Smith 0211

Evaluation

2010-04-26T12:17:00.000+01:00

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

With my media product being a website, it is very hard to talk about how it develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products in the same way you would for a film or a tv show. Despite this, there are some very clear ways in which my final product challenges the forms and conventions of similar products, including websites from companies and corporations such as the BBC.

Before I started creating my media product, I researched a lot of different television channels and their accompanying websites, looking into how the websites were designed and how fitting the websites were when compared to the design and colour scheme of the channel itself. From what I noticed during the research stages, the majority of the television channels all shared the same type of colour schemes, using very plain, light and pale colours throughout their whole designs, including their websites. These colours mixed with black and white created designs which were very easy on the eyes and could be viewed for long amounts of time easily, perfect for websites which aim to keep their viewers on their websites for as long as possible. The majority of the websites I researched all tended to have the same layout to their website as well. This may be for many reasons, including the fact that if the majority of the websites share similar designs, it makes it easier to navigate them once you are used to browsing one of the websites. This may also be the case because of the already existing web conventions that many websites follow. These conventions include things that make browsing websites easily accessible, with clear menus and layouts, so it is clear to tell which areas are the main content sections and which sections to read last. The majority of websites on the internet tend to follow these design conventions in one form or another, as they are the main way to appeal to the audience with ease of use and functionality of website.

I took all of these into consideration whilst creating my final product, and stuck with some of the conventions, whilst also challenging some of the other standards. I decided to keep the layout of the website that I was creating the same as many already existing websites, following the conventions used in web design today. This included having a clear navigation throughout the whole website and clear distinctions between the main content and the additional content on the webpages, such as in the sidebars and in the footer of the pages. Having the same design website as many already very popular websites ensured that I kept with something that I knew was already popular and works well with the audience, steering clear of any issues with the website if I had chosen a more unique layout for my website.

For the colours and design of the website, I chose to go against the convention and the norm, choosing something a little brighter than normal. Rather than using very plain and very toned down colours, I have used a selection of rather bright and colourful colours, which stand out against the white areas of the webpage, creating a contrasting design. Also, I chose to have a revolving colour scheme throughout the website, so that the colours used for the links and the background changes with every page. This tends to go against most already existing website designs, as they tend to stick with the one fixed background image or colour and the one colour for links and text throughout the site. I chose to do this do help make my final product stand out more, making it more lively, much like the television channel I have created.

Unlike many television channels that specialise in just one genre of programmes, such as Comedy Central and the Discovery Channel, I chose to focus on a smaller and more detailed genre. Due to this, I chose to base my channel on the mocumentary genre, basing all of the content on this genre and its relevant views and ideas. This goes against the convention of many channels that either base their channel on a rather large, easily coverable genre or not base it on any genre at all, instead choosing to cover all types of television.

In conclusion, my final media product challenges many conventions in order to create its unique design and view, whilst also following many conventions within web design, creating a final product that is both unique and easy to use and follow, like many of the already existing television channel websites.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I believe that my main product and the ancillary texts are very strongly connected in my piece of coursework that I produced. The main task was to produce a website for a fictional television station, which I completed. However, the website needed more than just the creation of the website to make it a realistic and believable experience – like those already existing television channels and their websites. The launch of a new television channel is often highly publicised in all forms of the media – not just on television. An example of this is when Five launched its new line of channels, including FIVE USA and Five Life. These were advertised for weeks within magazines and on the internet, as well as on their already running channels.

For this reason, I felt that the ancillary tasks needed almost as much effort as the main product, so that they are as realistic as possible. One area if focused on was getting the same style running throughout both the main product and the ancillary tasks. This included using the same colour schemes and the same fonts for any text used, so that it would be clear that the two are strongly linked. I also made the connection between the website and the channel on more than one occasion, with information displayed at the bottom of the poster and advert, including the fictional website address and the relevant television channels.

