. The video needs to be short and entertaining, featuring someone of the same age as my target audience, i.e. someone between 6 and 12 years old. It needs to be short to keep the viewers attention span.

These sketches help me to visualise a rough idea of how my website should work and what my content should be.

Website Brief

My AS task is to create a campaign website.
After much thought, I have decided to create a website which emphasises the importance for children to have a healthy diet and regular exercise. My website, therefore, will be mostly used as a resource by parents and teachers, but has to be appealing to children too.
I have decided to call the website either Active! or Act!ve - I am still deciding which is better.
Now I am working on sketches for the rough layout of my website.

Web Usage Survey

I have created a survey to ascertain what kind of people would visit my website and whether they are likely to support it.

Click Here to take survey

Domain name and Web hosting research

The websites I looked at were all part of larger campaigns. Oxfam has several shops that sell donated items and give the profit to their cause, and all of the charities advertise, either on TV or on posters and billboards and through sponsoring causes.
These websites are hosted and registered but it is difficult to find out who hosts them because they all have their own domain names that are not amalgamated with their hosts'. It is possible that the charities have servers and therefore host their own websites, however it is hard to believe as that would mean that a lot of the money they earn would go on administration and server maintenence, and charities earn their money from donations.

Domain name registration requires that the person that owns the website gets their website to a server and pays weekly or monthly in order to keep their site up. Then they can choose to buy a domain from a company that will again charge them a weekly or monthly fee. Alternatively, big companies, especially ones that recieves lots of visitors to their website, may buy their own servers and then can have a free domain that they set.
Applying this to my website, it would be much the same story; given that my website may theoretically recieve quite a lot of hits, it would not be worth buying servers because a charity website would not be as big as, for example, a social networking site, that would get thousands of hits a day, and those are the kind of websites that require their own servers.
However, as most of my income, given that my website is also a charity website, would come from donations and fundraising, I would have to make sure that only a little of that money went to web hosting.

Report on Website Findings

Overall, after comparing the websites in the previous post, it is difficult to pinpoint what is conventional for a website because so many of the websites deviated from or challenged those conventions.
Obviously there is a rough layout for a conventional website - there is always a navbar or at least a set of buttons that lead you around the site rather than following the pages in order to reach more content.
Also, all of the websites I visited had a logo in the top left corner. There is no reason to deviate from this convention as this works very well in attracting the readers attention. Therefore I will follow this convention in order to do the same - indicate to the reader what they are viewing in a place that is easily seen.
I also noticed that the background tends to be a pale colour or white (often white). This is so that the text and pictures stand out against the background - test is usually in a dark colour - either black or in the colour associated with the website, i.e. the text on the NSPCC website is green, the RSPCA's is blue.
I want to make my background green because having text on a white background may make the website look uninteresting to younger viewers. However, following conventions, I will make the green pale in order to make the text stand out.
So my website will include a logo in the top left, and a navbar for easy navigation.
I will include photographs on the main page, as the websites I have looked at have done. This will help to break up the text and add interest to the page as well as engaging the reader.
I have found looking at other websites very useful in visualising my website and pinpointing how I can make my website more accessible and interesting to my target audience and other audiences.

Website comparison

This is the website for the RSPCA.
Their logo is shown in the top left corner of the website which is conventional for a website of this type. There is a banner across the top and a sidebar; both of which are in the same blue as the RSPCA logo. This helps viewers to associate the website with the RSPCA and enforces their logo.
The background of the banner is a dog looking through a cage. The picture focuses on the dog's eyes which makes the image solemn and emotional. This means that viewers are instantly reminded of animal cruelty when they look at the website, which may encourage them to donate to the charity.
On the very left of the banner is the number for their 24-hour cruelty and advice line, which is helpful for anyone who is visiting the website to look for their number. The text is in white, which stands out boldly against the background, and again is reminiscent of their logo.
The sidebar is in the same blue as the banner, which ties the two areas together, and contains links to encourage easy navigation around the site. Again, this text is in white, which stands out so that viewers are attracted to it.
There is a button two-thirds of the way down the sidebar which is animated. The screenshot above shows the button frozen on a dog with the caption 'Want to play?'. The button is in yellow which again stands out from the blue but also lightens to mood of that particular area.
In the centre of the screen there is a block of text which appears to be news. This helps the viewer to understand what work they are doing with the community and, in this respect, may encourage donations, as the good work they do is evident through these posts. It also means returning visitors can keep track of the charity's activity.
Right of centre of the page, there is a column with a background colour of light yellow. This helps to separate the content of this column from the news items. It contains several small images, which attract the eye and aid the reader in their understanding of the text. There is also a 'donate now' button on the top-left of this column. It, again, stands out because of its colours; yellow, orange and blue. This attracts the viewers' eye.
The colour scheme of this website is continuous and simple - the eye of the viewer is not confused by so many colours, and the blue helps the association with the charity itself.
The RSPCA website is a very conventional website - it is laid out well meaning the viewers' eye is not confused and the colour scheme is even and simple. The text on the page does not change a lot - there are only one or two different fonts presented, so that it helps to tie the page together.

