Final Products: Magazine

(The advert was not my creation, simply added in to demonstrate how the product would look if it were real)
This was added to demonstrate how my product would look if it were published as a real magazine. I have done this to clearly demonstrate how my final products work together. This confirms that my product would work if it were to be published and exist as a real product.

05/03/18

Aims:

• Work on fourth evaluation question 

Reflection:

I completed this question and worked through a range of different softwares. In each one, I created an analysis and described how I had used it and how it had benefited my work. I tried to use every feature that I had previously used in these evaluations to showcase how I had used them. I then wrote a conclusion. This means that my evaluation is over and I have completed all of my tasks.

Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

To fully answer this question, I have decided to revisit the media technologies and use them to answer my question. For each piece of software that I have used, I will construct my response with that software. Hardware will require a different sort of response.

 Blogger: 

Blogger is the first tool that I used. I created my blog on Blogger and the posts that I've made have all been done through this website. It has been a useful tool and I would not have been able to complete this project without it.

Basics: 

I used blogger in my first year, thus, I was already  accustomed to the layout and I knew how to use it but, even if I had not, it has an easy user interface. As you can see, when you log into Blogger, you are greeted by a list of your posts. You can edit them or create new posts. It also separates the post into two sections - drafts and published posts. A useful feature of Blogger is that if you do not publish your post, it is automatically saved and stored as a draft so that you can finish it later. With posts that take a long time, such as evaluation question, this is especially useful as you do not have to do all of the work in one go. Additionally, on this page to the left, you can see a running list with some of the features that Blogger offers. 

I have crossed out the ones which I have not used. For example, I do not make earnings off of this blog as it is is purely for coursework and not for profit. Theme and layout gave me customisation options whilst the posts made up the body of my work. 

Theme and Layout: 

Theme allows me to choose a template for my site and further customise it, changing the way that my website looked. This was a purely aesthetic choice and did not effect the outcome for my project but it  did give me creative freedom over the way that it was presented to the world.

There was also the layout section. This allowed me to add in gadgets. One of the gadgets which I have used frequently is Labels. I will address how I have used labels later in this post but this gadget allows you to see the labels that have been used. It allows you to click a link to see posts sorted by labels. This makes my blog easier to navigate for both a marker/viewer or for me when I am looking for posts of a specific type. 

Post: 

This is the layout for creating a new post. The main body allows me to type up text. This is essential for my project as I need to write up my research. It also gives me a range of formatting options. 

I can change fonts

Change the size of my text.

Change the colour of my text 

And apply different effects to my text

Once more, these do not affect the content of what I post but gives me the freedom to present the information in more interesting ways and organise my text with headings and subheadings if need be. Blogger also gives me the opportunity to add links, images, and videos. This means that I can present my information in a range of different media types. I have recognised that my exam board believes that a strong response contains many types of multimedia and blogger allows me to use multimedia. 

EXAMPLE

When creating a new post, you will notice that there are options for composing and editing HTML. While HTML gives more freedom, the majority of users will not be familiar with it. This shows that this website is suited for beginners and for those who are HTML competent. 

The main reason that I have used the HTML window is so that I can embed presentations, videos ect. from other sites. This means, once more, that I can use a rich range of media in my posts. 

Labels:

Labels allow me to tag my post with a key word or phrase. This groups certain posts together and allows me to see posts that belong to one specific group. I looked at my labels from last year. Both this year and last year, I looked at the posts labelled inspiration. This makes my blog easier to access and is a very useful feature of blogger. 

Schedule: 

One other useful feature of Blogger is the schedule function. This allows you to choose when your work will be posted. You can post it ahead of time and schedule it or you can post it on a previous day. This is useful if you completed a post but did not complete the time management for that day or if you need to spread posts out over a couple of days and want to set up a queue ahead of time. Either way, this gives you freedom over when posts are posted and the order that information appears in. 

Conclusion: 

This website was essential as it was the site in which I posted and collated all of my work. I used it to post my research, my planning, my drafts, my final products, and now my evaluations. 