I believe that it is clear to anyone that both my main product and my ancillary tasks are linked together and that the combination of the two helps create a realistic and strong advertising campaign for the new television channel that I created.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Before I produced my final product and the ancillary tasks, I completed a lot of research into already existing websites and what type of product I would create. This research included gaining the opinion of the target audience, in the form of a vox pop and survey. For the vox pop, which is short for Vox Populi, meaning “voice of the people”, I travelled to Norwich and asked members of the public their opinion on certain things, including how useful and appealing some already exisiting television channel websites were. This was recorded on video using a camera phone and later uploaded onto our blogs.

The Vox Populi idea is a good way to gain an audience’s opinion on a subject, but did not work well for me, as it was incredibly hard to get quick responses and opinions from people on something like the design of a website and people were quickly put off from answering the questions. This added to the fact that many did not want to be filmed or have their voices recorded, I was only able to record two full interviews with the public.

After this failed attempt, I chose to gain the audience’s feedback in a more simple form, by asking people to fill in a questionnaire, available online and in paper form, about the functionality and design of a few examples of television websites. The results were then combined and analysed to see what the overall opinion was on certain important features of a website.

This form of research worked well for me and gave me a good idea on what the public, and my intended audience, thought of certain things that are used in web design, allowing me to design my product in a way that it appeals to the audience that it was intended for. Plus with the two vox pop recordings that I managed to collect, it created a visual form of representing the public’s opinion, that I could display on my blog and use in the process.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and

evaluation stages?

Media technologies and the use of them have played a major role in all of the stages of my work, whilst creating my main product and the related ancillary tasks. However, I believe that these new technologies played the biggest part during the construction and research stages of the work.

Whilst conducting research for my product, I used many different technologies to gain the opinions of others. Whilst out on the streets completing my vox pop, I used a range of different pieces of equipment to record the opinions of those I was interviewing, including a portable mic and even a camera phone. Without these simple pieces of equipment, it would have been impossible to truly record their opinions in a way that is sharable to others, apart from simply writing down the results and typing them up later. I also created a survey for people to fill out on a survey-hosting website, then used social networking to promote this and help spread the word. This was a time saving way of gaining the opinions of others and was in a form other than the standard paper-based survey. These two instances show that modern day technologies can help make even the simplest tasks quicker and easier, with clearer results that are easily shared with others, such as on a blog.

During the planning stages of the production, I used many pieces of software to help create models and plans of my final product. The main piece of software I used was Photoshop CS4, as it allowed me create plans and drawings quickly and easily, with the help of my drawing tablet. These plans started off as rough, black and white sketches and then became more detailed, coloured drawings as the pieces of work were put together, making the finished product. Another piece of technology I used whilst planning my product was the internet and a certain few websites. These websites are showcases of already existing websites, showing off the web creations and helping to give ideas and inspiration to many. I used these websites greatly, looking at which designs were the highest rated and which colours worked the best, so that I could use them in my own production. They also helped me when coding the website that I created, as they helped me with new parts of the code that I had not used before.

Throughout the creation stages of my production, I used many different pieces of software and tools to create the webpages and the content within them. The main tool I used throughout this stage was Dreamweaver CS4. This was the main program that I coded all of the web pages in as it was available for both Mac and PC, so I could continue my work at home or when I was not in the media studies computer room. I also heavily used Photoshop, as it allowed me to quickly develop graphics and images to be included in the website, whilst coding. Although there are alternatives to these pieces of software, both paid and free versions, the Adobe software was vital in creating high class products in a short space of time, using their unique features and tools within the software.

During the evaluation stages, I relied on my blog quite heavily, as all of my work and writings were posted on it for everyone to see and evaluate. This allowed people to easily see and comment on what I had done, without me having to individually send the work to all of the people, saving time for everyone. However, the one issue with this is that the blog network was not available at all times, particularly whilst I was at school, preventing me from uploading new content when I wished. This also prevented many from seeing my work, as their only chance was to check it during school and in lessons, stopping me from receiving as much feedback. Apart from this, the whole concept of using a blog to share your creations is a very good thing and has helped throughout my production, including the evaluation stages.

