Steven Carroll

Artefact Six -Text Font Styles Re-Run: Evaluation

2011-04-17T10:01:00.000+01:00

14 random people aged 18+ participated. The results of the text font styles artefact were very disappointing. Participants were asked to consider text font styles: “Used in advertising on social networks, would certain styles used influence your initial reactions to click on an advert?” Participants were asked to select, from three targeted Facebook adverts, the font style, colour, size and background colour.

Through re-running the text font styles artefact, it was discovered, that results of the artefact were inconclusive. Participants indicated that they preferred a white background on all three Facebook advertisements, “Advert one, 64%”, “Advert two, 71%” and “Advert three, 85%”. Participants also indicated that they preferred a black font style on the three advertisements presented , “Advert one, 50%”, “Advert two, 57%” and “Advert three, 57%”. There were no surprises to these results as participants’ text font style choices is individual. However, participants’ colour choice in background colour and text colour, did surprise me as in my earlier artefacts brighter colours were chosen.

Participants had 20 font styles from which to choose a preference. The results were not surprising as font style is individual. Calibri and Times were the most popular: “Calibri, 28%” and “Times, 28%”.

Participants could also change the font size of the three advertisements for ease of reading. In all three of the advertisements participants changed the font size to 16. These results were surprising, I thought participants would choose an even larger text to read the adverts more clearly.

Conclusively, font style, colour, size, and background colour are down to individual choice and are difficult to predict. The results were disappointing. Only 14 participants completed the artefact. Apathy and personal choice is indicated in my sixth artefact as a factor in initial reaction.

The Knights Pharmacy website is now complete

2011-04-10T16:49:00.004+01:00

The website has been tested for two weeks and the client requested minor modifications with some text content. The website has also been tested, and all pages including IE6 version of the website passed W3C standards (The Markup validation service).

www.knightspharmacy-nottingham.com

Artefact Six Text Font Styles - Re-Run: Analysis

2011-04-03T18:30:00.000+01:00

Why did I create this Artefact?

I was asked to rerun my text font styles artefact, by my PRP lecturer, as in the original artefact, I only ask questions and did not receive results from the participant’s choice of different text font style design elements.

Who is my target audience?

The target audience has been the same throughout all of my artefacts, as many people as possible that use social networks.

I distributed the Artefact link, through social networks direct e-mailing and placing block posts. I also sent emails to all three-year multimedia students.

Questionnaire Results
Analysis

The rerun of the text font styles artefact has been very disappointing only 14 participants took part. Participants were asked to think about text font styles: used in advertising on social networks, would certain styles used influence your initial reactions to click on an advert? Participants were asked to indicate from three targeted adverts from Facebook, change the font style, font colour, background colour and font size.

Through re-running the text font styles artefact, it was discovered, that results of the artefact were inconclusive. Participants indicated that they preferred a white background on all three Facebook advertisements, “advert one 64%”, “advert two 71%” and “advert three 85%”. Participants also indicated that they preferred a black font style on the three advertisements presented , “advert one 50%”, “advert two 57%” and “advert three 57%”.

There were no surprises to these results as participants text font styles choices is very much individual. However, participants colour choices in background colour and text colour, did surprise me as in my earlier artefacts brighter colours were chosen.

Participants had 20 different font styles to choose from, the results were not surprising as font style is very much individual. However easier text style to read was indicated. Calibri and Times were indicated as being the top favorites font styles, “Calibri 28%” and “Times 28%”.

Participants could also change the size of the font allowing the three advertisements presented more easier to read. In all three of the advertisements participants changed the font size to 16. These results were surprising, I thought participants would choose a larger text to read the adverts more clearly.

Conclusively, “font style”, “font colour”, “background colour” “font size” is down to individual choice and is difficult to determine. The results were disappointing. Only 14 participants completed the artefact. Apathy and personal choice is indicated in my sixth artefact as a factor in initial reaction.

Knights Pharmacy Website Update

2011-03-13T09:58:00.002Z

CMS MySQL login database has now been completed. These pages of the website will allow the pharmacy the ability to update their own content and provide details of upcoming pharmacy promotions, e.g. services and special events. The pharmacy administrator has the ability to log in to an admin page. The administrator with a secure login can, only view these pages. The following can be changed, add a promotion including images, delete or amend a promotion. I had a meeting with the client and showed them how to use the database. The client was very happy with the ability to change their own content, they thought the administration pages were easy to use and only requested minor modifications. The icons on the edit page would be better if they also had text as well as the icon.

I used PHP and MySQL code from the Lambley Riding Club website, which was completed last year in my final term as part of a group project. PHP and MySQL is an area of the project that I have found most difficult. I started to develop a database in the summer, by stripping down Lambley Riding Clubs database to understand more clearly on how the code worked. Through completing a CMS MySQL login database for Knights Pharmacy, I now have a better understanding of the code. However, my skill level in this area, I think is still fairly poor. The Lambley Riding Club database, gave me a better understanding of database construction. Without the code as an example, I am not sure I would have bin able to complete the Knights Pharmacy database. I have a lot to learn in this area of web design; it is not through trying, I just don’t think I get it.

Artefact Five - Multimedia Student social network advertising questionnaire – Evaluation

2011-03-10T10:50:00.002Z

After disappointing results in my image association artefact, I distributed a questionnaire to 10 multimedia students who had experience of multiple social networks.

Seven of the students completed the questionnaire. For simplicity, I asked the students just four questions. The results of the questionnaire were inconclusive.

To the question, “Which social networks are you a member of and your primary reasons for being a member?”, as expected, Facebook came out on top, being the main social network indicated in my first artefact questionnaire.

To the question “Have you ever clicked on an advertisement on a social network, if so why?”, the results were unsurprising. “Interested in the product” “images”, “aesthetics and good design” all contributed to creating an appealing and effective design, top reasons for clicking on a social network advertisement.

To the question, “If you’ve never clicked on an advert on a social network why not?”. The main reasons for not clicking on an advert were “authenticity”, “not who I am”, “useless”, “annoying and scams and stupid”. It seems that as participants become more familiar using social networks, participants become more cynical, ignoring advertisements.

To the question, “Would you like to make any other comments about direct-targeted advertising on social networks?”, two examples are given:

“Social networks can target a relevant audience in a more efficient way to a traditional way of branding everyone with the same advert and hoping for the best.”

“I think the adverts are very loosely targeted at us through a few keywords on our profiles, and are often very useless.”

Conclusively, “interested in the product”, “visually appealing”, “aesthetics”, “relevance of the product” and “good design” were considerable factors in initial reactions. Experienced social network users seem more cynical towards direct advertising.

Artefact Five - Multimedia Student social network advertising questionnaire - Analysis

2011-03-06T11:42:00.005Z

Why did I create this Artefact?

After the disappointing results in my image association artefact. Only 20 participants took part in the artefact. I decided to distribute a questionnaire, to multimedia students who had experience of multiple social networks. I am interested in the opinions of the users. If they have ever clicked on an advertisement, On what factors had the most effect, on their initial reaction to an advertisement.

Who is my target audience?

I targeted ten multimedia students who had experience of social networks. I emailed the students individually inviting them to complete a questionnaire, as being an experienced user of social networks.

Analysis

I have targeted this artefact at a specific audience, multimedia students who have experience or use multiple social networks. Seven out of the ten students, completed the questionnaire. I asked the students four questions, I did not want to bombard the students with two many questions as I wanted a good response. Through the questioning, the results of the questionnaire were inconclusive.

To the question, “which social networks are you a member of and your primary reasons for being a member”, Facebook came out on top this was not surprising as Facebook was the main social network indicated in my first artefact questionnaire. However, the results did indicate that three of the students were members of at least five social networks. The primary reasons for being a member, were the same as indicated in my first artefact questionnaire, to keep up with friends and family. One of the students however, indicated they also used social networks to further develop their career.

To the question, “Have you ever clicked on an advertisement on a social network, if so why? I am interested in if any of these factors influenced you to click, colour, images used, font style, interactivity or just the product”. The results were not surprising; interested in the product, images, aesthetics and good design all contributed to creating an appealing and effective design, top reasons for clicking on a social network advertisement.

To the question, “If you’ve never clicked on an advert on a social network why not? I am interested in targeted advertising; social networks that use your information, does your information used influence you not to click”. The main reasons for not clicking on an advert were, authenticity, not who I am, useless, annoying and scams and stupid. As participants become more familiar using social networks, participants become more cynical and ignore the advertisements.

Finally, “Would you like to make any other comments about direct-targeted advertising on social networks? Your opinions matter as an experience user of social networks”. These were the most interesting points about direct advertising on social networks

“Social networks can target a relevant audience in a more efficient way to a traditional way of branding everyone with the same advert and hoping for the best.”

“I don't tend to take much notice of the adverts. I let them wash over me because I'm on Facebook to be social, not to buy. Only if there's something that catches my eye like amazing typography or an image of something/someone I'm interested in appears.”

“I think the adverts are very loosely targeted at us through a few keywords on our profiles, and are often very useless.”

“I believe we don’t pay for Facebook so therefore we don’t have a say in what they do, if people don’t like that Facebook target them based on their personal data then they are free to leave the site and never use it”.

In conclusion, interested in the product, visually appealing, aesthetics, relevance of the product and good design, played considerable factor in initial reaction. Experience social network users are more cynical about direct advertising.

Knights Pharmacy Website update

2011-03-04T09:47:00.011Z

When I met with the client to discuss the website layout and agree final approval, I also upgraded the pharmacies Internet browser from IE 6 to IE8, I also installed Firefox Internet browser. This would allow the client to view the website development with the latest browsers.

A week after upgrading the pharmacies Internet browser, I received a telephone call from the client saying they had to reverse the upgrade of Internet Explorer and go back to use Internet Explorer six. This was because Internet Explorer eight was not compatible with the pharmacies computer software.

I had quite a lengthy conversation with the client about different Internet browsers. The client has always requested a website that will work on the four major Internet browsers, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari. I informed the client of the different versions of Internet Explorer. The version of Internet Explorer, the pharmacy is using was at least six years out of date and only 3 to 5% of the UK population now used that version of Internet Explorer (statcounter.com).

At the moment hardly any design elements work correctly in Internet Explorer six. The repeat background does not appear, the navigation does not work at all, PNG images do not display correctly and the interactive image banner also does not work correctly. I appreciate that the client has requested the website will work in all versions of Internet Explorer. However, to design a website that is interesting and engaging that works in a browser that is six years out of date is extremely difficult and virtually impossible.

A compromise with the client was reached, Google statistics script will be placed in each page, to gather statistics on what web browser the visitors are using and the web browser version. After a period of three months if it was found that a high percentage of visitors are using Internet Explorer six, amendments would be made to the website. However, the compromise will be completed after the completion of the project and charges will be made accordingly to any design elements that need to be changed.

After careful consideration, I have now designed a second pharmacy website that will now work in Internet Explorer six. I feel it is important for me to design the best website possible for the pharmacy. However, to get the website working in Internet Explorer six, design elements have to be changed, deleted or completely redesigned. I think the client will appreciate the website working in Internet Explorer six.

The interactive image banner has been completely removed; the banner would not work at all in Internet Explorer six. The banner has been replaced with fade in and out images. The repeat background image has now been replaced by a block colour; the background image would not display correctly in Internet Explorer six. All images used on the website have been changed from PNG’s to JPG’s, the images now display correctly. The reason for using PNG’s images was the transparency. Transparency images worked better with a background image. Transparency images do not display correctly in Internet Explorer six, the images are displayed with a grey background instead of being transparent. Further developments to the Internet Explorer version that still need to be completed, the drop-down on the navigation menu does not work correctly, this will be completed in the next coming week.

A visitor to the Knights pharmacy website who is using Internet Explorer six, will only see the Internet Explorer six version of the website and will not know of any other version. An if statement has been placed in each page of the website, the statement detects whether the user is using Internet Explorer six.

After receiving feedback from fellow students, amendment to the website has been made the logo has been made 30% smaller. There was a lot of empty space at the top and bottom where the logo is situated. The change is subtle; the decrease in size has improved the use of the space. Over the next week the website will be loaded to the Knights pharmacy URL, rather than test pages on my server, this will allow the database to be tested correctly.

Artefact Four - Image Association Evaluation

2011-02-28T17:20:00.001Z

In my first artefact questionnaire, 10% of participants considered images a factor in initial reaction. Through further testing and questioning, it was discovered that images are a significant factor.

20 random people aged 18+ participated. Participants looked at six different brand images, indicating favourite and memorable images. The results were not surprising as participants’ image choice is individual. However, presenting controversial images impacted considerably on the results.

To the question, “Please indicate which brand images you found most interesting”, 60% thought Benetton. The results were surprising. Participants thought controversial images were more appealing than noncontroversial ones.

Participants were asked; “Companies such as Benetton use controversial images that do not relate to their products. Would controversial content influence you to click on the image?” 55% said ‘Yes’, 30% said ‘No’. The results confirm the previous question’s results.

To the question, “Should controversial images be used in advertising”, 60% said ‘Yes’, 30% said ‘Have no opinion’. Interestingly, as in the previous two questions, participants found controversial images more appealing in advertising.

Participants were asked, “Would controversial images used in advertising bias you against a brand?” 15% said ‘Yes’, 85% said ‘No’. The results were surprising, but confirmed the previous question’s results. Controversial images are more appealing whether they relate to a product or not.

To the question, “You have looked at brands, information and images. Would images influence you to click on an advert?”, 90% said ‘Yes’, 10% said ‘No’. This was surprising presenting images and information, a mixture of controversial and noncontroversial images for the participants to choose from, forced the participants to consider images in advertising in more detail.

Conclusively, the results were disappointing. Only 20 participants completed the artefact. Apathy is indicated in my fourth artefact as a factor in initial reaction.

Artefact Four - Image Association Analysis

2011-02-24T20:09:00.000Z

Why did I create this Artefact?

This artefact was created to test participants initial reaction to images in advertising. Participants would look at different brands, how brands use images to promote products and services. Participants will be asked to look at brands who also use controversial image content in advertising campaigns. In my first artefact questionnaire 10% of participants considered images as being a factor in initial reaction in clicking on a advertisement.

All my artefacts have been designed to test for initial reaction in advertising, I found in my research document, through research and evaluation the findings to be inconclusive, on why people click on advertisements on social networks.

Who is my target audience?

As many people as possible that use social networks. I distributed the Artefact link, through social networks direct e-mailing and placing block posts. I also sent emails to all three-year multimedia students.

This is my fourth artefact I’ve had fairly good results on average 50 participants, enough to evaluate. However, the window of opportunity is extremely small, 1½ days to 2 days maximum and timing is also important for maximum impact. Participants social networks update minute by minute, if you ask participants to early or too late to take part the window of opportunity will be lost.

Another factor is apathy, 80 multimedia students who all have to create six artefacts 480 in total is difficult. Coming up with really good ideas that will engage the audience is extremely difficult, as well as being able to receive adequate results.

Questionnaire Results

Analysis

I have targeted my artefacts at a specific audience, people who use social networks. Through further testing and questioning, has indicated apathy in my fourth artefact as being a factor in initial reaction. In general participants have seen enough artefacts and questionnaires to last them a lifetime.

20 random people aged 18+ participated in the artefact questionnaire. Participants were asked to look at six different brand images, indicate favourite and memorable. There were no surprises to these results as participants image choice is very much individual. However, presenting controversial images did impact considerably on the results.

To the question, “Please indicate which brand images you found most interesting”, 60% thought Benetton. The results were surprising participants thought controversial images were more appealing than noncontroversial.

Participants were asked the question; “Companies such as Benetton use controversial images that do not relate to their products. Would controversial content influence you to click on the image”, 55% said ‘yes’ and 30% said ‘no’. The results back up the previous question participants found controversial images more appealing.

To the question, “Should controversial images be used in advertising”, 60% said ‘yes’ and 30% said ‘Have no opinion’. As in the previous two question participants found controversial images more appealing in advertising.

Participants were asked the question; “Would controversial images used, in advertising bias you against a brand”, 15% said ‘yes’ and 85% said ‘no’. the results were surprising, but backed up the previous questions results controversial, images are more appealing whether they relate to a product or not.

To the question, “you have looked at brands, information and images. Would images influence you to click on an advert”, 90% said ‘yes’ and 10% said ‘no’. These results were surprising presenting images and information, a mixture of controversial and noncontroversial images for the participants to choose from. Forced the participants to think about images in advertising in more detail.

Through this artefact, I now believe my question has been answered, What factors have the most effect on initial reaction to an advertisement, where a factor is content, interactivity, colour or sound.

As indicated in my research document there is no clear and consistent way of why people click on advertisements. Colour, images, interactivity, sound and font style are personal to the user. what I like and enjoy and engages me is completely different to somebody else, that’s why targeting advertisements to individuals through social networks can be difficult to achieve.

Knights Pharmacy Website development: Update

2011-02-19T10:40:00.009Z

The client has now looked at the test page in more detail; refinements to the design were requested, the text to be made larger on the phone and e-mail icons.

Further pages were added; after the client had seen the pages the client requested amendments on the contact page. Heading, telephone icon and text and email context to be placed under each other. I explained to the client that the continuity of this page would look different. However, the client thought text and icons looked better with this configuration.

Contact information has been added as well as a contact form to be filled in by customers. The client requested a contact form because they wanted a simple form of contact for ease of access; they believe it is much easier for the customers to fill in a contact form rather than their default email program loading, which they may have never used. The contact form loads automatically when the contact button is clicked. Jquery was used to improve the design of the page; the client preferred this design element rather than have information boxes already on the page to be filled in.

However, there is the option to click on the email address, the default email program will load. This gives the customer the choice of which form of contact they prefer. Further amendments to the contact page need to be completed, text content and images.

Location page has also been completed after further reflection and analysis the client rejected the second Google map, which would have allowed the customer to use the Street view facility. This is because the street view map does not show the pharmacy’s premises clearly enough and would be confusing. However, the pharmacy has opted for a downloadable PDF with information about opening times, location maps and bus information, as the pharmacy is situated on a major bus route.

Services pages have also been added with text content, further amendments need to be made to these pages. I inform the client there does not seem to be very much text content, the pages look empty. However, when images are added the pages will look a lot better. Personally, I think some more text will make the pages look a lot better or if there is still only a limited text the information should be combined, on to one page.

Artefact Four: Image Association

2011-02-16T13:03:00.000Z

Hi,

I would like to thank all those who have taken part in my research. I appreciate your help and support and thank you for your valuable contribution.

I am continuing my research, on what factors have the most effect on initial reaction to an advertisement. I would be grateful if you would take a few minutes to take part.

Artefact Link: www.sjcwebsitedesign.com/prp

I appreciate your help and support with this research and thank you for your valuable contribution.

Many thanks

Steven

Artefact Three -Text Font Styles Evaluation

2011-02-14T18:20:00.001Z

I wanted to explore text font styles in initial reaction to targeted advertisements. 47 random people aged 18+ participated in the artefact questionnaire.

In my original questionnaire, participants did not consider text font styles as being a factor in initial reaction. I thought that text font styles would have a larger influence on initial reaction than indicated. From further testing and questioning, it was discovered, however, that in fact text font styles was a significant factor in initial reaction.

I found it fairly difficult to come up with an artefact that would test participants’ initial reactions to text font styles. After some time, I developed the option where participants could change text font styles in three targeted advertisements from Facebook. The participants could change the following: background colour, font colour, style or size, by selecting the pull-down menus. This enabled participants to consider a number of changeable factors.

Participants were asked the question, “How important do you consider text font styles when clicking on an advert?”. 91% considered how easy the text is to read and 36% thought text as being a considerable factor in initial reaction. The results were surprising, as in my original questionnaire participants did not consider text font styles as a factor in initial reaction.

To the question, “You have looked at text font styles. Would text font styles influence you to click on an advert?”, 60% said “Yes”, 32% said “No” and 6% said “Text font styles would not influence me”. The results were therefore surprising. Originally in the first questionnaire, participants had said text font styles did not influence them in initial reaction.

In conclusion, by giving the participants an option to change text font styles and asking specific questions, the participants were forced to make conscious decisions.

Knights Pharmacy Website development

2011-02-13T13:03:00.009Z

Earlier this week I contacted the pharmacy with a link to the website development page. This is where the pharmacy will be able to see, the developments of the website.

Even before the website layouts had been approved I have shown the client, developments of different aspects of the website for example text resizing. The client required text resizing to allow greater accessibility, but didn’t know how they wanted this to look on the website. By showing the client different ways of using text resizing, through different test websites, this enabled the client to be able to see how it would work and understand the accessibility element. The client opted for a text-resizing icon that would increase or decrease the text font size. Click on “Change Text Size” a box would appear “small text” or “large text”. The client thought this icon looked a lot better than three A’s, or small medium or large text icons.

Because the text can now be increased or decreased in theory to any size, this design element has created some of its own problems. Content on each page has its own box, for alignment I’ve put height and width on the content boxers. This is because if anything is out of alignment it doesn’t look right on the page. However if I put height on the text content box, when the text is resized the text moves out of the box. By leaving the text box on the left-hand side, with no width, means the page is out of alignment because the text content is determining the height.

I have shown the client, when you change the text size this happens, the client did not want to compromise the design when the text was resized. Compromise: the text content has been moved to the bottom of the homepage, this means when the text is resized, the text will move correctly with the content box because there is no height set.

I also developed test websites to show the client how rounded corners would work. As some browsers do not allow rounded corners to work correctly using CSS for example Internet Explorer, the client rejected this design feature opting for content boxes without rounded corners.

Artefact Three - Text Font Styles Analysis

2011-02-09T09:40:00.002Z

Why did I create this Artefact?

This artefact was created to test text font styles, as in my original questionnaire participants did not consider text font style as being a factor in initial reactions to click on a targeted advert.

Participants were asked to look at three targeted advertisements from Facebook where they were able to change the following: Background Colour, Font Colour, Font Style or Font Size, by selecting the pull-down menus. By changing the text font styles, if this would influence participants to click on an advert.

Who is my target audience?

The target audience is the same as my questionnaire, as many people as possible that use social networks.

I distributed the Artefact link, through social networks direct e-mailing and placing block posts. I also sent emails to all three-year multimedia students.

Questionnaire Results

Analysis

I wanted to explore text font styles in initial reaction to targeted adverts, in my original social network questionnaire participants did not consider text font styles as being a factor in initial reaction. The question was asked “what factors attracted you to click on the product or service that was advertised”, text font styles received no results. I thought that text font styles would have a larger influence on initial reactions than indicated. From further testing and questioning, it was discovered, however, that in fact text font styles was a significant factor in initial reaction.

I found it fairly difficult to come up with an artefact that would test participant’s initial reactions to text font styles. After some time I came up with the option that the participants could change text font styles in three targeted adverts from Facebook. The participants would be able to change the following: Background Colour, Font Colour, Font Style or Font Size, by selecting the pull-down menus. This enabled participants to look at a number of changeable factors to see if text font styles, would influence them in clicking on an advert.

Participants were asked after looking at text font styles in more detail to answer two questions. 47 random people aged 18+ participated in the artefact questionnaire.

Participants were asked the question “How important do you consider text font styles? When clicking on an advert?”, the participants were given the following options and asked to click all that apply, how easy the text is to read, size, colour, style, background colour and text font style is not important to me. 91% considered how easy the text is to read and 36% thought colour as being a considerable factor in initial reactions. The results were surprising, as in my original questionnaire participants did not consider text font styles as being a factor in initial reaction.

To the question, “you have looked at text font styles. Would text font styles influence you to click on an advert?”, 60% said “yes” 32% said “no” and 6% said “Font text styles would not influence me” The results were surprising, I thought even though looking at text font styles in more detail would still indicate, font text styles as not being a factor in initial reaction to an advert.

In conclusion, by giving the participants an option to change text font styles and asking specific questions. Force the participants to think about font text styles. Personally, I consider text style as being one of the most important factors, not just in advertising but in any readable text on a website. If a font text style is difficult to read by using the wrong colours or styles, users can be put off very easily and move on very quickly.

Client Meeting 5th of February 2011

2011-02-05T14:22:00.000Z

My previous meeting with the client had to be cancelled owing to illness; the meeting was rescheduled for Saturday. I met with the client to go over the four website layouts and to clarify the feedback which had been received via email. As I had emailed the website layouts the previous week.

I also presented a final website design with the modifications made from the feedback received. This design has now been approved.

The client is really pleased with the work so far, they like the addition of the telephone and e-mail icons. They also thought the diary page looked a lot better than the noticeboard for the promotion button. They also liked how each area of the page had its own content box which they said gave some depth to the page and worked well with the background.

Artefact three- text Font Styles

2011-02-02T12:26:00.002Z

Hi all,

I would like to thank all those who have taken part in my research. I appreciate your help and support with this research and thank you for your valuable contribution.

I am continuing the research, on what factors have the most effect on initial reaction to an advertisement. I would be grateful if you would take a few minutes to take part in the research.

Artefact Link: www.sjcwebsitedesign.com/prp

Thanks

Steven

Artefact Two- Colour Association Evaluation

2011-02-02T11:32:00.000Z

It was interesting to explore the unexpected results regarding colour from my questionnaire. I thought that colour had a bigger role in initial reaction than first indicated. From further questioning, it was discovered, however, that in fact colour was a significant factor in initial reaction.

53 random people aged 18+ participated in the artefact. From being requested to select a colour, 30% of participants indicated red and 28% blue, the top colours chosen. There were no surprises to these results as participants colour choice is very much individual.

From the question, “Did you look at all of the colours and information before making your choice?”, 81% said “yes” 19% said “no”. As participants were asked to look at all the different colours before making their choice, this means 19% of participants did not read the initial information.

To the question, “Did the information influence you to choose a different colour?”, 63% said “no” and 37% said “yes”. The results were surprising. Thus by presenting participants with information, images and the option to see the information on a different coloured background, participants’ opinions can be influenced.

Finally, “Looking at the colours and information presented, would you be more likely to click on a advert?” was asked. 51% said “yes”, 23% said “no” and 26% said “colour would not influence them to click on an advert”, even though 77% of participants would not be influenced by colour. The results were surprising, as in my original questionnaire only 2% considered colour as a factor in initial reaction.

In conclusion, colour had a bigger influence in initial reaction than expected. The presentation of colours can be a significant factor.

Artefact Two: Colour Association Analysis

2011-02-02T07:25:00.003Z

Why did I create this Artefact?

This artefact was created to test participants initial reactions to colour in advertising. In the questionnaire only 2% considered colour as being a factor in initial reaction. I want to investigate if that is true or if colour pays a bigger factor in initial reaction, in what makes the user click on an advertisement.

Who is my target audience?

The target audience is the same as my questionnaire, as many people as possible that use social networks.

I distributed the Artefact link, through social networks direct e-mailing and placing block posts. I also sent emails to all three-year multimedia students.

Questionnaire Results

Analysis

A website was created to test initial reaction to colour, six different coloured buttons were presented, red, blue, green, yellow, pink and black. Participants were asked a question, would certain colours used influence your initial reactions to click on an advert? The participants were then asked to select a colour.

Once the participants had selected a colour that they thought would influence them. They were presented with information about that colour as well as images, they were also able to change the background colour. Once they had looked at information on all of the six colours presented, they were asked to complete a short questionnaire, to see if the information presented would influence their reactions to colour.

53 random people aged 18+ participated in the artefact, participants were asked the question; please indicate the colour you have chosen? 30% indicated Red and 28% Blue, these were the top colours chosen. There were no surprises to these results as participants colour choice is very much individual.

A question was asked, Did you look at all of the colours and information before making your choice? 81% said yes 19% said no. As participants were asked to look at all the different colours before making their choice, this means 19% of participants didn’t read the initial information.

A question was asked, Did the information influence you to choose a different colour? 63% said no and 37% said yes. The results were surprising. By presenting participants with information, images and the option to see the information on a different background, means that participants opinion of colour can be changed by presentation.

A final question was asked, looking at the colours and information presented, would you be more likely to click on a advert? 51% said yes, 23% said no and 26% said colour would not influence them to click on an advert. Even though 77% of participants said colour would not influenced them. The results were surprising, as in my original questionnaire only 2% consider colour is being a factor in initial reaction.

In conclusion, colour had a bigger influence in initial reaction, as originally indicated in my questionnaire. It is all about how the colours are presented, participants reaction to colour can be changed, how the information is presented using colour.

Knights Pharmacy Website Layouts

2011-01-30T20:32:00.018Z

Owing to illness my meeting with the client on the 20th January had to be cancelled, instead I emailed four initial website designs for the client’s approval. I received an email back, with positive feedback for the designs. However, the client wished to consult other staff members before making a decision on the final design.

A few days later I received an email with the following feedback and amendments to be made to the design.

Client Feedback and Comments

The website layouts were viewed and discussed and the following observations were made:

Out of the four designs presented, we prefer number four.
The logo, asked that the outline be made more distinct/bold.
Very much liked the tool enabling the font size to be altered for the visually impaired.
Thought the dark green colour of the text did not stand out sufficiently against the light green background colour. Asked for the text to be changed to black.
Very much liked the ideas for the location finder/map tool.
Very much liked the van icon denoting the free delivery and collection service.
Very much liked the idea of the 'events' shortcut, however, would prefer the term 'promotions' to be.
Used and possibly the icon to be changed – suggest a page from a diary.
Would like contact information on each page above headings.
Liked how the content boxes stand out, content boxes not to be rounded.

Artefact Two: Colour Association

2011-01-26T18:43:00.003Z

Hi all,

I would like to thank all those who took part in my questionnaire.

I am continuing my research on what factors have the most effect on initial reaction to an advertisement. I would be grateful if you would take a few minutes to take part in my research.

Artefact Link: www.sjcwebsitedesign.com/prp

I appreciate your help and support with this research and thank you for your valuable contribution.

Many Thanks

Steven

Artefact One: Questionnaire Evaluation

2011-01-25T18:08:00.000Z

It was an effective questionnaire. A good return with information was achieved. I now know the basis for my future research: What factors have the most effect on initial reaction to an advertisement?

48 random people aged 18+ participated. 100% of the participants said, “They were a member of a social network”.

Re membership, it revealed that surprisingly 100% were on Facebook, 58% on YouTube and Twitter 54%. In addition, interestingly 39% of participants had been a member of a social network for more than 5 years, whilst 42% spent 1-2 hours a day on social networks.

Re reasons for belonging to a social network, it was apparent that participants found them effective for easy interaction with friends and family (83% stay up-to-date with friends, 58% socializing’s, 46% getting opinions, entertainment, communicating with family and friends).

The results re clicking on a social network product or service advertisement were even, as expected, 44% said “yes” and 56% said “no”.

Those who had answered, “yes” to the previous question were asked what factors made them click on the adverts. Unexpectedly, it showed that colour and text style are not important in a user’s initial reaction, colour 2% and textile received no results. 33% said they were interested in the product, 19% “none of the above”, 17% “interactivity”, 12% said “interested in the advert”, “images used” 10%.

However, the questionnaire surprisingly showed that participants are aware of being targeted for advertising. 92% said “yes” and 8% said “no”. Regarding privacy, 52% said you should have the option for your information not to be used. 58% of participants said they would not buy anything that was targeted at them through a direct advertisement.

Artefact One: Questionnaire Analysis

2011-01-24T14:22:00.000Z

My PRP Research Question

What factors have the most effect on initial reaction to a viral advert? Where a factor is interactivity, colour or sound.

Why did I create this questionnaire?

To gain understanding of the wider question: what is the general public’s understanding of targeted marketing on social networks. Advertisers are increasingly looking to generate sales from social networks through direct advertising. My research document led me to the conclusion that there is no clear and consistent way of using this marketing tool. This further led me to examine the factors, which have the most effect on initial reactions to targeted advertisements. The success of an advertising campaign can be determined by the way the public reacts to an advert and this is governed by variable factors, for example content, interactivity, colour and sound.

Questions would be asked based on my research document.

Who is my target audience?

I distributed the questionnaire, through social networks direct e-mailing and placing block posts, on blogger and WordPress. I also sent emails to all three-year multimedia students. I chose to distribute the questionnaire to as many people as possible that use social networks.

Results

Through its distribution via social networks and email, a good return was achieved. The participants were asked to answer 10 questions; the time to complete the questionnaire was 2 minutes. It was important that the questionnaire could be completed quickly. I have found in the past, that long-winded questionnaires the participants are less likely to complete. 48 random people aged 18+ participated. 100% of the participants said they were, a member of a social network. The results were not surprising; the questionnaire was distributed through social networks. However, I did think that there would have been one or 2% of participants who were not a member of a social network through direct e-mailing.

Questions were asked, which social networks were you a member of, how long have you been a member and how much time do you spend on a social network. These were general questions to understand participant’s social networking habits. The most three popular social networks were Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. 39% of participants had been on social networks for more than five years and spent 1 to 2 hours a day on a social network.

A question was also asked, what is your reasons for being a member of a social network, 83% stay up-to-date with friends, 58% socializing, 46% getting opinions, entertainment, communicating with family and friends. These results were not surprising, as it is more convenient to keep up-to-date and contact, with friends and family.

A question was asked have you ever clicked on an advertisement on a social network. To understand, the percentage of participants surveyed who clicked on social network advertising. This question was important to the research, if the participants who completed the questionnaire didn’t click on advertising on their social networks then the research into what factors have the most effect on initial reaction to a viral advert would not be able to be taken forward to the next stage, results were even 44% said yes and 56% said no.

For those who had answered yes in the previous question, a follow-up question was asked what factors made you click on the adverts. Unexpectedly, it showed that colour and text style are not important in a user’s initial reaction. Colour 2% and text stiles received no results. 33% said they were interested in the product, 19% none of the above, 17% interactivity, 12% said interested in the advert, and images use 10%. These results will be further tested, through artefacts to understand, what factors have the most effect on initial reaction.

A question was asked, are you aware that social networks targeted adverts directly at you, through your profile and status updates? The questionnaire surprisingly showed that participants are aware of being targeted for advertising. 92% said yes and 8% said no. This may explain why 56% of participants do not click on advertising on their social networks.

A further question asked about privacy, the question was asked to understand the participants, understanding of how their information, should or should not be used. 52% said you should have the option for your information not to be used for direct advertising.

The final question, are you more likely to buy something that has been advertised directly at you through a social network? 58% of participants said they would not buy anything that was targeted at them through a direct advertisement. Even though the participants wouldn’t necessarily by products from a social network they may still click on an advertisement.

Artefact Two

Will look at what factors have the most effect on initial reaction to colour. In the questionnaire only 2% considered colour as being a factor in initial reaction.

Knights Pharmacy: Logo development

2011-01-20T16:47:00.010Z

Logo development happened in November and December 2010. Approval of the logo was just before Christmas. As meetings were fairly lengthy on the design of the logo I've decided to condense majority of the information and post the relevant points rather than everything that was discussed.

My first design meetings with the client were to discuss the development of the logo. I presented drawings as well as Adobe Illustrator illustrations.

The pharmacy chose one logo to be further developed.

Having received positive feedback from the client regarding the logo in a previous meeting. A few days later I received an email from the client. Apologising, on reflection they really didn’t like their choice of new logo. I was really disappointed, as I put a lot of work into the logo. The project is not about me; it is what the client wants. I inform the client it was no issue and I would present some more designs for their approval. Here is the feedback I received.

After seeing the new logo, we feel it to be intimidating and menacing. We would like to return to the knight on horseback logo with the request that this is modified slightly to give it a cleaner, less fussy outline. We feel it important that potential customers accessing the site feel Knights Pharmacy are not only professional but are also caring and welcoming.
Further development with the client

Two new designs of the logo were presented. I was fairly nervous as at a previous meeting, an earlier design of the logo had been approved and then rejected. I showed the client the new logo, feedback was positive. The client chose one of the two designs, slight changes to be made, overall very positive.

Feedback

The knight holding a lance was chosen with further requests:
The lance to be shortened.
The addition of the pharmacy crosses logo, to be placed on the rump of the horse.

Initially, I was disappointed that the client had rejected my original designs. However, on reflection a Knight on a horse was a better design to develop, was the right choice. The new logo is more in keeping with the pharmacy.

Artefact One: Questionnaire Results

2011-01-19T15:30:00.001Z

Research

2011-01-15T06:24:00.000Z

As part of the research for knight’s pharmacy, I researched information that was already available in the public domain. Information already available was on Google maps and Yell business directory.

At the beginning of the project the client informed me that they thought they already had a domain name, which was purchased through Yell.com

The client is unsure of the domain name details and the information that would need to be obtained to transfer the domain name.

The client has decided to purchase a new domain name. On Tuesday I gave the client a number of alternative domain names that they could purchase.

I received an email, saying that all the addresses were very similar to each other. How were the addresses distinguished from each other? As the pharmacy didn’t really know because they were new to websites, and how the websites worked, how domain names linked pages? I replied by saying it was a good question and what distinguished the domain names were the extensions for example .com, co.uk and. gov. I have received a follow-up e-mail today asking me to purchase the domain name, nightspharmacy-nottingham.com. The pharmacy has decided to purchase this domain name, as they feel that this domain name would best represent them in Nottingham.

Research

2011-01-14T14:01:00.025Z

Continuation of the research, to help me design and develop the Knights Pharmacy website,

Manor Pharmacy

Is my local pharmacy where I go for my prescriptions, just a few minutes from where I live. I have used the Pharmacy for a number of years. I was unaware that they have their own website.

I wasn’t really missing much, it’s awful. The text is all over the place different styles, which makes the website difficult to read. The logo colours are followed throughout which sort of gives the website some consistency. To be honest there’s not much, I really like about this website. The website is cluttered and confusing, no consistency. The website could benefit from a total revamp.

Medina Chemist

Well what could I say this is probably one of the worst pharmacy websites I’ve found so far, just text on a page. The only thing that works is the logo. That’s why I decided to use the website in my research. Seems like they’ve thought about a really good logo, but then forgot about the website. it’s a shame because when I read the information it was really interesting.

Nottingham University Chemistry

I’ve included this website in my research because of the interesting navigation. When you roll over the main navigation, an image opens with clickable links to the right. The initial navigation is not interesting but I thought it was a really nice effect. The downside was that the links were fairly difficult to click. I also liked the use of the icon images, that started each heading that related to each page. simple but effective. Overall really nice website.

Pharmacy 2U

This website is much the same as Boots and Lloyds pharmacy retail websites, however I don’t think this website works as well as Boots and Lloyds.

The colours don’t work very well on the pages, I thought they looked very wishy-washy and lacked style and the green headings were out of alignment which made them difficult to read.

I don’t know, I have reviewed three retail pharmacy websites and they all look pretty similar. Pharmacy 2U image changer is virtually the same as Boots. The navigation is also very similar to Lloyds but I think it works better, even though I don’t like the colours, because it’s overpowering. It’s hard to review websites that look very similar I like different elements in them all but no original styles. That makes one standout more than the other.

Mistrys Pharmacy

When I first looked at the website I thought it was quite a good design, but looking at the website in more detail I found the information interesting but the flashing banner really offputting. If the banner flashed through each letter and then stayed static it would look really good, but I found your I was just drawn to the banner rather than the information that you were reading. However the overall design is really nice, I like the white text on a blue background and the tablets image worked well together.

I thought the navigation worked well, not too many menus to choose from. I also liked the tablet design of the menu, however I thought the tablets could be a little larger making it clearer to see.

I wasn’t quite sure why the website was to the left of the page rather than the centre, perhaps smaller monitors. On my screen I had a grey blank area, perhaps a better utilisation of the space would make the layout work a lot better.

Overall I thought this website was a reasonably good design, warm and friendly. Information was clear and concise. I liked how the was information about the history of the pharmacy, with images of location and in the shop itself, a nice touch warm and friendly approach, instilling a personal service to their customers.

Superdrug

Is a beauty and health retailer, with retail outlets throughout the country in most towns and cities.

The website is much the same layout as Boots and Lloyds, the website users a lot brighter colours throughout, I think this makes the website look more inviting. Superdrug does not offer any pharmaceutical dispensering like boots and Lloyds, concentrates on health and beauty products.

I have included the website in my research because they operate in much the same market.

The website has a large fade in and out image on the homepage with the latest special offers, what I like about this design element is the navigation the left-hand side of each image, you don’t have to wait to see the image to click on the product. Another really nice feature on the website was the Christmas catalogue that you could download or flick through, you can also zoom in to a product which made the accessibility of the texts more easier to read.

The downside yet again was the main navigation, really complicated 20 or 30 different menus in each main menu. I know they offer a lot of products and want to include them in the navigation, but I think doing it this way makes it so complicated you, just don’t bother looking. However, overall really nice website, I like the colours used and interactive Christmas catalogue.

Artefact One: Questionnaire

2011-01-12T23:06:00.005Z

Hi all,

As part of my Personal Research Project, I would be grateful if you would take a few minutes to complete my online questionnaire.

Questionnaire Link: www.sjcwebsitedesign.com/prp

The time for this questionnaire to be completed is two minutes. I appreciate your help and support with this research and thank you for your valuable contribution.

Many Thanks

Steven

Pharmacy Research

2011-01-10T13:26:00.016Z

To help me design and develop the Knights Pharmacy website, I researched pharmacy’s and related retail outlets, to give me an idea of what the competition offers in services and design. All of the research has been shown to the client to give them an idea of what the competition offers.

I also showed the client all of my current work completed over the last three years at Nottingham Trent; this gave the client an understanding of my previous design work. My client has no understanding of websites they just know what they sort of want. By showing the client my previous work and research, this gave the client a better idea of what they want and more importantly what they don’t want.

Boots the chemist

Boots the chemist is the UK’s largest pharmacy and has outlets in most towns and cities in the United Kingdom.
At first when I looked at the website I thought I like the design, but after a little more investigation I’m not quite sure, the navigation is extremely complicated. One of the worst designs I’ve come across for example, the pharmacy heading has five submenus and then at least 10 to 20 choices to choose from, really complicated. I understand the benefit of having the navigation in one place, but to make it so complicated is pretty pointless, it will take you ages to find what you’re looking for.

I do like the use of the different shades of blue they contrast well on the page. I also like the changing image that you can pause to look at the different offers is really nice, its large but it’s very subtle.

One of those websites you not quite sure about, the pages are very cluttered and like I’ve said is lots of information but not really displayed very well.

Health Network

Is a website that offers information and health care in local areas, they promote healthy living and style changes.

The website is not a pharmacy but I really like the design especially the text banner, the orange and white work really well together, the orange is subtly used throughout the website, the headings and borders around the images.

I also like how they’ve used four healthy images they are fairly large but don’t take over the page. The navigation is much the same as Boots the chemist but is a lot more simpler drop-down menus.

I really like this website, everything works together on this page images, colour, text styles and navigation.

Welcome to the UK Health Centre

Is a health and Medical Information website, the website offers many different health services such as dental care.

What I like about the website is the logo, UK health centres, in a blue Oval shape, white border and a contrasting blue either side, looks really nice on the page.
The colours in the logo followed throughout the website which works well, simple rollover.

The navigation with the same colours and you can also click on the treatment images that give you more information. Lots of information is available but the subtle use of images and text together works well on the website.

Lloyds Pharmacy

The Lloyd’s website is the first website that I have reviewed that has changed its colours to represent the Christmas season. The pharmacys colours is normally different shades of Green’s. at first I wasn’t quite sure about the use of the red, but I think it works well on the page, they followed the colour throughout the pages, in special offers and what’s new. However the red navigation doesn’t quite work, looks amateurish and doesn’t really integrate well and the second navigation makes the website quite confusing, not easy to navigate.

The website is very similar to the boots the chemists website, the pages a lot less cluttered and a lot better presented. They’ve used scrawling image gallery like boots, but I think this image changer isn’t effective as the boots one, the images don’t seem to fade that well, just jump on the page making the gallery less effective.

Knights Pharmacy: Project Agreement Form

2011-01-09T12:22:00.004Z

This is the project agreement form, completed by myself and the client briefly outlining, what is to be design, developed, built and implemented for the website. The form has been signed by the client that they are happy for the project to go ahead with the specifications outlined below. The Product agreement form has also been agreed with my client project tutor.

Project title

Website Knights Pharmacy

A Brief description of the business need

Knights Pharmacy has recently relocated to new premises and requires an on-line presence to heighten and promote the business and the pharmaceutical services provided to the local and wider community.

Proposed solution for problem

I propose to design, build and implement a website to the client specification listed below.

The principal aims of the website is to promote Knights Pharmacy. Defining Knights Pharmacy as being the provider of superior, friendly and professional advice and services.

A Brief description of the multimedia products to be produced

Specifications required include the following

• A new logo is to be designed, that will be used on the website, stationary and business cards.
• The website will also include an image interactive banner
• CMS, MySQL login database consisting of treatments, upcoming events, special offers and images.
• A clear and simple method of contact, form for ease of access. (PHP/ jquery)
• Location map
• Services that Knights Pharmacy provide, which will have their own separate pages for more information and relevant links: e.g. ordering of prescriptions, collection of prescriptions from surgeries and delivering to home if required, emergency hormone contraception, pregnancy testing, needle exchange, c-card registration, pharmacy first, New Leaf, blood pressure checks, advice on healthcare, dosette boxes.

Budget

There are no direct costs designing the website, as the website is a university project. There will be costs for the domain name or transfer, web hosting, multiple e-mail and CMS MySQL login database.

On completion of the project in May 2011, the client has specified any maintenance or updates of the website will be completed by myself. Updates quarterly and the maintenance as required.

Feedback meetings

e-mail, telephone feedback will be given weekly as design elements are developed and completed.

Agreed student client meeting dates
Date 1 – review and agreement to proposal
31/10/2010
Date 2 – review and changes of Project Proposal
28/11/2010
Date 3 – review and feedback for project
23/01/2012
Date 4 – review and feedback for project
27/02/2012
Date 5 – review and feedback for project
03/04/2012

Website Needs Analysis: Knights Pharmacy

2011-01-06T12:41:00.003Z

To help me understand the needs of the client, I gave the client a needs analysis to complete. Sections of the needs analysis were also completed with myself and the client.

Website Needs Analysis: Knights Pharmacy

Q. What is the primary message you wish to convey to your audience with this site?

The aims of the website is to promote Knights Pharmacy.

Q. What are the objectives you hope to achieve?

Knights Pharmacy has recently relocated to new premises and requires an on-line presence to heighten the pharmacys profile.

Q. What are the overall goals you intend to reach with this site?

promote the business and the pharmaceutical services provided to the local and wider community.

Q. Who is your target audience?

The target audience is anybody that uses pharmaceutical services, as well as people who require advice on services such as newleaf (stop smoking service)

Q. How does the company differentiate itself from competitors?

Knights Pharmacy as being the provider of superior, friendly and professional advice and services.

Q. What are the key reasons why customers choose your company?

location, warm and friendly service, confidentiality and professional services.

Perception

Q. Use three adjectives to describe how the site should be perceived by the user.

friendly, professional and energetic

Q Is this different than current image perception?

Night’s pharmacy aims to provide at all times, warm and friendly service and be professional.

Q. What do you feel is the biggest challenge in getting this image across to customers?

It will be difficult to portray warm and friendly professional services on the website, but giving clear consistent information and friendly welcome will help to promote the pharmacy, as being friendly, professional and energetic.

Q. Describe any visual elements or styles that can be utilized from existing marketing materials.

Night’s pharmacy aims to offer consultations, up-to-date information and images will be provided on the website, health services such as new leaf (the stop smoking service)

Q. How is your company currently perceived?

Being the provider of superior, friendly and professional advice and services.

Q. Do you wish to carry the same kind of message through the site?

We will provide the same services on our website, warm and friendly, professional advice and services.

Q. List any sites you find compelling. What do you find most interesting about these sites?

• Medina Chemist: the logo
• Nottingham University Chemistry: the navigation how they’ve utilised images
• Rowlands Pharmacy: simple clear consistent navigation
• Superdrug: colours used, warm and friendly
• Mistrys Pharmacy: images used on the homepage portray a friendly service

Q. List sites of competitors site and briefly state what you like and dislike about their overall site.

• Boots the chemist: liked the use of scrolling image gallery, disliked navigation the difficult to use
• Health Network: liked the text banner, the orange and white work really well together. Everything works together on this website images, colour, text styles and navigation.

Action

Q. What is the primary action you wish your target audience to take from the main page of your site?

Promote the business and the pharmaceutical services provided to the local community, warm and friendly service.

Q. What is the primary action you wish your target audience to take before leaving the website?

The primary action is the same, promote the business and the pharmaceutical services provided to the local community.

Q. What elements are key items you wish to be available on every page?

Interactive image banner, clear consistent navigation, logo and footer navigation

Content

Q. Will the website use existing content? What is the basic structure of the content?

• All text content will be provided by Night’s Pharmacy for each page.
• Healthcare information such as new leaf will be provided by relevant literature, which is provided by the National Health Service (NHS).
• Images used on the website, promoting the website location and warm and professional service, will be taken by myself with permission of the pharmacy.
• Images promoting services will be taken from literature provided from the local health service (NHS).
• Services that Knights Pharmacy provide, which will have their own separate pages for more information and relevant links: e.g. ordering of prescriptions, collection of prescriptions from surgeries and delivering to home if required, emergency hormone contraception, pregnancy testing, needle exchange, c-card registration, pharmacy first, New Leaf, blood pressure checks, advice on healthcare, dosette boxes.
• Location map and ease of access for example Nights Pharmacy is on a bus route.
• A clear and simple method of contact, PHP/ jquery contact form for ease of access.
• A new logo is to be designed, that will be used on the website.
• The website will also include an image interactive banner.

Q. What elements appear on every page? What is the navigation structure.

Interactive image banner, clear consistent navigation, logo, page content e.g. text and images and footer navigation

Website Navigation

Home Page

welcome message, information about the pharmacy promoting warm and friendly service, services available.

Events Page

MySQL database consisting of treatments, upcoming events, special offers etc.

Services

Services that Knights Pharmacy provides, which will have their own separate pages for more information and relevant links

1. Prescriptions Services

Ordering of prescriptions, collection of prescriptions from surgeries and delivering to home if required,

2. Emergency hormone contraception
3. Pregnancy testing
4. Needle exchange
5. C-card registration
6. Pharmacy First
7. New Leaf
8. Blood Pressure Checks
9. Advice on Healthcare
10. Dosette Boxes

Location Page

Location map and ease of access for example Nights Pharmacy is on a bus route.

Contact

A clear and simple method of contact, PHP/ jquery contact form for ease of access.
Technology

Q. What is your target platform and browser?

For accessibility the website is required to work on all popular browsers, Firefox Safari, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer (all platforms).

Q. Are there specific adaptive technologies you would like to utilize How do you believe these technologies will enhance the site or provide better function?

Jquery will be used throughout the website for interactive elements such as the interactive image banner. Jquery is being used rather than Adobe Flash, because if the right version of Flash isn’t installed on the computer some design elements will not work correctly, accessibility is one of the most important elements of the website. the pharmacy website must be accessible to all.

Jquery/PHP will also be used for the contact page as knives pharmacy would like the most easiest form of contact. This will consist of a contact form which will be filled in by the user and then submitted, rather than loading of the default browser on the computer which may not have been activated.

Q. Will you have database function? Do you already have the database in place?

Night’s pharmacy website will have an Events, MySQL database consisting of treatments, upcoming events, special offers etc.

The database will be accessed by the administrator with a login. the administrator will be able to update delete and amend the events page. The database will give total control of the events and promotions that they wish to promote.

The database will be designed by myself, the function will be added to the server when the database is completed.

Q. Will you have need for secured transactions?

There is no need for secure transactions, there will be no purchasing facility on the website.

Q. What are your short-term marketing goals?

To promote Nights Pharmacy and the pharmaceutical services provided to the local and wider community.

Q. How do you anticipate this web site helping to reach those goals?

The goals of the website is to promote nights pharmacy, through warm and friendly service, through providing a professional service to our customers.

Q. Do you have an existing or planned marketing strategy in mind to promote this site? If so.

Through direct promotions e.g. till receipts will have the website on offering services,

Pharmacies have to abide by a code of practice which includes promotional material. Pharmacists cannot promote surgeries over other surgeries and doctors surgeries cannot promote pharmacists over pharmacists. Pharmacists and doctors surgeries have to promote all, they cannot be bias.

Q. What methods of distributing the URL already exist within the company?

Night’s pharmacy does not have a URL at the moment, the URL is in the process of being purchased, as well as website server and MySQL database.

Q. Do you intend on keeping this site updated? If so, how often? Who is responsible for updating and providing content?.

The MySQL database will be updated by the pharmacy administrator, the website will be updated four times a year by me. Time of the year and content to be updated will be negotiated on completion of the project.

Q. Who is the primary contact and who has final approval on the project?

XXXXXXXX (Pharmacy Technician/ administrator)

Bestwood Park, Nottingham NG5 5EJ

xxxx xxxx xxxx

knights.chemist@ntlworld.com

Q. Dates that have been agreed for feedback and amendments?

e-mail, telephone feedback will be given weekly as design elements are developed and completed.

Client meeting dates

Date 1 – review and agreement to proposal
31/10/2010
Date 2 – review and changes of Project Proposal
28/11/2010
Date 3 – review and feedback for project
23/01/2012
Date 4 – review and feedback for project
27/02/2012
Date 5 – review and feedback for project
03/04/2012

Q. What is your target launch date?

Between March and April 2011

Q. Do you already have a domain name in mind? Is it registered?

http://www.knightspharmacy.co.uk

Night’s Pharmacy thinks they already own the domain name that was purchased through the Yellow Pages, however they are unsure of the administration login and whether there’s any hosting or any contract terms and conditions.

As the project does not start until January, information about the domain name and any details are being enquired into now.

Q. What are your budget limitations? Can this project be broken in a phased manner to help you meet your goals?

There are no direct costs designing the website, as the website is a university project. There will be costs for the domain name or transfer, web hosting, multiple e-mail and MySQL database.

Update costs of the website will be negotiated when the project has been completed and the client is completely satisfied with the product.

Update

2011-01-04T09:33:00.003Z

Over the last two months, the majority of work in my first term at least two thirds were written elements, so not much to post. My research document for my personal research project is now completed and will be submitted next week. For my client project the two written elements are also completed client agreement form and website proposal.

My personal research project document was a lot more easier to complete than I initially thought, I thought this would be the most difficulty part of the research project. The aims of the research document are to learn more about my chosen question through research. My research question:

What factors have the most effect on initial reaction to a viral advertisement, where a factor is content, interactivity, colour or sound?

In this term I am to complete six experiments to test the outcomes of the research document and to write an evaluation of each experiment. The first experiment will be a questionnaire to test the understanding of my question. The next five experiments will follow on from each other to test, what makes somebody click on a targeted advert. These experiments will be simple for example, will test for text style, colour, interactivity.

However my main concern is for audience participation. If my fellow students friends family and the general public do not participate my experiments will be pretty useless. Over my last three years at Nottingham Trent University I found getting audience participation in something as simple as a tick box questionnaire that only takes a few minutes is extremely difficult. On this journal and my social networks I have always asked for feedback when projects are being developed and completed. This at times also was spasmodic. So my initial concerns about the written document have been replaced by what if nobody completes or takes part.

I’ve already started working on my client project to design a website for a pharmacy, Knights Pharmacy in Nottingham. Over the next few posts I will bring my journal up to date, the progress so far on the website.

Simulated Client Project

2010-10-22T12:10:00.006+01:00

After Tuesday’s tutorial, the feedback I received was overall very positive. the modifications I have made from the feedback received have now been completed. I’ve toned down the shelf removing most of the bevel and changing the wood effect. I think this looks a lot better and is not too overpowering, as the old one was a bit in your face from feedback received. I have also changed some of the software packages as they clashed with the background image on the homepage. Finally on the Microsoft page and 3-D Max page I’ve made it more clear about free software, as it wasn’t too obvious before. The project is now complete take a look and let me know what you think.

www.sjcwebsitedesign.com/piracy

Simulated client Project: Digital Piracy

2010-10-18T17:16:00.006+01:00

My digital piracy website is now complete and I have uploaded the website to my server. Over the next week I will make some changes from feedback received, but overall I’m fairly happy with the design. If you would like to make a comment on the website feel free, feedback is always appreciated and will help me improve this project and upcoming projects.

www.sjcwebsitedesign.com/piracy

Feedback Simulated Client Project

2010-10-12T19:59:00.003+01:00

After today’s feedback I have now amended the project, making the background subtler. I have also changed the software and the shelf into 3-D images, hopefully these now look more like software on a shelf rather than flat images. The only potential problem is how, I will be able to code each image using CSS as the images will need to overlap, I need the images to be separate so I can add a popup bubble to each software.

Website layouts

2010-10-09T18:28:00.008+01:00

Since my project approval on Thursday, I’ve been concentrating on my website layouts. At first I thought it would be very straightforward in finding images of software packages, however after a few hours I gave up there weren’t any, I had to design them all from scratch. The designs of the software took me a lot longer than I originally thought, but I think the overall results work well.

I placed the software on the shelf with some text and a footer to see weather the overall design worked, I was pleased with the software but not much else I seem to draw a blank.

After speaking to my tutor again about the overall design of the website, I also spoke about what to do about the background image. As I wasn’t quite sure whether to leave the background blank or use an image, as a did not want to take the emphasis away from the software on the shelf. He gave me feedback. “Puts some books on the shelf and try a piracy background as the overall theme of the website was to do with digital piracy”. I designed the books much the same as the software, I also put subtle titles on the books the theme in keeping with digital piracy. I still need to work on the banner and the text content for the homepage but I think this design is looking a lot better.

Digital Piracy: Simulated Client Project Proposal

2010-10-08T11:28:00.000+01:00

My simulated client project proposal has been approved using layout number one.

The Proposal

The Target Audience: Who would be the target audience, young children, teenagers, students and adults? Illegal downloading of software, music films and TV programmes, cover such a diverse audience it would be hard just to target everybody.

I’ve decided to concentrate on one-target audience students and to define the target audience further multimedia students.

At first I was going to design a website that informed about the illegal downloading, the pitfalls and what the law said, then provide information about educational software at greatly reduced prices, as well as freeware and free software.

As multimedia students already know the law regarding illegal software. If the first thing they saw was information about the law the student would most probably move on very quickly. I have decided to concentrate on alternative to downloading and sharing software. In conversations with students on my course quite a few of unaware that you can get software at up to 80% off the original price. However there will be information on the website that does explain more about the legal implications, more to inform rather than lecture.

The website will also give information about alternative software, free and freeware.

Finally there will be a section on education support packages that include software.

Summary

I propose to design and implement a website with the minimum of five pages. I have defined the digital piracy area to be software and the target audience to be multimedia students.

Website layouts

I’ve completed three alternative layouts; I started with my favourite layout first working backwards.

Layout one: consists of a shelf with all different software packages laid out light books, when you hover over one of the software packages, further information would appear giving a brief description, when you click the information or the software you would be taken to a second page, which would give you all the relevant information needed such as links to the company that provides the software.

Layout Two: has six different buttons, when you hover over each button an information panel will slide up and down giving further information that can be clicked to the next page, which provides further information on the software the same as layout one.

Layout Three: is very similar to layout number two the only difference being all the information appears on the same page when you click on the relevant buttons.

Research

2010-10-08T08:01:00.000+01:00

I’ve continued looking at educational software, these designs are little better but not really inspirational. I think the best one is the Adobe educational website, nice style. I really like how they’ve used different illustrations to make up the 80% off Adobe software, works well on the light brown background image.

I also like how cricksoft.com has used different image icons to represent different areas of software that is available to different ages, by a image that represents that age group.

The pugh.co.uk website, I liked the website for its simplicity. The three different colours in the banner text and background image Work well on the page, blue, purple and yellow follow into the three menus, educational shop, charity shop and student shop. Very simple website that works well.

I haven’t gained a great deal of design inspiration from the websites I’ve looked at however there have been some design elements that I like.

Research

2010-10-07T18:50:00.003+01:00

I’ve been looking at many different websites that offer educational software, that would hopefully inspire me in designing a website that would inform multimedia students about different software packages, that are available in their chosen pathways. Whether the software would be free or reduced in price.

I first searched multimedia educational software for websites, to see if multimedia students could get information about software in one place, however I’ve been fairly disappointed. In general the website’s I have looked at have been very much information based and no style whatsoever. The Kingshurst Multimedia website had an interesting style, but this site wasn’t offering educational software, the website was offering software that supports and enhances education, not quite what I was looking for. The design element I liked, was the large changing banner, I thought it worked well on the page showing the different products that they offered with a brief description. I will look at educational software in more general to see if the websites are designed any better.

Simulated Client Project: The Brief

2010-10-07T07:46:00.001+01:00

Produce a short multimedia piece that informs about or illustrates Digital Piracy.

As the time period of the project is only three weeks, I would have to draw on skills already learnt last year and not to try to learn something new. As three weeks could go very quickly, however I still want the website to be engaging and look good.

Over the last few days I’ve been giving this project a lot of thought, my first idea was to design a website, information based all about the different forms of copyright and the consequences of illegal downloading.

Who would be the target audience, young children, teenagers, students and adults? Illegal downloading of software, music films and TV programmes, cover such a diverse audience it would be hard just to target everybody. So I’ve decided to concentrate on one-target audience students and to define the target audience further multimedia students.

I spoke about my ideas in my tutorial, giving a brief outline of my idea for the website. At first I was going to design a website that informed about the illegal downloading, the pitfalls and what the law said, then provide information about educational software at greatly reduced prices, as well as freeware and free software.

My lecturer pointed out that most multimedia students already know about illegal downloading of software and if this is the first page that they would see they would just click off and go somewhere else. It would be a better idea to concentrate on alternatives to illegal downloading of software.

Gantchart

2010-10-06T06:19:00.005+01:00

Yesterday was my first tutorials and lectures, two tutorials in the morning and two lectures in the afternoon. In my tutorial for my research project we were asked to complete a Gantchart for next week, planning the next term which would help manage time more constructively.

I’ve use Gantcharts before and find them really helpful in time management and what needs to be completed on a project. On previous Gantcharts I’ve only needed to put the weeks in and tasks to be completed, however this time around I found it much easier to put the hours and the days of the week, giving me much more details of other areas such as work, time at university and different projects I should be working on. At this stage I’m not sure whether I’ve overcomplicated the chart, but at the moment I know what I’m doing on each day. As I’m also used to using my diary on my phone, The Gantchart looks very similar to a calendar, but it works for me.

A New academic Year, a new term

2010-10-04T20:55:00.001+01:00

To day was my first day back at Nottingham Trent University after a four month break, I’m now in my final year. The first lecture was all about introducing us to the modules, simulated client project, live client project research project and SPP-3. Also was discussed how quickly the year would go and how time management was really important.

I’m only in one day a week Tuesday’s, so I have plenty of time in theory to concentrate on my projects apart from work, I worked two and a half days a week 22 hours so I have to plan my time constructively. At the moment I plan to do the bulk of my university work on a Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Not much time for socialising or much else. This year is all about concentrating on my degree.

What I've been doing recently

2010-06-28T08:27:00.006+01:00

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on my journal, the Lambley Riding Club was completed about four weeks ago and all the development was posted on the group reflective journal. Here’s the link to the website. The group worked really well together and I think we came up with a pretty amazing website which the client was very pleased with.

www.lambleyridingclub.com

University for me has now finished for the year and I’m just waiting for my results which is due any time now. I haven’t been totally idle, I’ve been developing my portfolio website as it needed a complete redesign.

Towards the end of last term I received an e-mail from Jan about a web developer placement in London with the Collinson Group for twelve months. Two weeks ago I received a telephone call from the recruitment company that are dealing with the placement, asking whether I was still interested. As I had not heard anything in round about six weeks I thought I was unsuccessful, originally I applied for the position to test the water, as I haven’t applied for any web positions to date.

My portfolio website redesign is now complete, if I get an interview for the work placement, the website will show my best work over the last four years and how I have developed as a Web interactive practitioner. The redesign of my website wasn’t as easy as I thought, over the next few posts I will explain some of my difficulties anyway take a look.

www.sjcwebsitedesign.com

Lambley Riding Club Website Development: New Blog

2010-04-15T15:32:00.005+01:00

My next university project is a group project, there will be no further posts here to do with the Lambley Riding club website development. We have decided as a group to have one main blogger account for consistency, please click on the link below to go to the Lambley Riding Club website development blog.

www.lambleyridingclubwebsite.blogspot.com

Lambley Riding Club: Website

2010-03-28T12:13:00.007+01:00

www.lambleyridingclub.com

I used work already completed in my serpentine gallery to build this website in a very short period. The website has been up and running for two weeks and the club members are very happy with the development of the website.

I would like to emphasise, this website is a temporary measure. Lambley Riding Club is aware that this website is a temporary measure. The website will be completed in the third term outlined in the brief. This website has been built because the Riding club needed a website by the 18th of April and I had already agreed to this date.

University has now finished until after Easter, this term has been particularly difficult and I am now looking forward to the break. I wish everybody that reads this blog a happy Easter.

Lambley Riding Club: Proposal

2010-03-28T11:47:00.008+01:00

My third term university project, is a group project to build a website for a live client.

In February I was asked to design a website for a local riding club, Lambley Riding Club. I said at the moment I was already working on some university projects that I would be able to design a website after the completion of the projects. But I did say it would be possible for me to start the project while working on my course projects if I had the time.

At the same time my college lecturer was also looking for group projects for the final term, I said I have been asked to design a website for riding club, would this be an ideal project. He said yes providing the client agreed.

I spoke to the riding club committee member the following week as I work with her, at Asda. I said I have proposed the riding club website as a university group project that will be designed by four students, I also said this would be a better website as for individuals bring different strengths to a project. She agreed and was excited about how the website would look, and be developed in the coming few months. However there was a downside the website would have to be up and running before the 18th of April. This meant the project would have to be developed over the Easter break.

Two of the group members had already been decided Daryl Brunsden and Samantha Kirk, including myself we have three names. The fourth member of the group, I asked only this week if he was interested in joining the project as to other names had dropped out earlier. Stephen Greig is the fourth member of the group who will be working on Lambley Riding Clubs new website.

I had already spoken to Sam and Daryl about how we would possibly have to work on the website over Easter, to get the website up and running by the 18th of April before the first club show. We discussed whether the Riding club would accept a temporary website for this period. To design the website why we were all away from Easter wouldn't really work and the overall project would be rushed, also defeats the object of working together as a group.

I spoke to Karen a few days later and she agreed for a temporary website that would consist of the following elements.

on the homepage, information about the club, downloadable PDF membership form.
Show Dates page, this would show the dates of the upcoming shows as well as a downloadable PDF of the Riding clubs schedule.
An image gallery, this is a basic image gallery that shows past members in competition.
Contact page, a PHP contact form allowing members to contact the riding club without having to load default e-mail program, also a link to Google maps showing of view of where the Riding club is situated, address and further contact information for committee members.

Website Accessibility

2010-03-21T17:20:00.003Z

After many hours of work, my website is now complete. In my tutorial on Thursday we reviewed my website progress, overall the feedback was fairly positive. However my exhibitions menu didn't work for some reason in Internet Explorer, I had a look at the page when I got home and found the Internet Explorer code had two errors in it. I amended the errors and the website worked as it should have.

However this identified a bigger problem my exhibition page has four extra pages, because the page didn't load up it meant the four pages could not be viewed if Flash didn't work on the user's computer. I'd spoke two Shaun on Friday morning identifying the problem, Shaun said if I could complete a second website with alternative accessibility it would be advantageous. My website now has a menu where you can select the website with Flash content or no Flash content, I've added some JavaScript so I don't lose too much of the design elements, which were very important from my research. The navigation is now CSS and is completely accessible.

WWW.sjcwebsitedesign.com

I've loaded the website to my server for further testing, no mysql database as my server does not support this feature, anyway take a look and let me know what you think.

Browser Testing

2010-03-14T12:20:00.003Z

The Serpentine Gallery has now been tested in the following browsers Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer 7, Opera and Google crone. The website works the same in all the browsers, apart from Opera there is a problem with alignment with the PHP form on the contact page.

W3C Validation

2010-03-14T11:07:00.003Z

The serpentine Gallery website has been W3C validated, CSS and HTML pages, however the one page that wouldn’t validate is the homepage which has the Twitter and Facebook feeds, I spent many hours trying to validate this page, but couldn’t work out why it wouldn’t validate.

Ganttchart: Artist/Arts Organisation Website

2010-03-07T15:44:00.002Z

I completed my Ganttchart at the beginning of the project, so far it’s been fairly accurate. Over the last few days I have made a few amendments, to reflect areas of the project I need to complete.

There is two weeks to go on the project, I have completed the website ahead of schedule, to concentrate on my PHP Mysql database As this is the area I am most struggling with so I have amended my Ganttchart accordingly to reflect this change.

Serpentine Gallery: website loaded to my server

2010-03-06T13:47:00.003Z

www.sjcwebsitedesign.com/sg

My Serpentine gallery website is now complete, and is loaded to my server. I've spent the morning finishing off the exhibition pages as well as testing the website to see if everything works and lines up correctly.

The only page that is incomplete is the diary journal page this is a PHP, mysql database using MySQL, but at the moment I haven't got a clue how to construct this page. two weeks to go and probably in the shit.

Anyway take a look at the gallery website, I'm really pleased with the overall look. the design has turned out a lot better than I thought. The colours that identify each page work really well.

Serpentine Gallery: website update

2010-03-05T22:21:00.006Z

I haven't posted much this week, I've been concentrating on designing my elements for my Serpentine Gallery website. I pretty much have the five pages complete with Flash elements which include navigation and advertising banner. The advertising banner loads four images separately, I completed a separate banner for each of the pages with four different images to make each page more interesting, the advertising banner also has a line around the edge which is the same as the colour, that identifies the page. I have also designed a flash simple image gallery that changes when you roll over part of the image, the gallery is on the about page.

I have also completed my two RSS feeds, which are situated on the homepage, the RSS feeds are live updates that can be viewed on the homepage without having to go to the Facebook or twitter page. the user can see comments directly in their own window on the home page, this was a lot easier to place in my HTML code than I thought.

On the contact page I have completed a PHP contact form, I loaded this to my server to check, the output and it works absolutely fine, the contact form took quite a few hours but I was pleased with the results.

The most difficult part of the website was the navigation, I started to build the navigation while researching other galleries. as my early research into the project, gave me the idea to design the navigation that identified the page by a unique colour, which allows the user to navigate more easier around each page, as the website develops and can become more complicated.

At first I built the Flash navigation in one file linking each button back to different points in the timeline, I had difficulty in linking directly from a movie clip back to the main stage. In the end with some help from a former lecturer, from my old college I resolved this issue. but when I went to place the navigation into my HTML I realised, that I didn't need to link in the Flash file. I needed to construct separate Flash files for each page as the flash movies were different on each page. by mistake I start it to build a flash website rather than just the navigation, because the pages linked within one file.

I've completed most of the work for the overall design, slightly ahead of time so I can spend more time on the diary Journal page. which uses MySQL and PHP database. This is the area of the project I am most struggling with, so I have allowed more time to complete this area of the project.

Tomorrow I will load the website that has been completed so far, to my server so everybody can take a look and give feedback on the project, giving me time to improve elements of the project over the next two weeks.

PhotoShop layouts

2010-03-01T18:46:00.005Z

My layouts are now complete for the Serpentine Gallery, I have completed five pages homepage, about us, exhibitions, journal page and contact. Any other page to be added will work within these five page layouts. However on Thursday evening, I was ready to ditch all five pages I really didn’t like the overall designs, there was something missing but wasn’t quite sure what.

In Friday mornings seminar, I asked for feedback and help from a fellow student Daryl on how to improve my designs and what he thought was missing. With his help I worked on the following areas.

First I changed the navigation menu colours, it was already pointed out to me that these colours were very harsh. I also added a separate background colour that corresponded with the navigation menu colours. The pages already looked a lot better rather than the harsh original ones.

I have also made the Serpentine text smaller and the gallery text colour is the same as the navigation menus and the background colour. Headings and borders around images are also the same corresponding colours. The page is identified by the name of the page, the pages also identified by the colour, I think this makes it easier to navigate through the menus by identifying the page by a separate colour.

All the changes are subtle but effective. I now think these designs make my original PhotoShop layouts look a lot better just by adding contrasting colours that work better. Also buy seeking feedback and help from other students my designs weren’t as bad as I thought, just needed tweaking.

Arts organisation web page layouts

2010-02-27T19:06:00.006Z

I have researched a number of art organisations to help me develop my project on the serpentine gallery. By carrying out this research I have understood more clearly about art galleries and how their individual websites work looking at text content, how colour is used, image use and overall design.I have put together different elements from each website that I think would work in my own project. From the Tate Gallery I particularly like the use of colour on the banner, I like how the colour changes which ever gallery you navigate to, making it easier for the user to identify relevant pages. This style is also used in the Guggenheim museum, which identifies each museum in each country by a separate colour, which is also on the navigation the same as the Tate Gallery. Also on the Guggenheim website banner navigation, there is one word Guggenheim in prominent large text this works really well, very simple but extremely effective. I’ve also decided to use one or two words in my own projects Serpentine or Serpentine Gallery.

On most of the websites that I have evaluated there is an Advertising banner. Advertising current exhibitions and upcoming exhibitions. On most of the websites this has taken up a good 30 to 40 percent of the web page, this makes the design element stand out, without being too overpowering. I’m not a fan of advertising banners, but in this case the banners seem to work very well, especially on the Louvre website, I really like how the banner changes intermittently.

Website Page Layouts: Serpentine Gallery

On all pages, there will be a Flash banner navigation at the top of each page, With prominent colours to identify each page of the website. This will make it easier to navigate the website. Included in the banner navigation will be the words serpentine or serpentine gallery. There will also be an advertising banner which will also be Flash, this will fade in and out, images and text of upcoming exhibitions.

On the home page, there will be two areas for Facebook and twitter updates. This will automatically update as people add comments about exhibitions that they have recently visited, there will also be an area displaying information about the gallery.

On the about page, there is not much text content on the original Serpentine Gallery, I have decided to include a rollover image gallery. There will be one main image, as you roll over a section of the image, the image changes to different recent exhibitions of the gallery. This will also be a Flash element.

On the exhibition page, there will be information about upcoming exhibitions, information and images about the artists.

The contact page, will have information that will include telephone numbers and who to contact, as well as the gallery address. At this stage I’m not sure whether to include a link to Google maps. There will also be a PHP contact e-mail form, the user will fill in the text fields, name, e-mail address, subject and message. Submit the form, the form will then be e-mailed to the gallery. This will make it easier for the user to contact the gallery as they will not need to open a separate e-mailing program.

As part of the project we are to design a mysql database using PHP, this page at the moment does not have any design elements, apart from banner navigation and the advertising banner. As I am not sure on how the overall look of the page, until I know how my database will work.

At the moment my ideas for the database, is the user will register information about themselves, name, e-mail address and age. This will generate a username and password. The user will then be able to log in to the website where they will be able to add comments regarding exhibitions. As I’ve never done databases before this may be slightly ambitious.

The Louvre: Research into Art Organisations

2010-02-25T08:34:00.004Z

If you want to know what a good art organisation website looks like then visit The Louvre. One of the world's largest museums, one of the most visited museums in the world, a Paris historic monument. Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square meters. I visited the Louvre in 2006, two view the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci , Having visited this website I must go again.

The website is visually impressive, you are presented with a scrawling image that changes roundabout every 15 seconds very subtle, the image is very high quality. All of the colours on the page are also very subtle different shades of brown’s. like the British Museum’s website you can also search for particular projects of interest above the navigation bar. the navigation bar is a different colour from the rest of the page, but it’s not out of place.

When you roll over each of the menus a drop down menu appears, a different shade of colour is displayed showing you which menu you are hovering over. When you click the menu you are taken to the relevant page. Navigation is the same on every page which allows you to return to each point without being confused. There is also a further navigation on a chosen page which displays further information as the website is so vast, at times this can be confusing.

There are lots of images all over the website, which are of very high quality, when you roll over most of the images a text box appears displaying information. Which allows you to read more information about the image without having to click to find out more. There are also images displayed in image galleries which change intermittently, as well as image galleries where you control whether to go forward or back. I thought this made the website interactive and more interesting.

A nice touch was that you could e-mail images of the Louvre to different friends which added to the interactivity to the website.

If I had to criticise the website, I would say there is a vast range of information which at times can be difficult to navigate through, also the images are extremely high quality with a low Internet connection could take time to load. I also thought the Louvre logo looked out of place on most pages with its black background, However it did make it easier to return to the home page, perhaps that’s the reason why they have left the logo with a black background. But so far this is the best arts organisation website I’ve seen.

The Tate Gallery: Research into Art Organisations

2010-02-24T09:03:00.000Z

The Tate is United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art. It is a network of four art museums. Tate Britain, Tate modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives.

When I first looked at the Tate website I thought I really liked the design, but the more I view the website, I think the less I like the website. On the home page the seems to be a lot of information crammed into a very small area and some of the information is difficult to read because it’s so small.

I do like the changing image, the image is the dominant area of each gallery page. Displaying information about exhibitions and upcoming exhibitions. I also like how each gallery page has its own distinctive colour, which is displayed on the home page in the navigation bar, for example Tate Britain is orange and Tate modern is purple. When you go to that relevant page, the colour is followed throughout the page in headings and links. I think this makes each museum page very distinctive and easy to navigate.

Like the other art organisations, the Tate also has a search facility which allows the user to search for specific exhibitions and information, I thought the Tate’s search facility was a lot easier to use than the British Museum and the Louvre. Each area was broken down into smaller areas of information with images to click, I thought the information was a lot clearer and easier to find.

The website overall was bright and colourful making the overall experience fairly interesting. The two design elements I would like to use in my own project is the scrawling image and the colour changing navigation bar, menu headings and links. The changing image displays information about the gallery which is eye-catching. The colours used on the navigation and headings will make the website easier to navigate and colourful without being overpowering, subtle but effective.

British Museum: Research into Art Organisations

2010-02-23T10:09:00.002Z

The British Museum’s website is a lot better than the Serpentine galleries website. A lot brighter and colourful. At the top of the page is a navigation bar when you click on each of the links the navigation bar colour changes which identifies each page, which identifies each area of the website more clearly. You are also able to search for a particular project on the navigation bar, which I think makes it easier for you to find a particular area of interest, as the British Museum covers a vast area of art works as well as research projects and excavation.

Each menu of the website is also defined by different colours, which makes it easier to navigate around the page, for example what’s on is in purple and explore the British Museum is in blue, which is a lot more easier to find what you’re looking for.
I also like how the left hand image changes when you refresh the page, the image is of the most recent exhibition, the image is also clickable which takes you directly to that relevant page.

The downside of the website, extremely busy with lots of information being displayed on the page, even though the menus are colour-coded which is easy to navigate, because there’s so much going on it can be confusing.

The best design element of the website is how each area is defined by a colour, from the navigation bar to colour coded menus.

Guggenheim Museum: Research into Art Organisations

2010-02-22T08:49:00.000Z

Guggenheim Museum like the Tate Gallery is a series of museums throughout the world New York, Venice, Bilbao, Berlin and Abu Dhabi.

At first the website looked quite plain and un interesting, a multicolored navigation bar at the top of the page and a large text banner, with further navigation underneath the banner. However when you roll over the multicolored navigation bar, drop-down image appears of a different Guggenheim Museum, which links to the relevant page of that museum. I thought the effect was very simple but extremely effective. The navigation at the bottom of the banner is different for each museum this navigation is only relevant to the museum page you are visiting which makes it easier to navigate around. There is a large image of each gallery, information about each galleries history and how it relates to the first Guggenheim Museum in New York.

On the homepage there is an interactive gallery, view what’s on now, when you roll over each of the text links a different image moves up or down, a really nice effect.

I also like the banner the word Guggenheim in large text, it’s also a really nice effect. Vary simple but the word works really well on the page. I also like when you roll over the banner there is a subtle change in the text colour. I like this banner design, I will incorporate the banner design into my own website development to see if it works with the Serpentine Gallery.

The downside of the design, lot of text content with many links, some in red and black, not always apparent which is a text link, only when you roll over the text it becomes apparent. I think this is confusing, the linked text should be clearly defined.

Gesture Cube: Social Network

2010-02-21T19:30:00.012Z

If your social networking has started to feel a bit flat lately, the Gesture Cube might be just what the doctor ordered.

It may only be at concept stage right now, but this clever gizmo gives us a tantalising glimpse at how gesture control will change how we interact with our gadgets in the future.

As the name suggests, the Gesture Cube is a square box, with each surface acting like an application window. But it’s gesture control that really brings the wow factor, with the whole device tracking 3D spatial movements around it, letting you perform just about any function through finger and hand movements, without having to touch the Gesture Cube at all.

The trio of companies behind it say the Gesture Cube offers “unlimited possibilities for enhancing daily life with effortless interaction”.

Available at:
www.fwd.five.tv
(Accessed 21st February 2010)

Artist/Arts Organisation Website

2010-02-21T08:33:00.006Z

After speaking to Shaun on Friday, about my potential arts organisation website. Shaun thought to design a website for the Tate Gallery or the Louvre in Paris would be to ambitious, as they already had well-established websites. Shaun suggested the Serpentine Gallery in London would be a more suitable arts organisation.

Research

Serpentine Gallery already has a website out of the websites I’ve looked at so far, this is one of the worst ones I’ve seen. It’s just a collection of images and links, not a lot of creative styling in the website at all. When you roll over the text links the colour changes from blue to red, other text links are in black and red. which I thought were confusing.

On the home page I thought it was confusing between the many different links, the headings were small which added to the confusion, the was a mixture of different projects all in the same area. Would have been better if the was defined area for each of the different projects such as exhibitions and upcoming projects.

When you clicked on exhibition, you were taken to the relevant page for the artist. At the top of the page where all links from previous pages, I thought these were two big and the links distracted me. There was a brief description of the artist and an image. above the image was a link to see more exhibitions which was very close to the image which was confusing. I hadn’t looked at this artist yet, the links seem to be relevant to the artist but wasn’t. The was more images of artwork, but the page wasn’t laid out very well.

Overall my experience of this website wasn’t a good one it wouldn’t make me visit the gallery, I found the experience un interesting, the lack of colour and confusing links added to the disappointment. As part of my research I will visit the gallery within the next few weeks to take images, which will hopefully allow me to build a better website and understand the gallery’s ethos.

Social Network Integration

2010-02-19T11:00:00.002Z

Design Exercise Fourteen

My next website for university is at a very early stage, I’ve decided to design a website for an arts organisation rather than an artist. Artists that I’m interested apart from one are deceased, such as Andy Warhol and J. M. W. Turner. The artist David Hockney, is also a favourite of mine, I particularly like his photography work, but I’m not interested in much of his paintings, I find them interesting, but not that interesting to design a website. At this stage of the project I’m short listing my choices for arts organisations. At the moment they are the Tate Gallery, British Museum, and the Louvre in Paris.

All the arts organisations already have really good websites which I will review over the weekend. You could say that makes the project, that much more difficult and I would agree. This will be a challenge for me, feedback I received in my last project said I played safe, so this time I’m trying to develop something more interesting.

I have looked whether each of these organisations have a presence on Facebook. The British Museum and The Tate both have a presence on Facebook, where contributors can comment on exhibitions and art works.

The British Museum on Facebook

The Tate galleries on Facebook

Which is good if you are planning a visit to one of the exhibitions. If I decide to design a website for one of these two museums it would be good to have a link to the Facebook page. By having a link to Facebook or twitter, allows users to make their own comments about Art exhibitions or artists. There are also positives and negatives by linking to a social network you allow people to give their own honest opinions which anybody can read. In most cases this will most probably be positive, which would be free advertising to the organisation, if the organisation received negative feedback from social networks then obviously this would be off putting to potential visitors.

When I complete a project I always put a link on my Facebook page to receive feedback and to test the website, I do this because I want to receive feedback from a wider audience than just close friends, I have to be prepared for positive and negative feedback.

Twitter and RSS feed scripts, are another way of including recent Twits and RSS feed updates on your website, from many different contributors. In my final project at South Nottingham college I completed a website for my running club. I included an RSS feed to the runners world website displaying the latest news and upcoming running events.

Flash Interactive Banner Evaluation

2010-02-16T11:17:00.006Z

Design Exercise Thirteen

I have now completed my flash animated banner, for the phone advertising campaign. My phone is the Apple iPhone, I started the exercise by looking at different websites that advertise the iPhone, overall fairly disappointed. As the phone is an iPhone the best place to review and look at the phones many features is the Apple website. As I said in a earlier post, I struggled to come up with a design that I was happy with. After many hours of work I’m fairly happy with the results.

It’s fairly difficult to show the banner without loading it to my server. I’ve taken screenshots of the different stages of the interaction, hopefully this will show the design process as well as the interactions of the animated flash banner.

When the banner is first launched, an iPhone moves from the left hand side of the banner to the right-hand side, and then back again. Once the iPhone is back at the start position, text appears like a tickertape.

The first interaction is to click on the iPhone, once you click on the iPhone the text scrolls back.

Once the text has disappeared the first Apple app appears from the left-hand side of the iPhone the same as the text appeared in the first stage. when the first app is in position the next Apple app appears from the left of the first app and then continues until all five apps are on the stage. The second interaction is the user can click on any of the five apps, the user can also click on the iPhone again and the five apps will repeat. This means that the user can return to the five apps when ever they want to. Wants all five apps are displayed the user can choose which app to be displayed with further information, for example if you click on the you Tube app.

All four apps will fold back into the back of the selected app that has been chosen. Once the other four app icons are behind the selected icon further information is displayed.

In the YouTube example, they app icon moves to the left and the right, then text appears following the icon. Text appears like a tickertape the same as in the initial launch of the Flash banner. Wants the icon and text is in position the user can click the YouTube app icon, to link to YouTube’s website.

The intended audience of this banner is anybody that is interested in buying an iPhone, some of the features that the phone offers by the different apps that are available. I am not a fan of advertising banners I find them extremely annoying, however that’s how free websites, fund there websites like Facebook and news outlets like sky News. So unfortunately it’s part and parcel of any free websites.

As I said earlier I found it difficult to come up with a design for my phone. I think this one works fairly well, to say I don’t like banners. I spend many hours working on this simple banner, main problems were action script as per usual and text issues, for some reason when I added the scroll the text kept jumping. I also had difficulties with linking the app movie clips back to the main stage. This issue has still not been resolved, hopefully it will be sorted in Thursday’s seminar.

The design exercise ass for the Flash interactive banner to be implemented and whether the design worked or not. I’m not sure what is meant by implemented. I will need to find out.

Panasonic's tough-guy tablet

2010-02-15T17:18:00.008Z

While the iPad and its fellow tablet pretenders are all clamouring for the right to be called the slimmest, lightest or smallest slate in town, Panasonic is taking a different approach altogether with its H1 Field.

As part of the Toughbook range, it’s big and heavy, and proud of it. Panasonic says its shell is 20 times harder than the average laptop, and it will happily shrug off a 6ft drop, while temperatures anywhere from 20 deg C below freezing to 60 degrees above won’t cause it any issues either.

But Panasonic’s tough tablet isn’t just hard, it’s clever too, and comes with high-end tablet-friendly features in abundance. An Intel Atom Z540 processor gives plenty of power for a portable chip, and you get 2GB or RAM and a 64GB solid state drive.

The screen is a 10.4in XGA panel designed for outside use, and it responds to both stylus and finger control. Then there’s full wireless-N Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and security-focused features like a fingerprint reader and RFID reader.

The Toughbook H1 Field is good for six hours away from the mains, and the battery can be hot-swapped so you can work away uninterrupted.

This mix of high-end features and hard-as-nails construction doesn’t come cheap, however, and you’ll need upwards of £2,000 on hand for your very own invincible slate when it goes on sale next month.

Available at:
www.fwd.five.tv 
(Accessed 15th February 2010)

Flash Interactive Banner: Scan Drawings

2010-02-15T15:42:00.007Z

Here are the scans of my drawn-out ideas for my flash banner, as I have said in earlier posts I struggled with coming up with an idea for my flash interactive banner. On Friday after the seminar I came home and sketched a few ideas out on paper, before going on to Flash and PhotoShop with initial design work. Anyway here are the scans of the drawings, they are not too clear but hopefully you get the idea of where I’m going with my design.

Design Exercise 13

2010-02-14T17:28:00.015Z

Flash banner

We’ve been asked to design a flash interactive banner, an advertising campaign that is related to our mobile phones. I have a Apple iPhone, which I just upgraded to the iPhone 3GS. There is more than one person with an iPhone in the group, so some of us were asked to research different mobile phones rather than stick with the phone we had. I struggled to find a phone that I wanted to design a flash banner for. I’ve decided to stick with my iPhone hoping I would come up with appropriate designs.