 This website worked better than any other site would as it allowed me to create media rich posts. It also gave me creative freedom over how things looked and how they were presented and this was essential for me. I think that this website has been easy to use and I would use it again in future products. 

WIX:

Link

Screenshots: 

Conclusion: 

This was the website that I made my website on. It was essential and I would not have been able to complete this product without it. I used several apps, image editing software, and text formatting features built into the website.  I experimented with all of the features of WIX and used it to it's full potential.

 Photoshop: 

These graphics describe the tools I used when making my products: 

These show the enhancements and edits that can be made under Photoshop's enhancement tab: 

Conclusion: 

I used Photoshop to edit my images using the tools that I have explained and demonstrated above. I feel that I am quite competent with Photoshop and used it well. 

This product was essential for editing my images to make my product. Photoshop offers a wide range of customisation offers and gave me freedom to make my images how I imagined them. It has a lot of editing tools and is used by both professionals and beginners. 

 Prezi: 

Conclusion: 

I used Prezi for inspirational presentations to help me build my ideas. I looked at styles and fonts and examined what other magazines did. I felt that these presentations really helped to shape my ideas and that they were influential to my research and planning. 

 Emaze: 

Conclusion: 

I used emaze for a range of purposes. I used it for inspiration, evaluation, and deconstruction. It helped to shape my ideas as it's Showcase widget allowed me to examine trends and features I liked in similar products, allowed to me effectively deconstruct similar products, and allowed me to evaluate my ideas and choose the most effective styles and layouts for my own products. 

SurveyPlanet: 

Survey Planet Link

Screenshots:

Conclusion: 

This website was hard to impossible to evaluate using only the website itself. I did my best to use this but it was difficult. I used this website to create a survey of multiple choice questions that would teach me more about my audience and help me to build an idea of what they'd be like. I used this website to learn about my target audience in one large survey. 

 GoMoodboard: 

GoMoodboard Link 

Screenshot: 

Conclusion: 

I used this site to create my initial moodboard with my initial ideas. It allowed me to consider my aesthetic choices surrounding my genre and my magazine. The moodboard that it allowed me to create was a large source of inspiration. However, the website auto-format with the images in which it changes their position makes it difficult to use and thus I only used it once. 

 MindMup: 

Conclusion: 

I used this site to create mindmaps to help me express ideas, specifically around naming my product and my company. The site was easy to use and let me express my creativity and brainstorm ideas. I used it in the research and planning stages when I was coming up with my ideas. I also referred back to this when I was evaluating my names and choosing one. 

Niice: 

Niice Moodboard Link

Screenshot:

Conclusion: 

I used this site to create moodboards that helped me to express my ideas. I used it twice to create two moodboards. These were for model support and for representing my target audience. This helped me to become inspired and build up my ideas and also to inspire my model and showcase what I wanted.

 PowToon: 

Conclusion: 

I used this site to create videos. PowToon is useful as it allows me to use a wide range of multimedia. I used this site for Evaluation, Inspiration, Research and Organisation and I have made each one unique with PowToon's unique customisation tools. 

Evernote: 

Evernote Link

Screenshots: 

Conclusion: 

I used the site Evernote to create notebooks studying pose and expression. It was a useful tool that was similar to blogger in many ways. I have analysed how it allows you to format text and described the process I went through in my pose evaluation. This was a useful tool despite me only using it once. 

StrawPoll and AnonVote: 

Conclusion: 

These two sites make it impossible for me to evaluate within them so I will evaluate in Blogger instead. I used these sites to receive audience feedback. They are both useful sites. In  StrawPoll, all you need to do is type in your question and type in your options then allow it to do the work. In AnonVote, all you need to do is select the image files you want. This means that these sites are accessible to anyone. They both have IP tracking so that each vote you receive definitely came from a different person as the same IP address cannot vote twice. I used these sites in my research and planning to see which templates, names ect. my audience would respond best to by seeing which one garnered the most votes. I knew that my audiences opinions were important and thus I used these sites so that I could take them into consideration.

Slideshare: 

Slideshare evaluation from BethDoesMedia

Conclusion: 

I used Microsoft Powerpoint and SlideShare to create my pitch and my storyboard. They were useful to bring together my initial ideas and my final ideas. The website itself was difficult to use and caused some formatting issues but I feel that I used it to achieve my goals in the end.

YouTube: 

Conclusion: 

I used YouTube alongside Premiere Pro to create and post videos linked to my audience feedback. This helped me to build my ideas and research the likes and dislikes of my target audience and whether or not my work would be successful with them or not. 

 Hardware: 

Conclusion: 

I used three different pieces of hardware to construct my work. These were the Lenevo Ideacentre, the MacBook and the Lumix Camera. These all aided me in creating my product. Whilst the camera only factored into the production of the images and therefore was only relevant to the construction stage of my work, the computers were used in all stages of my project. 

04/03/18

Aims:

• Work on fourth evaluation question

Reflection:

I began this question deciding to look back over the softwares that I have used. I have so far today used Blogger, Wix, and Photoshop. I also made an Emaze looking at hardware. If I want to complete this, I will have to do a lot of work tomorrow.

03/03/18

Aims:

• Work on third evaluation question

Reflection:

I created a Prezi and an Emaze detailing how my work has been affected by audience feedback and referring specific things I was told in post-it notes and with my interviews. I went in depth and pulled apart each product I had made to describe how it had been affected. I think I answered this question well.

Evaluation Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Who was my audience?

The first thing that I learnt from my audience feedback was who my audience was. I used a survey to figure this out. This was one of the earliest pieces of audience feedback on my blog. I have examined that in this PowToon video.




Once I had these numbers, I looked at other magazines same audiences and compared it to my own. This validated my survey as, in most instances, the results were similar. This is the emaze presentation where I did this. As you can see, this taught me a fair amount about who my audience was.




Original post: [x]

I then validated my understanding of that by creating several graphics for myself to represent the people I was appealing to and who they were. This meant that my audience feedback had taught me which sort of person I was appealing to and I was demonstrating that.

This was a moodboard to show the aesthetics of my target audience and to represent them through a series of images. I felt that this encapsulated the type of person I was trying to appeal to very well.

Original post: [x]

These were created as profiles to represent potential individuals who would enjoy my product. Whilst the first two belong to my primary audience, I also learnt that I had a secondary audience who I should also consider as well.

Original post: [x]

I created a drawing of a potential reader and included the features that would make her a potential reader. I felt that this drawing represented the ideal individual that I was appealing to - unlike the profiles which represented more realistic individuals. Once more, this demonstrated and consolidated what I had learnt about my T.A. 

Original post: [x]

 I created this to summarise what I had learnt. This has everything that my survey told me and everything I learnt from it. It represents who my audience and what groups they belong to. This greatly demonstrates my understanding of my audience.

Original post: [x]

How did I appeal to them?

My research didn't just tell me who my audience were, it also taught me how to appeal to them and what they liked. I spent time before and after construction asking my audience for their opinions on things through surveys and interviews. I created this Prezi to summarise what my audience told me and what I learnt from their feedback. 

I also created this to demonstrate how it has affected my products visually and showcase the changes and the choices made based off of the feedback that my audience gave me on each of my products.






Conclusion:

Over the course of making my product, I have learned that my audience consists of 26-30 year old engaged rich women and I have learned what they like and don't like in products. I have then based my products off these changes and learnt to make products which suit them. I have expressed all of the ways in which they gave their opinion in the Prezi and Emaze power points that I made and I feel accomplished from the research that I have done.

02/03/18

Aims:

• Work on third evaluation question 

Reflection:

I went back through my Potential Target Audience label and selected the posts where I had looked at my target audience and also how I had found out who it was. I created a PowToon explaining who my T.A is and how I know and then organised my other posts to back this up. I will also need to look tomorrow at how knowing my target audience helped me to build my products and what effect the feedback that they gave me had on my work.