Compared to my AS work, I have used significantly more media technologies this year, and have taken advantage of those technologies more and more as I progressed through my work, including the ability to share my work with everyone on the blog, the easiness of gaining peoples opinions through the use of online surveys and questionnaires and the advancement in new features and tools in programs such as Photoshop and Dreamweaver. All of this together has meant that my work has been taken to a level that I could not reach with my AS work, due to the lack of technology available that time round. This has in turn allowed me to create a better final product, using the resources available.

Final Design - Version 2

2010-03-08T14:46:00.000Z

Since my last post, I have made a few more changes to the primary part of the work, the website.

After researching more television channel websites and looking into the design of the websites more, Ned and I have decided that Witness was still a bit too plain and did not really stand out much, when compared to other television channel websites. For this reason, I made a few small changes to the design of the website, mainly the colour schemes used throughout the site.

The biggest change with the design is the addition of different colour schemes for different pages. This has still kept with the black and white of the original design, but is now injected with different colours on different pages. These colours are also shown on the menu, when you hover over the selected links.

Another change is the logo, which has been altered one again. The logo is now full in colour and in a bold style, standing out the the viewer on every page. The letters in the word have been grouped together, showing a connection between the majority of the letters, including the lowercase "i" and the capital "W".

These changes make the website a lot brighter and more colourful, rather than sticking with the same shade of blue, which gave a very laid back and relaxed feel to the website. The new colours, which include a blue, are very bright and in your face, much like the documentaries and the programmes that are shown on the channel. This use of the harsh colours with the black and white also makes the website appeal more to a younger audience, increasing the targeted audience.

Feedback Please

2010-01-25T22:51:00.000Z

Now my work is nearing completion, I would like some feedback on the final product so that I can make any last minute adjustments and improvements.

http://guba.uni.cc/witness/index.html

Please visit this link to my final product and then post any comments or ideas on this blog post so that I can make some adjustments based on your criticism.

The Final Design

2010-01-20T12:21:00.004Z

The website is now near enough complete, with only a few things to finish off and add, so I thought I would explain the design and the function of the website as a whole.

Firstly, the function. The main function for the website than Ned and I have created is to serve as a source of information for our fictional channel - Witness. There are many different functions for a television channel website and some channels use their websites in different ways. One example is the BBC. Due to the size of the channel, the BBC's website serves as a media portal rather than an informational website, with many different varieties of content being displayed over numerous pages. This includes the BBC's iPlayer and their news and weather services.

Other, smaller television channel websites such as Comedy Central's website, focus more on giving the reader information about the channel and its programmes. These websites tend to be much smaller than something like the BBC's and contain information about selected programmes, what shows are upcoming and usually a programme guide for the next few days. This is the type of television channel website that Witness is. The aim for the website we have created is to give information about the channel to the readers, so they can see what programmes are coming up and what these programmes are about.

Secondly, the design. The main aim for the design was to keep it very clean and simple to use, but also very functional. For this reason, we have kept the design very plain, with all the content boxes being in plain but bold colours, so that they stand out to the reader. To make it easier to use, the website is split up into smaller boxes of content, such as those in the sidebar and in the "Top Picks" box on the main page. These make it easier to find the content you want.

The colour scheme for this website is very plain, with only a handful of colours being used, including black, white and blue. These all contrast well with each other and make the use of blue stand out more. However, the change from a blue to a lighter one as the background colour makes it very soft and calm.

Thirdly, the content. Content on a website is more important than the design of the website, as it is the thing that keeps readers returning. In this instance, the content is information about the channel and it's programmes. Included in this content is information about a handful of select programmes, including a description and show times for each of them on separate pages. Also on the website is a programme schedule for the upcoming day and an about page, containing information about the channel, including things like when it is in, which channels it is broadcasted on and who to contact if needed.

To balance the text, there are a lot of images throughout the website, including the large image cycling box on the main page and smaller images on the majority of other pages. Images are far more interesting to the reader than plain text, attracting them to the area and to the linking page.