This is the website for the WWF.
The logo for the charity is in the top left corner, which is again very conventional. However the rest of the home page does not appear very conventional. There is a set of links at the top of the page, however they are not the usual links that are shown to navigate the viewer around a website. This is done by pictures, tabs and banners.
The banner has a simple colour scheme - it is black with white text and a search bar, meaning the banner reflects the colours in the logo. The tabs reading 'what we do' and 'how you can help' are in grey which adds an extra colour but overall the only area which stands out in this top section of the page is the the 'donate now' button in green. Green in instantly reminiscent of rainforests and nature in general which reinforces what the charity does.
The green also ties in with the large picture beneath of a seahorse, however, this may be a coincidence because I am aware it is possible that picture is changed often, however the colour of the donate button may be changed too, so I cannot make a judgement on how well it does or does not tie in.
The text on this picture is very large and in white, so it stands out among the greens and blacks surrounding it. The picture is a link to a page that contains news relevant to this picture. Most of the links on this page work in this way - the image below of the insect, the 'join the wave' button, and the 'vote earth' button provide links to elsewhere on the website. The text is organized in a very clever way - the first button with the insect has the words 'we do' above it, and the words 'urgent work to reverse species decline' across the bottom of the button. It forms a coherent sentance, as does the 'you can' button next to it. This encourages the reader to ask a question, and then, instantly, it is answered, which is a very good way of encouraging the viewer's interest.
Beneath the 'vote earth' button there are several buttons, in different colours, that guide the viewers to more areas of the site, and beneath the insect button and the 'join the wave' button, there are some small news snippets that lead, again, into other areas of the site.
This website is quite unconventional due to the large picture that assualts the viewer as they enter the site, and due to the large amount of buttons that lead the viewer around the site. Also unconventional are the news snippets right at the bottom of the page, and the lack of a navigation bar.
This is the website for the NSPCC.
I have seen so far that generally the logo for the charity is in the top left corner, however, this isn't the case. In its place is a logo for ChildLine, a service run by the NSPCC. Next to it is the NSPCC helpline number.
I believe they have challenged these conventions in order to make finding these numbers easy - perhaps for viewers who specifically need either number, but are not interested in the rest of the website.
Because of this placement, the banner is positioned further down the page, and shows a broad stripe of green, which links the banner with the numbers above. This is the NSPCC's staple colour. The text on the banner is the NSPCC's slogan and it is shown in white so that it stands out against the green.
The website sticks to conventions in that it has a navigation bar which provides links to other ares of the website. These are in black except for the 'donate' link which is in purple. Purple stands out against green and highlights the donate button in order to draw the viewer's eye.
There is a search bar beneath which means that viewers can quickly find what they are looking for on the website. It also means that the website is accessible to viewers of all ages as they only have to search for what they are looking for without being particularly capable of using the internet or computers in general.
Below the search bar are three pictures which again draw the viewer's attention and add interest to the page. The captions beneath the pictures have green backgrounds to highlight them and tie the colour scheme together.
Beneath this are snippets of news, all of which are links that guide you to other areas of the site, reports and information on the NSPCC's work.
This website is mostly conventional, with the exceptions of the positioning of news snippets and the position of the header.
This is the Oxfam website.
The first thing that strikes the viewer is that the website is exciting and colourful. The colour scheme is quite broad in that encompasses orange, blue and green, as well as red and white.
The banner is very minimal, with the logo in the top left, and is in light green, the colour that is associated with them. There is a search bar which aids viewers in finding what they want to find quickly.
There is a searchbar just below the banner. The website is the only one so far in which the 'donate' button is not written in a different colour or on a button, so it does not stand out. However, it does have a prime position on the webpage in that it is clear and uncluttered.
The rest of the website consists of coloured buttons that work as advertisments for their campaigns. Under the heading 'latest from Oxfam', there are a series of links that lead the viewer to different areas of the website.
There is a heading just to the left of this that talks about the climate in Bangladesh. The picture draws the viewer's eye, and encourages us to read the article. There is little text so that the overall layout of the website is not compromised and the viewer does not get bored of reading the text.