I spent Friday morning looking at different iPhone applications, gathering images and looking at the Apple website to come up with inspiration, but I failed miserably. I just couldn’t come up with a design I was happy with, my mind was blank. Friday afternoon I was still struggling to come up with an idea for the iPhone Flash banner, but after two hours I left early because my mind was still blank.

Friday evening I decided to have another look at the Flash banner to see if I could come up with an adequate design, not a good day I lost my pen drive, with some of the images I’ve started working on. However I finally made a start, working on some designs. My initial idea was to have different shapes that opened up and then closed, then moved to the left or the right, then the phone would appear.

I wasn’t two happy with my initial ideas but it was a start, my second idea was the phone would appear from the left and then moved to the right, then text appears from the side of the phone like a tickertape. Both these designs were very basic but still took me four hours.

The main trouble I had was with the text, for some reason it was slightly jumping and I couldn’t figure out why. I have now come up with a design that I like. Text will appear from the phone as I’ve already described, you will be able to click on the phone and five Apple app icons will appear, which you will be able to click on each icon, where something different will happen (not yet decided).

I've completed some drawings of my ideas, which I will put on my journal tomorrow. I thought as I was struggling with coming up with an idea. I would draw out my initial thoughts of the Flash banner.

My Website

2010-02-11T06:19:00.002Z

Over the last few days, I haven’t really completed much university work, I’ve had other things on my mind. However the time that I did spend, I spent changing my website, yet again. I finally got rid of the black background as I never really liked it, the background was just too dark, however it did work with the images I used originally but didn’t work with the icons. changed it to a bright blue image, which I think is more in keeping with the website. I’ve also changed the icons to reflect the blue colour of the background. I’ve also changed all of the text colour from white to black, this works better with the background and makes the text clearer to read. Hopefully these changes will make the website more visually appealing by using a brighter colour. Over the next few weeks I would still like to develop my website further, adding an image gallery for portfolio work as well as a link for my mini project Sherwood Forest Craft Centre.

Website Updated

2010-02-06T20:27:00.000Z

I now have a PHP contact form on my website, I completed a number of PHP e-mail form tutorials, testing each one on my web server. Once I understood the principles of how the code worked. I then completed a Flash tutorial, loaded the form to my web server for testing. After testing I then completed the tutorial on my website. The e-mail form is now on my website and working, take a look to see what you think and e-mail me.

www.sjcwebsitedesign.com

Design Exercise 12

2010-02-05T11:20:00.000Z

Agami Creative website evaluation

www.agamicreative.com/services

I like the contrasting colours as they work really well. It makes an impressing ‘blotching effect spread. The website is visually impressive very artistic.

Other positives that I like

• Space between both the images and heading
• Separation with the service provider, defining the areas of the website
• Careful consideration to the user
• Images bleed in together which is effective
• Images fade in/out with subtlety so makes the text content easier to read.

Elements I could develop in my own work

• The fading works very well in this website. I find it difficult to work with colours and backgrounds.
• I find texts difficult to read if the background is to overpowering
• Typography works very well an area I struggle with I need to pay consideration to the following.
• Subtle colour changes
• Defined font size
• Ensure the fonts easy to read
• Instinctive
• Aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Designer

The design company is Freelance Web Shack Designer. I have looked at some examples of this design companies work to define their style.

We Lov it website

I have listed the design elements that I like about this website, the website is very much visually appealing like the Agami website. What drew me to the website most was the scrolling from left to right something that I’ve not come across before, this worked really well.

• Contemporary artistic style
• Visual impact
• Aesthetic
• Clear information
• Scrolling from left to right
• Style is consistent
• User in control of information,Completely interactive
• Busy format, but works with the content of the website
• Minimal information as the initial impact is visual

Guppies Fashion 4 kids

A German clothing website, as before in the other two websites very visual and artistic. A consistent style that continues throughout these websites. Here is a list of elements that I like.

• Artistic
• Colour used in terms of branding
• Images fade in and out, displaying different images
• Use of distinctive colours which reflects the use of colour theory
• Subtle branding in the background
• Crisp design
• Good use of space

Sharon Flake

What I like about this website is the use of block colours and distinctive textile. The website is also very contemporary but the content and colours are used to a really good effect.

• Contrast with white and strong colours
• Distinctive font
• Concise and crisp information
• Use of block colours: integrated and pleasing to the eye
• Some of the fonts are hand drawn
• The user’s eye is drawn to the individual projects

Different Craft centre layout

2010-02-01T14:00:00.002Z

In Friday’s seminar we were asked to develop our website layouts for our projects, I have now completed a second layout for my craft centre website.

I’ve simplified the banner text is now not animated, making the text easier to read and I have also removed the navigation from the banner, to try a different overall look for the website. Navigation is now directly underneath the banner which is now centred. I’ve also removed the home button from the top of the website, the home button is now on a craft centre logo, this allows the user to return to the home page at any time. I’ve also changed the background image and experimented with different colours to see what a different shade of green would look like. All the changes are very subtle but it does change the overall look of the website. Even though I like this layout, I still prefer my first layout, I like the colours and the banner, however I have amended the banner which is now easier to read, which was one of the main issues when the background faded out the text was difficult to read.

Here are five things you need to know about Apple’s ipad when creating your next online masterpiece.

2010-01-31T22:31:00.003Z

1. It runs Safari

The good news for web designers is that iPad runs the same operating system as Apple’s other handhelds, which means its browser is Safari—albeit the mobile version. In the main, this shares the same guts as the desktop version, which is one of the most advanced browsers around, with excellent support for open standards. Get your site up and running in Safari for Mac or PC and it’ll work reasonably well on iPad—with some caveats, as explained in the following three points.

2. It doesn’t run Flash

Apple’s clearly not going to budge regarding Flash. The company recently noted that plug-ins—‘plug-ins’ clearly being a euphemism for ‘Flash’—were the largest cause of crashes on the Mac, and Flash can cause performance problems, which are more evident on lower-powered devices such as iPad. Furthermore, Apple increasingly likes control over code run on its devices, and unless it buys Adobe it won’t have that over Flash. The upshot: if you want web animations on iPad, use open standards. If you want entirely Flash websites to work on iPad, create a dimension-jumping machine, because it’s not going to happen in this world any time soon. (See also: any other third-party plug-ins.)

3. It’s a giant iPod touch

Although iPad has an optional keyboard dock, it’s still primarily a touchscreen device. To that end, you touch the screen to interact with something. That might seem obvious, but many web designers use a lot of hover effects for important things (including mega menus), which work poorly or not at all on these kinds of devices. Also, fingers aren’t as accurate as mouse pointers, and so links and targets must be sized accordingly. However, iPad retains iPhone’s ability to pinch-zoom, and it has a larger screen, so you’re not too limited.

 4. It’s hugely usable

One of the major plusses of iPhone and iPod touch is usability. A two-year-old can use the devices without any major problem, and there are thousands of apps that you can download for free. Effectively, Safari is just one app of many, meaning your website is in direct competition with a bunch of other content. In other words, if your site isn’t as usable as at least a very good download from the App Store, you’re stuffed.

5. It could be the future

We suspect by the time you read this, a million articles online will be claiming iPad will be Apple’s biggest disaster since the Cube. But they said the same about iPhone, which sold 8.75 million units in the last quarter alone. With Apple’s iPad pricing surprisingly sensible (the low-end model is $499—about the same as an unlocked iPhone 3G), and with the company clearly gunning for the home user who doesn’t require advanced computing, this device could be a major hit. Also, where Apple leads, others follow. Expect Apple to be rapidly aped by a number of copycat competitors, ripping off the interface and producing their own Apple-like touchscreen devices. Either way, web designers need to be mindful of iPad, because if Apple discovered one thing, it’s that iPhone (and iPod touch) users do a lot of web browsing—and the same will be true for iPad.

Available at:
http://www.netmag.co.uk
(Accessed 31th January 2010)

iPad the future or not

2010-01-30T07:36:00.001Z

Apple launched the widely anticipated iPad on Wednesday, is the iPad the future or not, only time will tell.

I watched the presentation on Wednesday to see what all the fuss was about and in general was fairly disappointed; the iPad is just a large iPhone. “IPad has a 9.7-inch touch screen, is a half-inch thick, weighs 1.5 pounds and comes with 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes of flash memory storage. It comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity built in. The basic iPad models will cost £499, when released worldwide in March. Like iPods and the iPhone, the iPad can sync with Apple's Macintosh and Microsoft's Windows computers. Jobs said the iPad would also be better for playing games and watching video than either a laptop or a smart phone. Software coming with the iPad includes a calendar, maps, video player and iPod software for playing music.” ( news.yahoo.com, 2010)

Tablet computers have bin around for at least a decade, with little or no success. In the beginning of my multimedia course I purchased an HP tablet computer it was completely useless, it took forever to do the basic tasks and even when you ran PhotoShop it was extremely slow and constantly crashed. After sending the computer back to HP on a number of occasions I received a refund. I wanted a tablet computer to replace pen and paper so I could produce graphical work, the computer never worked properly. Have I lost confidence in tablet computers, I’d say not, I’ve always been a sucker for the latest technology. I strongly believe the future is touch technology whether it is a tablet computer or the ipad, but I think it will be consumer led.

I purchased an iPhone 18 months ago and just upgraded to the iPhone 3GS, the phone isn’t perfect but compared to other multimedia phones on the market for me it’s the best. I can of course make telephone calls and send texts, watch a movie, surf the web, take photos, play games, buy music and download useless apps just for fun. What I really like about the iPhone it doesn’t matter, which model you have whether it be the first generation or the latest model. When Apple releases new software every model can be updated. Most phones are out of date within six months but with the iPhone it’s all down to the software, yes of course there are new features with the latest model, but in general your phone is not out of date very quickly.

The only other multimedia device I use is when I go on holiday, last year I purchased an Archos. I purchased the Archos because of the larger screen and the storage capacity, so I can store a lot more music and movies as the iPhone can only store three or four movies and not a lot of music. The Archos has all of my music as well as at least 50 movies enough content for me to enjoy when I’m away on holiday. The device is also touch screen, which makes it easier to access the menus, you can also surf the Internet with a WiFi connection.

Will one device replace everything? Know I don’t think so at the moment. In general the iPhone is just a phone, 90% of my use is for making telephone calls. I think in a year’s time I will be designing for the Internet, as it is today as well as portable devices such as the iPhone and iPad, but it could also be any other device.

LayoutsLayouts

2010-01-27T17:21:00.002Z

Since developing my original craft centre layout, I developed different versions of the layout as I develop the project and received feedback. I experimented with different colours; drop shadows and gradients to see which work best. At first I was against using a background image, as I thought it would make the text difficult to read, but the feedback I received said they had no difficulty in reading the text. The image below shows the development of the layout, subtle differences but overall the changes. I think improved the project.

My website: New look

2010-01-26T15:23:00.007Z

My new look website is now uploaded to my server, I’ve simplified the menus making them less personal, I’ve added new buttons and added a button for my bird’s nest website. Hopefully the website will be less confusing and reflect my development as a web practitioner studying at university. Take a look and let me know what you think.

www.sjcwebsitedesign.com

Craft Centre websiteCraft Centre website

2010-01-25T10:04:00.007Z

I have now completed four pages of the craft centre website. The website is now working on my server. I have placed links on the following, on my journal, Facebook and WordPress, contacted friends and family to have a look at the website, as there is not time to gain feedback any other way. I’ve been concerned that the background image is a little overpowering but so far nobody has said that text is difficult to read. I now need to complete each craft outlet page, I will only complete one or two for submission, the remaining pages will follow later. I plan to contact the craft centre directly to see if the project can be taken forward and possibly be used. Anyway take a look and let me know what you think.

www.sjcwebsitedesign.com/cs/

The website has been tested in the following browsers Safari, Firefox and Google chrome. I need to test the website in Internet Explorer. The website also meets W3 standards.

Sherwood Forest Craft Centre: Website

2010-01-24T14:12:00.011Z

I have now completed my first web page using Dreamweaver; I’ve inserted all of the elements banner images and text. The banner is Flash, four images fade in and out and the text is all so animated. After some feedback on Friday I also decided to include the navigation on the banner. I thought this would be relatively straightforward to complete, however for some reason after adding the navigation buttons and inserting my action script that will allow the user to click to each page, the action script wouldn’t work.

I completed a basic banner with the action script and buttons and it worked absolutely fine, but when I inserted the action script into my banner it still wouldn’t work, so I had to start from scratch, which I’ve completed today and it works really, well.

I’ve decided to include a background image, as the plane white background didn’t really work with the images, the plane background made the website look un interesting and boring. Because I’ve used an image on the background all of my images files are now PNG’s instead of JPEG’s, which has affected the file size. I’ve never used PNG images before; I will have to research how to get the file size down without losing quality. I’ve also used a stroke around the main content area and the Flash banner which defines the areas of the website, that also brings the two elements together, as before they looked separate, not part of the same website.

I decided to use the JavaScript text resizing from the previous project. After many hours I couldn’t get this to work, I completed a basic page with text resizing and also referred to earlier work, but it still wouldn’t work. I think it’s because each text box has its own ID and that’s why it won’t work. I will have to come back towards the end of the project if I have the time, as I would like to include this element into the project.

I do like how the website looks I’m really pleased with the results so far, any feedback would be really grateful, I have had good feedback from fellow students and have incorporated the amendments into the project e.g. navigation on banner and background image, but I’m sure I could make further improvements with more feedback. I have loaded the website to my server so take a look.

sjcwebsitedesign.com/cs

My Website Update

2010-01-20T09:44:00.003Z

Yesterday after work, I decided to continue working on my website. As I needed to add a link to my birds nest website for my first term project. On Friday I received some feedback about my current website. The feedback I received said, the current website was confusing, mixing portfolio work and personal work together. So I have removed all personal elements e.g. the navigation image icons, replacing them with more relevant icons for each link. I have changed the image gallery to photography to reflect my photography work; I will add a second image gallery that will reflect my portfolio work e.g. graphic work and any work that cannot be displayed as a web page. I have also define the name, the portfolio website for Steven Carroll, followed by the website name with the logo. Hopefully this will make the website less confusing.

I’ve also changed the icons on the contact page to the same style as the navigation links; I’ve also added a WordPress link as well. I now need to work on the images on the welcome page, as well as the text content. Hopefully this will be done later this week.

PhotoShop website layouts

2010-01-19T07:46:00.003Z

I have now completed my website layout using PhotoShop, for the Sherwood Forest craft centre. Here you can see five pages of the website, each craft outlet will have their own page with separate images the layout will be the same. On the original website there is not a lot of text content, hopefully I’ve resolved this problem by using more images to make it visually appealing. Overall I’m happy with the results, I still need to work on the colours. The next stage is to start work on the Flash banner, once I completed the banner I will start constructing the website in Dreamweaver using CSS. I will also use some JavaScript from the previous project mainly text resizing. I'm quite pleased how the project has built very quickly. I did think, two weeks would not be a lot of time but I should make the deadline. If you have any feedback or comments regarding my work so far. the feedback would be appreciative.