Overall, I believe that the combination of the website design, the content and the type of channel it is, make a good package and make the website seem as professional as some made by the television channels themselves.

The Design: How far we have come

2010-01-18T22:45:00.014Z

It was been a while since my last blog post. This is mainly due to the amount of time we have spent on creating the actual website and producing the content to fill the website.

Since we first created our design mock-up, both hand drawn and in Photoshop like below, we have changed many different parts and the majority of the design, to a point where it looks also completely different to first planned.

This is due to many changes in ideas and also inspiration from many different locations, including many already existing websites such as The Discovery Channel and Comedy Central.

Our first design for the website was hand drawn and on squared paper to help plan out the design as accurately as possible.

We decided to keep the design as simple as possible, but focus on user interactivity and dynamic content, things that keep the reader on the website for as long as possible.

The large box on the page cycles through a selection of images, which the user can click on to be taken to separate pages for each of the programmes.

The other, smaller boxes contain images and text that describe the channel and its content.

The second image shows the first colour mock-up of the website that we made. The colours in this image are the colours that we originally chose for the design, as we believed that these stand out against each other and go well with the genre of our channel and its mise-en scene.

The greens chosen stand out a lot against the dark grey, creating a bold impression, very much like the type of channel that we have created.

The use of a darker green for the logo helps it stand out further and makes it one of the first things you see, keeping the name and logo of channel in your head.

The first version of the website we created was a little different to what we first planned in our mock-ups. Firstly, the colours have changed from a green and grey combination to a blue and dark grey. These colours stand out as much as the previous set but we believed they went better with the genre and mise-en scene of the channel.

However, the layout is very similar to the one that was first planned, keeping to the simple and easy to use layout.

The next step in the creation of the website changed the design quite considerably. The colours were stripped and cut the design down to a very simple thing, using only black, white and small bits of blue.

One large feature of the website was complete at this stage though, the image slideshow, which make up a large part of the page.

The next stage saw a vast amount of work being completed, including the remaining parts of the design and the content that fills it.

This stage kept with the black, white and blue colour scheme but added a pattern background image, giving the page a more informal appearance.

Many key features were also added to this version, including a programme guide, schedule and an about page.

These steps have lead to this, the most recent version of the website. Not much has changed since the last version, apart from a few minor additions to the content and a few fixes in areas.

However, the background image has changed once again, now a gradiant changing from one shade of blue to a lighter one. This creates a more friendly appearance to the website and also injects a bit more of the blue into the design.

Website Design Mock-up

2009-10-22T23:13:00.001+01:00

In today's lesson, Ned and I sketched out a few designs for our television channel website. Out of the sketched designs, we chose two or three that we would sketch out in more detail.

The following design was the one that I chose to expand on:

I chose this design as I believe this would suit our channel the most. Together, we decided that our website's main aim would be to deliver information to its readers and promote the television channel. For this reason, we designed the website like you can see now.

The website design is very clean and easy to look at, with simple boxes dividing up the page, giving many different things for the viewer to look at. This allows us to display as much information as possible on one page.

We took influence from many different websites that we visited and looked at in depth, including Channel Five's, ITV's and the BBC's. We then took pieces of each of these designs and put them into one design, which is shown above.

In the upper most box, we will have a selection of images and videos, which would fade from one to another. This will pause when you hover over it, allowing you to select a video to watch or click through to more information about the programme. The three smaller boxes below will contain images of selected programmes from our channel. These will help show the wide variety of shows that we will broadcast and again, give the viewer as much information as possible on one page. The boxes underneath these will contain information about the channel, including a programme guide for the upcoming week.

Once we had created the rough mock-up seen above, we also created a colour version of the webpage in Photoshop. This helps show our chosen colour scheme and what the design will look like once it is finished. At the moment, there is no content in the design as we have yet to discuss the layout of the content within the webpage.

However, this is not the final design but a quick colour mock-up. If this design is chosen, the next stage would be to discuss the small details of the webpage, including the logo, fonts and of course the content to be displayed in the boxes.

