Layout

On paper, I created a quick sketch of how I want my home page to look. I decided to keep it relatively clean and blank. I don't want to over-whelm anyone visiting my home page with over the top colour, too much writing/photos or links etc. I've come to this conclusion after the findings of my survey where I found people like simplistic clean sites.

I've decided to use 2 large photos with text relating to it, and 3 smaller photos which I hope to link to a page from my navigation bar. Below I have channel info which people can visit and at the bottom I want to include a button which takes you to the top. My background will remain white throughout and as you can see its pretty clear and easy to navigate, nor does it attack your eyes with too much photos or text, or colour. When I make my website I may change a few things, but I will keep all development on here.

Images used in my logo

For my logo I've found some great water & ink images off www.sxc.hu.  They are the following:

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/464536

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/464535

 

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/463926

As you can see I have permission to use these without asking, as its a free stock site. I checked the privacy and how I would be able to use these images and I have permission to use them any way I like, therefore I will place them in photoshop and fuse them together, editing brightness/contrast, colour, lightness etc to make my logo 'flow'.

All of them are 'standard restriction' this means:

"You may use the Image

• In digital format on websites, multimedia presentations, broadcast film and video, cell phones.
• In printed promotional materials, magazines, newspapers, books, brochures, flyers, CD/DVD covers, etc.
• Along with your corporate identity on business cards, letterhead, etc.
• To decorate your home, your office or any public place."

Logo Design Construction

Now I've got to the stage where I need to design my logo. I need to think of the 2 fundamental elements: font and and supporting images.

Font: I want the font to represent the word 'Synergy', therefore the letters need to flow and merge into each other, for example a swirly font. So far I will decide between the following...

Blessed Day.




Angelic War Font.

  Skinny.

As supporting images I have been looking around www.sxc.hu, www.google.com and www.flickr.com. I found a perfect image from an account on flickr but I need permission, so I have emailed the artists and will hopefully get a positive response. In the mean time I have found replacements from www.sxc.hu which I will play around with on photoshop.

Meaning behind the Name.

Synergy.
Synergy may be defined as two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable.


A good example of synergy is Disney and McDonalds. McDonalds include a lot of Disney's new film characters as Happy Meal toys. This boosts money and popularity for both; if a child has just seen the latest Smurf film for example and his parents take him into McDonalds when they are hosting Smurf toys in their boxes, the child will ask for a Happy Meal and vise-vera. 


I chose the name Synergy for my website because, as I've implied at the top, it shows my website will work or function with everyone. It will imply that my website will appeal to everyone in some way and that it works well and care-free with other media such as television or magazines. It's also a media related term which I though appropriate. To me, it also sounds energetic as when you say it you hear Energy. In the design process I feel I will have a lot of fun creating the logo and the website will suit the name very well, so they will synergise with eachother :)

Name/Logo Design

Now I've chosen my name, I need a logo. For the moment I will be browsing font sites: dafont.com, urbanfonts.com, 1001freefonts.com and fontspace.com.

Here are some screenshots of the fonts I like:

This is Jellyka Delicious Cake from www.dafont.com. I really like this one as its energetic. 

This ones called Colleged, off www.dafont.com. Again I think this one has a lot of energy and also represents 'schools' as you find this font on hoodies etc.

This is Angelic War font off www.1001freefonts.com. I like how it looks messy but interesting.

I found this from www.fontspace.com, I chose it because I like how it works on the screenshot on the right hand side and with a bit of editing it could work for my site.

I found this on www.dafont.com and chose it because its bold and interesting, it captivates your attention and I like how it looks. I may decide to edit this further.

After looking through different fonts I will try and design my own on paper.

Final Name Desicion

Before starting my layout or planning, I want to chose my final name so it can influence how I set everything out. In my last post, I created a list of names I like and then narrowed them to my top 3.

• Synergy. I like this one because its a media/film related term which applies to anything. It means two or more things working together, for example Empire Magazine has a website to match. Or NME has a website, magazines and TV channel. It implies that my website will work and suit everyone. Then name also includes Energy, implying colour, volume and interesting things. So far this is my favourite.
• T. I like this one as its short and sweet. The T stands for teen, as its a teen channel. Thinking of the design I could do many things with this and its very catchy like short names such as MTV, Q and Hello.
• Voi. Many magazines and sites these days have names such as Hello, Ok, Now, You etc. They're very short and informal, appealing to you as they don't sound far-fetched and boring. Voi means You in Italian. I chose to change the language as its more interesting and creative. 

Final Name.

The name I have chosen is Synergy. I have chosen this for all the reasons I included above, I feel I can make this look very interesting and artistic. I like how its a media term and includes the word 'energy'. It sounds like an upbeat fun work and it will work very, very well with my website. Now all I have to do is design my logo.

Website Planning: Name

Today we had 3 hours of using KompoZer, learning how to do the basics ready for the start of our real websites. Whilst doing this I decided to brainstorm names, as having the right name will make a website popular or un-visated. For example, MTV is a popular website name as everyone is already associated with the MTV music channel. It's also short and sharp. Catchy websites like comparethemarket.com/comparethemeerkat.com are good, as people remember the name from the advertising used to create this. While deciding a name I will think of something short but catchy.

Below are names I've been brainstorming:

- SYNERGY
- 3D
- Electric
- Hey!
- T
- Unity
- Issue
- Publique
- Ado (teenager in French)
- Nous
- Nouvelles
- Notizie
- Voi (you in Italian)


I've chosen the following because they all have links to my overall website idea: a website designed for and around music, films, news etc which teenagers would be interested in. Near the end I started to translate them into other languages, French and Italian as they look more interessting and fresh. All I have to do now is chose my final name so I can proceed to design my logo and look. So far my favourites are Synergy, T and Voi. Now I need to decide!

Starting KompoZer

Today we started looking at the practical section of the coursework. After researching websites and advertisements, we all had a go at KompoZer; a free website maker. I've made a mock homepage, simple in colours and font just to get a grip of it. From playing around, I've learnt how to insert tables for text, images and links. Below is a screen shot of my mock page.

Here I have created my navigation bar including the 6 basic subjects I will more than likely include. I have linked 3 up (Home, Gossip and News) and left the other 3 plain to show the difference.The first 3 all link to other pages, ones I've just made up for sake of this experiment. Below is a screen shot of my practice gossip page. By editing the home page and re-saving is as 'gossip', I've linked the Gossip section to this page below. I still have the navigation bar which makes navigating around much easier for visitors. 

Here is my final homepage, all links work on every single page - they link to each other.

After having a go at KompoZer, I feel confident to start my website. I am really enjoying using it and will now start my website planning.

Survey Analysis.

To research what people my age want in a general interest website, I formulated a survey with 28 questions. I had 16 responses which all helped me further my ideas for content and design. Here is a link to my questionnaire: http://www.kwiksurveys.com?s=OJMHOF_a226b205

(I made a small spelling mistake which could not be rectified. On question 3 - interests it is LEARNING, not LEARING!)

Results

1. Age

8 people I asked were aged 16-18. 2 were 10-15. 3 were 19-25. 1 was 25-30 and 2 were over 30. This shows that my main audience would be aged 16-18 with possible 10-15 year olds. This makes it easier for me as I am in that age category. 

2. Gender

11 were female, 5 were male. This doesn't make a difference to my choice in website as I intend to make it uni-sex.

3. Interests

9 people chose socialising, 7 chose both Art and Sport, 6 chose music, 4 chose Learning and Television, 1 chose Gaming. Other answers were keeping fit, dance, drama and theatre.

4. How often do you listen to music?

10 said they listen to it nearly every day, 3 chose everyday, 3 chose whenever the radio is on. No one chose hardly ever. From these results I will include a heavy emphasis on music as it seems to be a popular topic for every age range.

5. What genre of music do you like?

8 people chose Indie Bands, Rock and Singer/Songwriters. 5 people chose R'n'B and Acoustic and 3 people chose Screamo and I don't like any particular genre. From this result, my music section on my site will be very diverse to suit a wide range of tastes.

6. Whats your favourite genre of music?

4 people chose rock as their favourite genre, 3 chose Acoustic, 3 chose R'n'B, 3 chose Indie Bands. 1 chose Screamo, 2 chose I don't have a favourite and no one chose Singer-Songwritters.

7. Please suggest your favourite music channel?

4 chose MTV, 3 chose Kiss, 4 chose Channel4, 2 chose Viva, 3 chose The Box, VH1 and I don't watch music channels.

8. What would you want to read most about music?

10 chose that they would like to read about the charts, 7 chose collaborations within the industry, 8 chose new-upcoming artists, 6 chose tour dates and 5 chose gossip. From these results I will include a wide range of music-related information.

9. How often do you watch TV?

7 chose everyday, 5 said hardly ever, 4 said whenever my favourite programs are on and none said never. I will include a page dedicated to television.

10. What TV channels do you watch the most?

7 chose General Interest, 7 chose Teen, 6 chose Film, 6 chose Music, 3 chose Sport, 3 chose Documentary, 4 chose Geography and other answers were BBC1.

11. Whats your favourite genre to watch?

4 said Thriller, 4 said TV Drama, 4 chose Teen, 3 chose reality and 1 chose Period Drama.

12. What content would you want to read online about TV?

8 said Gossip, 7 said spoilers, 6 said new upcoming shows, 4 chose listings, 3 said trailers and 2 chose links to older shows.

13. Question 13 was a accidental duplicate of Question 12 and when I realised, my questionnaire was already published :(

14. What types of websites do you visit most? 

9 chose Social Networking sites, 9 chose TV/Music, 5 chose shopping, 4 chose gossip and 2 chose sport. This is helpful as TV/Music is one of the most popular choices!

15. What specific elements would you like to see on a general interest website?

as this was such a large question I have copied the table of results. Same for the following Q's.

Celebrity Gossip	2	3.28%
Catch Up shows	7	11.48%
Music Gossip	7	11.48%
Competitions	6	9.84%
TV Schedule	7	11.48%
Film Information	6	9.84%
Articles/Interviews	4	6.56%
Games	3	4.92%
News	3	4.92%
Forums	2	3.28%
Adverts	4	6.56%
Downloads	4	6.56%
Galleries	5	8.20%
Options to listen to music	1	1.64%

I will try and include all of these chosen elements.

16. What features do you enjoy most on a website?

Photos	7	21.88%
Information/gossip	5	15.63%
Music	8	25.00%
Links to other sites	2	6.25%
Games	3	9.38%
Videos	6	18.75%
Forums	1	3.13%

17. What features don't you like/annoy you?

I will take all of this into consideration.

18. How often do you read magazines?

I chose to include a magazine question due to the amount of advertising and photographs included in them, I wanted to see what people liked about these elements, and disliked.

19. What types of magazines do you read?

20. What magazine genre is your favourite?

21. What attracts you to buying a magazine?

22. When buying a magazine, what do you most like to see included?

23. Do you take notice of advertisements?

24. What do you like in advertisements?

25. What is most important in an advertisement, in your opinion?

26. Do you read newspapers?

27. If yes, how often?

28. Would you visit a teen channel?

These results really helped my planning. Using these closely I will now decide what sections to include and what info, photos etc.