Saturday 28 February 2009

Website Photography and Representation






When we were planning and taking our photos we had to think carefully about how these images represent our charity and the issue. We wanted to show what our charity was doing for the horses and how they are happy in our care. It's a convention of charity websites to represent the social group/animals they are helping in this way. Some people might expect that you would see shocking pictures of the issue to persuade people to help but we found through our research that that charities only seemed to do this in their advertising, not on the sites. As we wanted to follow conventions, we too used photography which denoted happy and healthy animals in our care. Below is a slideshow which shows a few of our photos we took for the website:



Thursday 26 February 2009

Distribution

There are a lot of things that will have to be considered after the designing of the campaign website is complete. The disribution of your website will have to be thought of carefully, how it will target the audience and then be successful. Also, funding is essential for it to go onto the world wide web and of course, you will need to find a suitable web address to use.

A domain name is what people will search in a browser to find a specific website. To purchase a domain name you must first think of a name which would best describe your website. Usually website names are fairly short or catchy so the audience remember it.

Web hosting is used to publish websites on the Internet. If you make a website and want people to be able to view it then you must upload it on a web hosting service so people search for your website and then view it. You can use many things from web hosting; From personal designed websites just for fun to online shopping websites. Without a web hosting service people will not be able to view your site.

When your website is going live onto the world wide web, a live search team will be needed to make sure your website will come high in the listings when key words are typed into specifc search engines, this will make your website more visible therefore, hopefully more people will view it.

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Website Planning Sketches





These sketches follow the conventions of most charity websites such as;
a three column layout, this will help to keep the layout of the website fairly simple.
Navigational bar to access the other pages easily.
A clear logo on each page so the charity is obvious to our audience.
Also, we chose to have a picture slideshow/video on our homepage as we thought it would be attractive and catch the eye of our younger audiences.
The paradigms (themes, structure and iconography) of this website are put in place to represent the horses in a specific way to persuade out target audience.

Thursday 12 February 2009

Audience Profile

The website i am designing will appeal to a young audience aged roughly 8-16 years of age, mainly females who are also interested about horses and there living conditions. Through my research and survey results i have realised there are not many charities specifically about horses but aimed at a young female audience. The main cause for my website will be to create a feeling of love and care for the thousands of horses treated badly and living in poor conditions in the United Kingdom.

A charity such as this one, with not much funding relies massively
on donations to keep running and supporting itself. This means that our website will also have to appeal to the parents as they are going to be the ones to give their children money for donations, at this age the parents will be aged roughly between 30-40 and should have a sustainable income to help charities like this. The target audience is 8-16 which is good for generating donations butt should also be accessible to an older audience so they can use the website together to create a website for the whole family.

Usually when a website is looking for donations its main audience will have a high income so they have the luxury to donate to causes like this. The parents of these children should be mature and are well-educated professionals with knowledge and responsibilities these would be the most likely people to give donations are help causes such as this. They would understand the concept and wish to help the animals which are being treated poorly.

In order to attract our specific younger audience the site will feature with bright colours and big pictures to draw the attention of our audience and cause them to enjoy the site. Also, the pictures featured will be very appealing to young girls making the horses look as innocent as possible, this will make them automatically feel some sympathy for the animals. This site will be simple to use so that the target audience do not get confused or struggle to use it alone, however, often they will be with their parents. The language use will be aimed specifically for children, by not being too colloquial or complex this will help the children to understand but also try to help the parents to respect the website as they will be the ones donating.

Tuesday 10 February 2009

Website research findings

The research i did into websites helped me understand specific structures of similar websites to mine. Most of the websites i researched into had similar conventions such as, layout and how they function. This will have an affect on how i layout my website out and also how it works. These conventions include;

Logo - Mostly the main website logo is placed in the left top corner of the website, this should be where your eye is drawn to first so it should be memorable and also make the name of the company/charity stand out, which is important. Logo's vary from being just a simple picture including a name to a themed animated font with a picture.

Slogan - Not many of the websites i researched had slogans but some do choose to have a catchy slogan underneath their title or by their logo. This can help some people remember the website and even its aim.

Navigation Toolbar - Usually placed at the top of the page underneath the logo or down the left hand side of the page. These are the easiest places to notice it which makes it clear and simple to use. Many websites have contact details placed near the navigation toolbar so it visible.

Bottom of Page - Not a major concern within the structure of websites, but most follow the conventions of just having copyright at the bottom to look professional.

Search Box - These are very popular as they allow people to search more specifically.

Images - Are important is every website as it gives their audience a better understanding and also gives photographic proof of things if needed. Many people are firstly drawn in by the images on a website page so if the images are of a high quality this could be persuasive for audience to donate to their charity.

Colour Schemes - The websites i researched usually stick to no more than 3 main colours for the text, titles and logos. However, more colours can be used within the site for things such as images to add interest and attention.

Language - As the websites i researched do not have the same target audience s as i do there language is different. As they have older target audiences the language they use is a lot more complex where as the language i will use in my website will be simple to suit my audience and also without going into too much detail on things. It is important for charity websites to have persuasive and direct language.

Thursday 5 February 2009

Audience Survey

Name:

Age: (Circle the correct answer)

15-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70 70-80

Gender: Male/Female

What ethnicity are you? _____________________________

What is the first three letters off your postcode?

What religion do you belong to?

______________________

How much do you earn in a year? (Circle the answer)

10-20k 20-40k 40-60k 60-100k

What is your current relationship status?(Circle correct answer)

Married Single Divorced Widowed Gay

What is your Occupation?

Professional Management Skilled Semi-skilled Unskilled Unwaged

Which is your favorite sport? (Circle correct answer)

Football Rugby Badminton Hockey Archery Other

What website do you normally visit?
_____________________________________________________________________

School websites should be accessible to children? Agree or disagree

Strongly disagree

Disagree

Don’t know

Agree

Strongly agree

Sunday 1 February 2009

Media Homework

1. My perceptions of media studies were pretty developed as i studied media at GSCE.
2. The perceptions haven't changed but i know understand that this course is going to be alot harder than GCSE was and it is also going to ask for much more dedication to achieve a high grade.
3. I have already learnt alot and also recapped on many things such as, Camera shots and movements. I have retained simple things like cannotations and denotations. The small piece of written work went okay considering this was the first real peice of work we had done since alot of time off. However, The storyboards didn't go aswell because i was able to watch Hollyoaks again as the server was down.
4. I haven't not understood anything but i would most definately need to recap on alot of things such as the more complex things involving sound and indepth camera movements.
5. I have understood that the sound in films can make a big difference to your thoughts and can help to do things such as, Build a specifc atmosphere or building tension.
6. I appreciated the pure simplicity of Gone Fishing and also the originatlity of it. I think the shortness of the film adds to the originality and also the storyline is very affective and also the shot where the boy comes into focus is intriguing because it really draws the attention of the audience this allows the reader ti fully focus on the boy which is an important part of the film.

By Jack Brennan