Audience Response Questions

Now that I've finished my website and ancillary tasks, I need to get feedback to prepare for my Evaluation. To do this, I will ask 1 or 2 friends within my intended audience age group and film them answering a series of questions about my 3 tasks. Below are my questions:

logo layout colours navigation (easy?)

appropriate to audience? clarity of image/video 

purpose (does it serve?) - codes and conventions of website

ancillary: follow a theme? codes & conventions, appealing? informative?

WEBSITE

1. What grabs your attention when you first enter the website?

2. What do you like/don't you like about the logo? Do you feel it's interesting/individual/well made?

3. Do the colours work harmoniously and appeal to you?

4. Do you find it easy to navigate around? Did the top navigation bar work throughout?

5. What did you think of the items on the home page? Do you feel they were captivating enough and did they make you want to explore more?

6. Did you find the 'Back to Top' button useful?

7. How did you feel about the layout of the website as a whole? Were the pages easy to navigate around/easy to read?

8. Did you find the images appealing to you? And did they interest you to read further?

9. Did all the media items work (videos, magazine app etc.)? What did you think about them, did they work or take up unnecessary space? 

10. Did you think there was enough content, or not enough in the way of articles etc?

11. Was it appropriate to the intended audience (you)?

12. Does it serve its purpose of being an entertainment website?

13. Do you feel it follows the codes and conventions of everyday websites?

ANCILLARY TASKS

1. Did these 2 products catch your eye?

2. Do you feel the different logos are off-putting, or work well?

3. Do the colours work together and make the products work?

4. What do you think of the one main image used on the double-page spread? Do you think more images should of been used?

5. Do you feel the newspaper advert is too bland, or does it work well and get to the point?

6. In both, do you think there is enough content in the way of information?

7. Would they grab your attention, as a member of my target audience?

8. Would you say they follow the codes and conventions of typical spreads and advertisements?

OVERALL

1. Do you feel the website, double-page spread and newspaper advertisement work well as a whole and back up each other?

2. Do you feel there is a running colour scheme all the way through?

3. The logos in all 3 are different, but do you feel they still represent each other or link back to the original? 

4. Overall, do you like the 3 products I have created and would you look at the website voluntary?

5. Would you chose to change/improve/add anything?

Now I've got all my questions planned, I will film a friend responding to my questions whilst looking at my website and ancillary tasks. 

Making my Double Page Spread

Codes and Conventions of a Double Page Spread.
Before making my own spread, I want to research the typical elements you usually find in a double-page spread. To do this, I found a short presentation on Prezi which describes the usual codes and conventions. It really helped when deciding what to include; whether I wanted to include lots of writing or certain colours. Here is the presentation:

Codes and Conventions of a double page spread on Prezi

Now I've reasearched double pages spreads, I'm now starting the process of my own spread.

Whilst researching double page spreads in magazines and newspapers, I came across this advert for a new TV show. I instantly took a liking to this, purely because it was eyecatching. When I saw it I looked firstly at 3 things; the actor, Steve Carell who is used as a star vehicle, the title of the show - it stands out against the background colour and finally the yellow background. I like the techniques used and I know they work quite well, therefore I chose this advert to base my own around.

The first thing I decided upon was what photograph I will use a my own "star vehicle"...

I chose this one I took of my friend Emily. I've used her many times throughout my website, mainly using her as a 'celebrity' which is why I chose her. In the world of my website she's a famous singer, therefore she's a perfect star vehicle. I took away the background, making it transparent using the Wand tool. I then ajusted the contrast/brightnight and ajusted the colour using the Curves ajustment so the skin tone and blue's were more prominent. I added a blur over the top and erased parts so the skin was softer, I darkend the eyelashes slightly with the Burn tool then ajusted the eyes so they were a slightly brighter teal colour (as the lighting when taken wasn't very good.)



the process of changing emily's eye colour.



Now I am ready to start my A5 advert.

Firstly I started off with a blank A5 canvas on Photoshop CS5. As my colour scheme is blue and pink, I chose blue as the background colour as it matched the denim top Emily is wearing in the photo. As I already edited the photo, I put her on the canvas straight away...

I chose to include her on the right, like the Dan in Real Life ad because when you're flicking through a magazine or newspaper, you look at the right hand page. If emily's face is on the right, it's the first think you'll see and it'll make you stop and look.

When including the title 'Synergy', I was firstly going to include the 'S' large, with the inky pattern in the background, then 'ynergy' in plain white using the font 'Centruy Gothic' (the font I've used all through my website). In the end I decided it wasn't eye catching enough and it didn't particularly fit the conventions of my website logo.

Therefore I decided to scrap the 'ynergy' and match it to the S...

I included the 'S' using the Skinny font I used in my logo, and used Centrury Gothic for the ynergy as they're both fonts associated with my website. As my origional logo was far too busy against the blue, I used the inky pattern for the background of the fonts and feel this works well, as the merging ink is a big part of my website. I included 'launch' underneath is as it suggest 'new' and 'interessting', it'll draw people in as they want to know what Synergy is, what is being launched and why this 'celebrity' is involved.

Here is my final double page spread...

I included some simple information explaining about the launch of Synergy and what is is. I included the sky, freeview and virgin channel numbers and placed the launch date large, highlighted and in pink to make it stand out. I placed the words 'get involved' as I decided to use is as a slogan like many companys and channels do. Lastly, I included the bar at the bottom, with the page number, website and slogan to make it more like a real magazine spread.

All in all I like this spread, it includes elements from my logo, a face I've featured lots and the two colours of my website pink and blue.

Newspaper Advertisement Analysis for new TV Channel/Program

The next antillary task I had to make was an A5 advertisement to include in a newspaper or magazine.

Where do I place my A5 advertisement?

This was a problem I had to solve before making it. As my audience is 15-25 year olds, products such as The Times, The Guardian or The Sun wont be a good choice as people in my audience range do not read this types of things. Whilst studying I couldn't find local or decent newspapers for teenages so I decided magazines would be the best options.

Firstly, I aim to include my ad in teen magazines such as; sports magazines for boys, girls magazines such as Shout, Seventeen and Teen Vogue. For the older range such as 17-25 I want to place it in Vogue (for the fashion concious), Empire, Cosmopolitan, Company and NME. These magazines cover all areas of fashion, films, gossip and music included in my webiste. I feel this will fit my ad best. For placement I will opt to include my ad on the right hand page, for the same reasons I placed my celeb on the right hand side.

My final ad:

When constructing in, photoshop I initially wanted to use the full logo. When I tried this it didn't fit in, it was far too busy and was too big to work. Therefore I decided to make a new one, in the same style as the original. I made the colours slightly brighter to make them really pop against the white, so it catches everyones eye whist in a magazine. I wanted my ad to be simple, so I just included the "S" so it creates a little bit of mystery. I also used the slogan I've coined "Get Involved" and then the website underneath. I decided to include the 3 channel numbers to remind everyone that it is also a TV channel, not just a website though I have taken the opacity down so the advert isn't too 'in your face'.

I feel it works well, I love the way the colours stand out and I like how it's short, simple and sweet.

After looking at my advertisement, I felt I needed to include a launch date just like my double page spread, therefore I added the date simply under the website URL. 


HERE IS MY FINAL AD: