User:Milesfj

End of cab evaluation

Design and development

Why I chose to develop this type of product

The product that I chose to develop was a website, a multimedia device that advertised and educated about People and Culture. I chose to create a website, as a website is a multimedia product which is viewable 24/7 by any Internet type of enabled device, also by choosing a website it meant that I could incorporate text, images and sound for the user, which enhances the users experience. Also by choosing a website it meant that I could include accessibility features which means that the disable can use the product with ease.

How I set about designing the product

Before I could start designing my product I had to find out what exactly I needed to include in my website and how it needed to look to insure that it suited my target audience and that overall it would be a good working product. I did this by firstly, by creating a questionnaire which I could then hand out to 20 people within my target audience age range asking about things such as: what colours they would like in the product, how they would want it to be advertised, what navigation structure would they like e.g mesh, linear and whether they would want video and sound included within the product. I also looked at existing website products similar to people and culture e.g national geographic and then chose to do a review on one analysing all the pros and cons in order to find out, in depth, what makes a good website. I put together a set of interview questions, to do with the website, to then ask someone out of my target audience, more in depth, in order to further my understanding of what to include in my website. I also discussed the designing of the website with someone who already had practical experience with website of a similar nature. After finishing all of the background research I had to before starting the designing of my product, I put together a storyboard of each page of my website, which discussed the navigation, font size, colour, assets and the rough look of the website. The storyboard was a document which I could refer back to in order to keep consistency on my website and it also meant that when creating my website I already had an idea on how it would look rather than coming up with it from scratch.

The effectiveness of the design documentation and the ways in which it could be further improved

Overall the design documentation was important and useful to me when I came to physically creating my website as it meant that I knew exactly how my website should look, what its purpose was and what I should have within it e.g accessibility features, images etc. By creating the questionnaires and allowing people to fill them out it meant that I knew what colours were preferred my target audience and also what colours they felt would be most appropriate for the website which was useful when I came to choose the general colour scheme o the website. Also in the questionnaire I covered areas such as how they would want the website to be analysed, whether they would want sound and the structure that they would want the website to be in e.g hierarchy, linear and mesh. The one on one interview meant that I colour then go into more detail compared to the questionnaires, for example when asking about the colour they said that they would like a neutral colour rather than just one single colour. By using the questionnaire I then knew which structure was preferred, which then allowed me to create a site map. The mood board I created put all of my thoughts about colours, pictures and fonts on one page, which made it very accessible, and easy to then choose what colours and fonts I was go8ng to go with. I could of improved my design documentation by constructing an interview with someone who already has experience with creating websites so that I would then know what is effective in a website and what not to include. If I had more time I would like to watch and observe a group of people using websites to see what they find difficult and what they use well and find easy. Also before using the software that I used (Serif web plus), if I had more time I would of liked to have a practice with the website before using it and help with it so that I would then find it easier to use as when I created website I came across issues and problems with the creating which I feel could have been resolved by having looked at the software before hand.

The product

The fitness of the product for audience, and its purpose

I feel that my product was fit for my target audience as when creating the product I made sure that I kept referring back to my questionnaires as they gave me a good idea about what my target audience wanted, which means that it was suitable for my age range. Within my product I include a level of vocabulary suiting those of the age range of 20+ and also make sure that the website on the whole did not look childish and that it include a lot of text informing the audience about all of the different pieces of culture within all of the countries. The purpose of my website was to educate and to advertise. My website educates people about all of the different countries and the people and culture within them, the website would be used by people looking to travel in the hope that it helps them to choose what destinations to travel to but also to educate people who are interested in the world and the people within it. Another purpose of the website was to advertise the magasine on offer so that if they like the website they could read about all of the different cultures and better there knowledge by signing up to the magasine that the website by using the in website form.

The extent to which it meets the criteria in the proposal and any changes I made in response to feedback as the product was being developed.

FINISH IN CLASS

Strengths and weaknesses of the developed product

The product that I created had both strengths and weaknesses; strengths that make the product useful and a efficient good product but also weaknesses that cannot be resolved but also with more time could be resolved.

Strengths: My product includes a wide range of countries all with interesting and fascinating things about them, which interests the reader along with educating them. My product is easy to navigate round using a mesh structure; which allows the user to visit any page from any page. The navigation is very natural using the same navigation as lots of other existing websites by using a clear navigation bar at the top but also including navigation on the front page. On the front page I use a graphical user interface that allows the user to click on each country on the map that is highlighted that will then link hem to the corresponding page that will let them read up about all of the different people and culture in that country. My product has a wide range of high quality pictures, within a flash gallery, on each page about each of the different headings within the page. My product has two different accessibility features: one being a font changer, which once clicked will change the font size on the page and make it increase so that it is easier to read for the benefit of the visual impaired users, the other accessibility feature is the narration on the product, that reads the page out loud for the users with bad vision or cant see at all. The accessibility features make the website more accessible for all and therefore increasing the view of the website. My website also has helper text on every page telling the user how to navigate around the website and what features are within the website.

Weaknesses:

With the importance of social media increasing and being the hub of peoples internet experience

Social sharing

Frictionless sharing

Mobile devices

RSS Feed

Your own experience

How I managed my time and the usefulness of my time

Through out the whole project I have made sure to manage my time wisely so that I do not have to rush the project and so that I can keep it all to a similar good standard. I made sure to manage my time by keeping a list of what I had to get done with how long it would take, so that I never wasted time working what I had to do every time I came back to and so that I could just get straight on with it and get it done. As I had limited time I made sure that all my time was used doing useful things and I made sure of this my doing all of the main parts of the project first and the going back to do time consuming things that are not as important after.

The skills that were most useful to me in making my work successful

During the project I needed to use lots of skills that I have acquired over time in order to make my work god and successful. One of the skills that I found useful was my skill to be able to design websites, I have acquired this skill through doing skill builders in class were we looked at previous successful websites and looked at all of the things on them that make them successful. For example I have analysed a few websites that incorporate into their design, white space, which is leaving parts of the website blank so that it does not seem overcrowded and complicated, another aspect of websites that makes them successful is the use of home style which is by using the same fonts and colour schemes throughout the website which builds up the brands recognition along with keeping the website simple and sleek, for example the company orange through out all of their products use the colours black and orange so that when people see the colours they automatically associate it with orange. During skills builders I have practised designing website and using website design software so that when I came to doing the real thing I already knew what to do.

Another skill that I found useful is the skill to write about and analyse my work which I have acquired through previous controlled assessments and also through practising, by analysing other people’s work and by analysing website related products already available. When analysing work you have to include all of the disadvantages and negative parts of the product along with along of the positive in order to form a good analysis.

How I overcame any difficulties that I encountered

FINISH

What I could have done to make my work more successful

If I came to doing my work again, and if I had more time I would have looked at more existing products to find out how I could better my own product. Another way in which I could better my work would be to go over it all more thoroughly as with the amount of time I had it was difficult to go through all of my work again two or three times as there was so much work to do in a small space of time, so I had to prioritise my time.