Wireframe Layouts

2010-01-18T14:49:00.003Z

I’ve now completed my research: I’ve looked at different craft centre websites which to be absolutely honest didn’t really give me any inspiration, so really I have an open book. I have also gathered Internet assets, mainly text from the original website, the images that I will use are from my visit to the craft centre yesterday.

The homepage will have a flash banner, which will fade images in and out; also the banner will have animated text similar to a advertising banner. The banner will be the same on all pages. The navigation will be underneath the banner with the following pages, home, opening hours and how to get there, the craft outlets that are available, each craft outlet and contact the craft centre. In the main content area of the website, the will be text and images displayed in different areas of the content area, hopefully to make the page more interesting. At the bottom of each page will be a footer, with the same navigation as the main navigation. The colour scheme of the website will be Greens and browns to reflect the location of the craft centre which is Situated in Sherwood Forest.

Craft’s Centres

2010-01-18T07:40:00.000Z

Curborough Antique & Craft’s Centre

I have continued looking at craft centres and so far I’ve been really disappointed in what I found. Curborough Antique & Craft’s Centre is not a good example, but I thought I’d show the website anyway. It’s difficult to say anything good about this website, is just a mass of information squashed into a small area. If I was looking to visit a craft centre and this is a website I found while searching the web, I’d think twice about going to visit. Anyway if you really want to visit here is the link.

www.curboroughcrafts.co.uk

Manchester's Craft & Design Centre

This is the best example I’ve found of a craft centre, most craft centre websites are linked to local authority websites and basically give you information rather than products available and different crafts. I wouldn’t say this is a bad thing, but doesn’t necessarily give you an indication of what’s available. If I’m visiting somewhere whether it be a different country, stately home or even a shopping centre I always try and gather information, whether it’s just how to get there. If an authority is promoting craft and craft centres, just giving me how to get there and crafts available, hardly gives me the incentive to visit .

Talking to the owners of each outlet at sherwood forest craft centre, gave me a better understanding about how the centre is promoted, basically it’s not. When me and some first visited the centre before Christmas we found it by mistake. When asking each owner if I could take photos explaining that I was a student, we said we had visited the centre before Christmas and found it by mistake they were not surprised.

Manchester's Craft & Design Centre, is the best craft centre website I found. The banner has a collection of different images of crafts which is simple but effective. I also like the navigation colour, which is carried out throughout the website on each link. I like the images on the left-hand side, they work well with the text however it would have been better if you could of clicked each image to enlarge. It’s a simple website well designed and works well.

www.craftanddesign.com

Visit to the sherwood Forest Craft Centre to carry out research

2010-01-17T16:45:00.002Z

Today me and Sam visited sherwood Forest Craft Centre, to take photos and collect information about each of the craft outlets. I asked each owner whether I could take photos as I was doing a project for University. Overall I had no difficulty in taking images apart from one outlet, which happened to be the first one I asked if I could take photos, they said no the owner wouldn’t like it. which wasn’t a good start, all the other owners were happy for me to take pictures. However speaking to each owner I did gain a lot more information about the craft centre. The building is owned by the borough council, each craft outlet is owned separately and trades independently which was useful information. I also collected business cards leaflets and any literature about the craft centre which would help me build a better website. A lot of owners were also interested in what the website would look like.

Research on craft centres

2010-01-17T08:13:00.000Z

I’ve continued looking at websites on craft centres. Ferrers Centre is in Leicestershire. I like how the centre uses their logo on headings and the way the white works with the blue. But overall this is an absolutely awful website. As you can see the text on the navigation is out of alignment. In the course section, the dates are also out of alignment. As I look at the website in more detail, most items are out of alignment there must be a problem with the CSS in Firefox. I also looked at the website in Safari and Google chrome and the problem is the same. Apart from the CSS the website is just a list of dates not very appealing at all.

www.ferrerscentre.co.uk

RETAIL ESTABLISHMENT WEBSITE

2010-01-16T18:44:00.005Z

At first I selected a local café where I live, that serves the community, a local meeting point where people have coffee and a chat while having light snacks.

However after consideration I’ve chosen Sherwood Forest craft centre. I visited the craft centre late last year with a fellow student Sam Kirk. The craft centre is based around a courtyard, small outlets that specialise in crafts, artwork, metalwork, glass, pottery and jewellery.

Up until today I hadn’t visited the website, didn’t really know whether each craft outlet had their own website. After searching Google, I found the website for all of the craft outlets, as you can see not really very interesting. The craft centre has a page on the Newark Sherwood website. The logo on the right looks out of place, a well-designed logo but there’s been no consideration to wear it has been situated. Each craft outlet has their own navigation button which links to their own page, on that page is information about that craft and small images.

www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk

I think the craft centre would benefit from their own website, with more information, better quality images and opening hours. Tomorrow I will revisit the craft centre again with Sam to take images and talk to the owners of each outlet. I’m hoping this might lead to a permanent website if I do a good design.

Two-week mini project: Mind Map

2010-01-15T15:06:00.004Z

We’ve been asked to design a retail website in two weeks here is my initial ideas in a mind map.

WordPress: Update

2010-01-13T13:08:00.007Z

www.stevenjcarroll.wordpress.com

Over the last few days I've been revisiting WordPress to look at all the different features in more detail. I managed after some time and a little help from Dan Ryland, how to import my blog into WordPress. all my blog posts are now on WordPress. I had to do some editing, all of the images were to the left and not in the centre as in the original blog posts and there were some text issues. I like how you can see how many people have visited your WordPress blog, I've always had an issue that nobody looks at my blog. I mean in general that I'm probably talking to myself, with WordPress I can see exactly how many people are visiting.

I've also had another look on how to edit CSS without actually having to pay another cost. You can add Turbo Gears which allows you to have the content on your computer where you can edit CSS, however I have been unable to activate the Turbo Gears. Safari says that its active but I'm still not able to edit the code as yet. For now I will stick with blogger, but hopefully in time I will transfer to WordPress as I think it's a better platform for my online journal.

NON Web Designer: Three

2010-01-10T12:49:00.012Z

Herzog & de Meuron

A Swiss architecture firm founded in 1978, the partners are Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron; the careers closely paralleled one anothers, with both attending the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. In the UK they are most famous for their conversion of the bank’s power station, in to the Tate Modern.

In 2001, Herzog & de Meuron were awarded the Pritzker Prize, the prize is one of the highest awards in architecture. Jury chairman J. Carter Brown, commented, "One is hard put to think of any architects in history that have addressed the integument of architecture with greater imagination and virtuosity." (www.greatbuildings.com, 2008) this is in reference to their innovative use of different materials such as glass.

The company has been commissioned over a number of years to complete the following projects, below are some of my favourite projects that Herzog & de Meuron have worked on.

2005 Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, USA
2005 Allianz Arena, Munich
2003 Laban Dance Centre, London
2000 Tate Modern, London
1992 Goetz Collection, Munich

The most well known project, Herzog & de Meuron were commissioned for. Probably was the Beijing National Stadium in China, for the 2008 Olympic games. I visited the stadium in 2009 on a visit to China, the stadium was one of the most impressive structures I’ve ever seen and have recently completed a project on the stadium. (Link to the Project)

I find their work contemporary and innovative, something that I would like to emanate in my own work. People always remember good design. Over the next two years if I can complete a number of projects that incorporate good design and innovative ideas then I’ll be very happy.

(www.greatbuildings.com, 2008)

Available at:
http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Herzog_and_de_Meuron.html
(Accessed 23th December 2009)

NON Web Designer: Two

2010-01-09T09:58:00.004Z

Joseph Cornell

1903 to 1972, an American artist and sculptor he was one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an experimental filmmaker. He had no formal training in art; Cornell also attended Phillips Academy in 1921.

Cornell's most well-known artwork was boxed assemblages created from found objects. Simple boxes, usually glass-fronted, in which he arranged collections of photographs and memorable items. Many of his boxes, such as the famous Medici Slot Machine box is interactive and is meant to be handled.

“In his studio he would sort his finds into their categories, he would tinker with them for years. Object (Roses des Vents) was begun in 1942 and not finished until 1953. It is full of emblems of voyages, a little box of things set in compartments, with a drop-in panel containing twenty-one compasses, each with a needle pointing in a different direction”. (www.pem.org/cornell, 2007)

“He often described himself as a maker because he valued his “natural” and “spontaneous” origins as an artist. Making something new, Cornell believed that artists renew and transform materials, experiences and ideas”. (www.answers.com, 2009)

I first research Joseph Cornell last year for my identities project; I still find his work fascinating. By putting mundane objects together to create a piece of artwork. Each of these artworks is divided into different sections giving structure. In web design structure is very important, good navigation allows the user to move around the website more easier making the overall experience a lot better and more interesting.

(www.pem.org/cornell, 2007)
http://www.pem.org/cornell
(Accessed 20th December 2009)

(www.answers.com, 2009)
http://www.answers.com/topic/joseph-cornell
(Accessed 21st December 2009)

NON Web Designer: One

2010-01-08T09:13:00.011Z

J.M.W. Turner

Turner has been one of my favourite artists for many years. “According to David Piper’s The Illustrated History of Art, his later pictures were called fantastic puzzles”. (william-turner.org, 2002) His first works, such as Tintern Abbey (1795) stayed true to the traditions of English landscape. What made Turner's work most appealing to me was his use of colour and contemporary subject matter.

Turner’s many influences came from the subject matter of shipwrecks, The Burning of Parliament, an event that Turner rushed to witness first-hand, and transferred into a series of watercolour sketches. Over a number of years Turner specialised in natural phenomena and natural catastrophes, sunlight, storm, rain, and fog. He was fascinated by the violent power of the sea, as seen in The Slave Ship (1840).

The slave ship is one of my favourite paintings. I love the vibrant colours; you can see Turner's passion for colour. As I've learned over the last few weeks colour is extremely important in web design. To get the right balance between good designs, that is pleasing to the eye without being overpowering. It's something that I struggled with, in my recent project the images and the Reds were to overpowering. Trying to get a good balance using good colours is sometimes difficult, but is one of the most important areas of Web design, colours that are overpowering can switch the user off, making them move on very quickly.

(www.william-turner.org, 2002)
 Available at: http://www.william-turner.org/biography.html 
(Accessed 16th December 2009)

WordPress Blog

2009-12-14T09:19:00.001Z

I have now joined WordPress and set up a blog, I've customised the page adding a new banner and the background colour. However when I went to change the CSS to permanently change the background colour and text, I have to purchase an add-on to save the changes. I will wait until early next term to find out if purchasing the add-on will be necessary, as I am already a member of blogger and do not really want to be posting in more than one place.

http://stevenjcarroll.wordpress.com/

Waterfall and Whirlpool Software Development Models

2009-12-13T11:16:00.004Z

The waterfall model is a software development process, which breaks down the development of each area of the project like a waterfall. Each project goes through different stages of the waterfall process requirements, analysis, design, build, and testing. “Although there are variations, in the true Waterfall model, the project only moves from one phase to the next when a phase is completed in its entirety. Therefore, no work will begin on the design phase until requirements analysis is complete. Also, there is a no room for backtracking, so when a phase is complete it has to be right.”(www.relativitycorp.com, 2008)

The Development Lifecycle PDF, Tecademy 2009

The whirlpool model is very much the same as the waterfall model, but the design process goes around and around like a whirlpool. Like the waterfall you work through each process until completion, but when the cycle has been completed, you work through the design model again and again, enabling improvements and advances in technology and adapting the project to a new audience. What’s fashionable today can be uninteresting in the future, technology moves very quickly in website design.

The waterfall model can be quite rigid in its process; you work through the process only once to the completion of a project, ideal if you never need to come back to the design however not very practical in web design. On the other hand the whirlpool model is ideal for web design, you work through the process once and then begin the process again to improve your design. The whirlpool model allows you to constantly evaluate a project, making improvements to the overall design as well as adapting the website for future technology and advancements in web design. A client may want you to update the website on a regular basis. Therefore the whirlpool method can be better for website design, as the method allows you to constantly evaluate and update an ongoing project.

I couldn’t find a good example of a whirlpool model that refers to website design, so I created my own. I think I’ve covered all of the areas that refer to an ongoing project that continually evaluates the design to improve.

Completed, Validated and Evaluated

2009-12-09T18:26:00.006Z

My website is now completed and has been validated to WC3 standards. I've also decided to use the validation images, this will show the user that the website has been validated.

I've also made some minor changes; I sent a feedback form to all multimedia students and family. From the feedback received I've changed the colour of the headings, as some of the feedback received said the colour red on the headings was too harsh and could be toned down slightly.

The main criticism of the website was when the homepage asked your name, which all feedback received said they liked, but they didn't like how when you went back to the homepage from any other page the question was asked again. This was amended last week with David's help. The questionnaire was not part of the brief but I included it because I think it's important to receive feedback from others.

The only thing I need to do is to complete my evaluation, I started the evaluation yesterday after completing seven days of testing the website and waiting for feedback from my questionnaire. However I've always used how, what and why. How I did it, what I did and why I did it. But this time around we've been given a different way to evaluate the project. Constantine and Lockwood design principles: The structure principle, The simplicity principle, The visibility principle, The feedback principle, The tolerance principle and The reuse principle. Which at the moment I'm struggling with.

Feedback Received

2009-12-03T16:29:00.004Z

Over the last few days I've received overall positive feedback to my website. The main design issue was with the homepage asking for your name, if you went back to the homepage it would ask your name again, which was rather annoying after a while. This was pointed out in some of the feedback, so far received.

They liked how they were asked for their name, but didn't like when they were continually asked to enter their name again when going back to the homepage.

With Davids help today this problem has now been resolved with cookies and amendment to the JavaScript, you only have to enter your name once and if you go back to the homepage it will remember your name.

Completed Website

2009-12-01T17:45:00.006Z

My website is now complete, I decided in the end to put information about myself on the contact page rather than make the information up. I also placed an image of myself at the stadium to give a more personal feeling to the information. Website Link

I've also changed the image gallery slightly, as when I was testing the website in Internet Explorer seven yesterday. When you resize the text, one of the thumbnails jumped to the left as the text got larger. There is now two rose of thumbnails and the text appears on the right hand side, when the text is resized there is more room, I actually think this looks better now than before.

Today I have also completed a feedback form, e-mail the form to jam. So she can e-mail it to all multimedia students. The brief doesn't ask for feedback, but for me I think the information received will help me improve this project and other projects in the future. I've simplified the form, the questions are just tick boxes. Hopefully more students will complete the form this time around. As in my identities project it was like getting blood out of a stone.

Testing the website

2009-11-30T20:29:00.001Z

I have tested the website in the following browsers Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer 7, RealPlayer, Opera and Google crone. The website works the same in all the browsers, the only problem I had with testing was in Internet Explorer.

Because the website homepage asks the question enter your name, which is JavaScript. If you had medium security settings in Internet Explorer it would block the question, you have to have minimal settings for it to work properly, however it does tell you this at the top of the menu bar. Apart from this I am happy with the results from all the browsers. After Thursday's and Friday's problems with the game in Internet Explorer, I thought it would be a lot more problematic.