Why do TV channels need websites?

2009-10-20T17:52:00.000+01:00

Its a question that has been bugging me for a while now - why do TV channels need websites?

Many television channels decided to reach out to their audience members through the medium of the web during the late 1990's. The BBC was one of them, creating BBC Online in 1994. However, it did not launch until 1997, when it secured governement approval to fund the website by TV licence fee revenue. Since then, the website has gone through several branding changes, changing its name to BBCi, then bbc.co.uk and then back to BBC Online in 2008. Nowadays, the BBC's website is one of the world's largest and most visited website, ranking forty-seventh most visited according to Alexa.

Nowadays, many television channels use their websites as another form of promotion, showing clips and information about upcoming shows, what is on for the future weeks and months and also information about a certain few featured programmes. This is a free form of advertising for the channel, saving them money as they no longer have to pay out as much for advertising across other advertising networks.

Another reason television channels have their own websites is to increase the popularity of the channel. Channels like Dave often have websites that are full of viral and funny content, aimed at the same audience group and the channel itself. This helps make the website more popular, as a greater amount of people visit the website when bored, therefore making the television channel more popular.

One further reason is simply to provide information. Many of the larger channels use their websites to provide information to their audience members. The BBC's website is full of information, including a television guide, the news, weather and entertainment gossip. Many people visit the BBC's website to get information, even if they don't watch the TV channels. This is one of the reasons why the BBC's website is as popular as it is.

In my opinion, I believe the majority of television channels create websites for themselves to help promote the channel. This gives the channels a major boost in promotion which would have cost them a lot if they used other forms of advertising to achieve this. One such website that is solely aimed at promoting their own channel is five.tv. Five's website contains very little information like the BBC's website, but instead only contains clips and information about its own shows, attracting viewers to them.

Channel Research - Channel 4

2009-10-17T20:41:00.001+01:00

Channel 4 is a UK public-service television broadcaster which began broadcasting on November 2, 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned, whilst being operated by the Channel Four Television Corporation, a public body established in 1990.

Unlike Dave, Channel 4 has a much wider target audience and has to suit everyone, so can not create an image for itself like that of Dave's which connects with the very small audience of the channel. Also, Channel 4 is now more like a television network than just a standalone channel, with sister channels including More 4, E4, FILM 4 and 4Music. All of this affects the image of the channel and of its website, channel4.com.

The website design itself is very simple and plain, being mainly black and white. This keeps the pages very clean and easy to read. The website contains only a few images, all of these being pictures of programmes, promoting the wide range of shows on the channel. To help make the website a richer experience for the user, there are a lot of interactive areas to the website, including the menu at the top of the page. Also on the page is a very interactive programme guide for the following few hours, which expands when you hover over parts of it. This works very well and is extremely helpful to those looking at the website, as it provides a simple to use programme guide which provides a lot of information when needed.

This website works extremely well, with all the relevant information needed spread over a few pages, with separate pages for the programme guide, the different channels and some special pages for a handful of programmes themselves.

Overall, Channel 4's website is very simple and clean, to suit its image and to also make it simple to use. Unlike Dave, everything is kept plain, with no golden image frames or colourful wallpapers in sight. The website is also very functional, with a detailed programme guide and information. However, unlike Dave's website, Channel 4's has no real content of its own and is simply filled with information about the channel. This makes it more boring than joindave.co.uk and ensures viewers stay on the website for less amount of time.

Channel Research - Dave

2009-10-08T10:56:00.028+01:00

Dave, the new name and image for UKTV Gold, was launched on 22nd January 2009. The channel was launched across all media platforms, including Freeview, Sky and Cable television. Dave has grown in popularity considerably, becoming the UK’s largest channel within just a month of its launch.

The channel focuses on a particular audience group: 16-34 year old males. This is clear from just looking at the type of shows shown, including continuous Top Gear repeats, QI, Live at the Apollo, Ray Mears survival and Mock the Week. It is also clear from the design of the channel and its accompanying website.

The website for Dave is quite image and flash heavy so it does take a while to load first time round.

Once it has fully loaded, the website has many flashy and inteactive items, including the menus and the sliding content. This creates a very rich experience for the user.

The website itself is very easy to navigate, with a simple menu at the top and along the side. The lack of external links ensures that the viewer stays on the website for as long as possible.

Just like all of the other UKTV channels, Dave's website contains a simple television guide, relevant information about certain programmes and of course advertising to increase revenue for the channel.

To suit the very blokey image of the television channel, the website has a very posh design. The black wallpaper-like background and the gold picture frames that surround every image on the site creates design that looks very much like a gentlemen's club. The text on the website gives a feel of a lack of seriousness, maybe due to the specific intended audience. As the channel's main proportion of its viewers are male, the website does not have to appeal to as many people as a website such as the BBC's, so the content on the page can be specifically based around that certain group of people.

The content on the website itself matches both the theme of the television channel and the website, with short clips of outtakes and the best of Top Gear. Also included are the usual array of competitions and quizzes, all aimed at the same demographic of 16-34 year old males.

Vox Pop - Results

2009-09-28T20:53:00.003+01:00

After walking around Norwich city center for around an hour, we managed to get three people's opinions, which isn't all too great. The reason for this was many people simply didn't stop or walked away from us when we were trying to ask questions.

Out of the three people we stopped, one of these was recorded using the camera on our phone, as seen below:

As this was not enough data to fully count as a vox pop, we decided to continue the investigation at school, asking fellow members of sixth form the same questions. The results can be seen below:

Voxpop

2009-09-28T11:45:00.001+01:00

Later today, our media group is travelling to Norwich to conduct a voxpop. Vox pop, or vox populi as it is fully known, simply means voice of the people and is a term commonly used in broadcasting.

During this vox pop, Ned and I will ask the public a series of short questions about television channel websites, to help get a good idea of what to create later on. The questions that we will ask will include the following:

Do you visit the BBC's website?
For what reason do you visit this website? (Check the news, look at a programme guide, find weather information)
What other television channel websites do you visit?
What is the first thing you notice on a website such as the BBC's? (such as design, pictures, information etc)

When I return from Norwich later this evening, I wil post the results of the vox pop

First Steps...

2009-09-27T22:52:00.000+01:00

As part of our work in class last week, we were set a task to create a pitch for our product.

Aften several minutes of writing ideas, I cut the list down to the following three:

A new TV channel, unlike the rest, showing you what life is really like
A brand new channel, showing you the alternate side to life
Life isn't all bright on static, a new channel that shows you the alternate side to life

As you can tell, our fictional television channel (possibly called Static) focuses on everything alternate. The channel would reveal the other side of life, showing programmes like Louis Theroux's documentaries.

Whilst my mind was working, I came up with a colour scheme for the channel's website and multimedia items. The colours throughout the product will be primarily green, grey and black. These colours go well together and create a mise en scene that is bright and vibrant, but also different to most, matching the products main aim.

More is to come in the following days, including more ideas, a caption and a simple plan of the product.

Research

2009-09-27T22:25:00.000+01:00

Before I can get onto making my actual product, I must conduct research to gain an idea on what to create.

I have split this research up into different categories:

Existing Websites - comparing many different websites that already exist.
Existing Websites (Advanced) - Looking deeper into a select group of websites, comparing what type of content they contain, how many people use them daily and why they are like how they are.
History - investigating how long television channels have had their own websites and how they have changed as the internet has progressed.
Audience Research - looking into what type of people would use my final product.
First Hand Experience - travel to a company that specialises in web design - take ideas and interview members of staff.
Vox pop - travel to Norwich and ask members of the public about the opinions.

F1RST

2009-09-19T16:03:00.000+01:00

This is the first post on my brand new blog made especially for my A2 Media Studies course.

On this blog I will post all of the stages and work that goes into making my final product, a website for a fictional television channel.

Keep checking back to see how I am doing and to see my final product when it is complete.