Peer Assessment

Rory made a modern day short drama film. One of the things he like the most about the whole project was editing the film because he found it reassuring to see it all come together and he enjoyed getting all the shots for the 'nightmare scene'. Being a director is also something that he enjoyed a lot because he liked having control and liked bossing everyone around. Working with the actors also made Rory's shooting a lot more enjoyable and he felt like work got done and they still had times to have a joke around.

Rory would have gave himself a bit more time in the pre production so that he could make more shot decisions, making the film better as a whole. Scheduling was also a part that Rory would do better if he had another chance to, this is because someone hod dropped out on him last minute making the whole shooting process a bit more stressful on his part. 

Rory believes that he has still not discovered the full potential of filming and wants to get better with it in the future, this includes using a camera, he wants to be able to make better quality shots and a wider range of different angles. He also wants to get better with audio, this is and area he believes he has never really been good and wants to get better that it so that his projects are better quality.

Evaluation

Did I accomplish what I had originally set out to do?

Looking back over my finished project I can now see that I have achieved most of the targets I set myself before I set out to make the website. It was very important that I reached these goals because if I did not, then some of my target audience might not like my website and may want to go somewhere else.

One of my targets was to create a simple and easy to use website - I believe that my website is very simple and easy to use. It is very clear to the audience what they are going to click on and with the use of pictures, people can easily relate that picture to the information they require.  In addition, if they were to find that image on another part of the site, they would instantly know what subject that touches upon. The desktop and phone versions of the site both feature links that show the audience their last one or two pages viewed - this means that the audience can just refer back to the links if they want to find out where they are on the site. The desktop version also allows the audience to click on the links and go back to the previous pages, while the phone version has a simple and easy to use hamburger menu that they can use to operate the site with only a few touches. 

Another goal I set myself was to create a brand to go along with my website. This was one of the first things I did when starting to create everything and this is because I believe that it is easier to make a website when you have the colour scheme and type face already laid out for yourself. If you are going for a bright and colourful colour scheme like I did, then you want to layout your website in a way that reflects this. I think that I managed to accomplish this.  With the site being very text heavy due to it being more of an information site, I wanted to try and make things a little more exciting for the audience so I created a more colourful colour scheme and used a more exciting font for the logo, titles and subtitles.

Giving the audience a mixture of detailed and simplified information was another goal I set out to achieve however I don't really think I managed to meet this goal as some pages were full with tons of information and others did not have a lot of information at all. This means that some parts of the audience may find the information appealing while others might not. This is quite a big problem because people may only want to go to the site for one bit of information and if they find it too detailed for example, they may move to a different site. I also mentioned that I wanted to give the audience tips on living with the diabetes and give them some first hand and professional advice - I think that I managed to do this when making my site. I included a page where it was all about someones first hand experience with the disease and almost every page had some information from the professionals.

What did I struggle with?

I think one of the hardest things throughout the whole project was coming up with the brand for my whole site. Making a logo is something that needs a lot of thought because it is something that the audience is going to see 99% of the time when on the site. I needed to make it look attractive and memorable. However, I feel like I did achieve this and many people in my group did say that the logo looked very good and fit with everything else on the page. Finding a font that was clear to read but gave a bit more life to the page was also something that took a long time to find.  The font needed to be perfect because if it was not then people could find the text hard to read, especially if there waa lot of it on one page. I think I managed to find a good font that's a bit more lively than the regular 'Arial' font and almost as clear to read. 

Recording and taking the photos was also a part that I found extremely challenging because I have never really been that good with a camera and I think that reflects when looking at some of my images on the site and the certain angles in the video. This was one of the first times I had used a camera so I had to get used to it and make sure that I understood what I was doing with it. I did get the hang of it after a while and I was quite pleased with how the video came out. I just believe that if I had a little more time to use it, I could have made something even better!

Coding was also something that I found quite challenging. I did give it a go, however I couldn't get my head around it. It was a real shame because it was something that I wanted to learn but I just felt like I didn't have enough time. I think if I had more time to learn everything I needed to know then I could have produced something even better than I have done.

What did I enjoy?

What I enjoyed the most had to be the making of the actual site. Like I have said many times throughout this project, having the freedom to create a website with almost no limitations is something that I enjoy doing a lot. I got a chance to improve my skills with the Photoshop software and look at other website makers to see if they were up to par. I also enjoyed creating the brand for my site because I felt like I was actually making my own product. Learning a bit more about audiences and what they like and dislike was something that I found very interesting and I liked seeing the feedback they gave me because I knew that this would alter how I was going to make my website. I also enjoyed the challenge of the whole project it was something that I have never really done before, having so much independence was something that I was never quite confident with before but after doing all of this I can now say that I can be a more independent person.

What would I do differently?

I think one of the biggest things I would do differently is to create a website but using code to make it instead of Invision. Having used the software twice now I really want to branch off into a different way of web design, something a bit more different and challenging would be exciting and I would learn more skills. It would also allow me to do more like, embed a video or link to a different site through the touch of a button.

I would also make a website that I less focused on write and information. I found this to be quite boring at times and I really wanted to do something that involved a bit more skill. I would also include a lot more pictures to go along with the information if I had to make another information focused site, I felt like the images that I used were replicated a lot and some of them were a bit dull. If I had taken more photos for almost every single page and added a better light to all of them I could have made an even better website.

Am I happy with the final product?

I am very happy with my final product I enjoyed making it and I like how everything looks around the site. I like how easy it is to navigate on the phone and desktop versions and I love the colour scheme. If I had a chance to do it again I would definitely do it because I learnt a lot while doing this project and I'm sure I would learn a lot more if I were to do things a little bit differently. I think that I chose the right choice when it came to how we were going to make our product, I have never really been fond of cameras and I am not a fan of animations. I think what I had chosen was a perfect combination of; Moving Image, Publishing and Theory.

Reflective Blog

Desktop Creation

Over the past week I have been creating my own brand for my website. You can see what I have been doing for that here. I also started working on the look and content that would go onto my site, for the first few days I had my mind set on making a website using 'WordPress' however after looking at their many templates, I quickly decided to make my own website using Photoshop and Invision. This allowed me to be more creative and have almost no limitations when it came to the actual look of the site. 

I have not taken my photos yet for my site but I have plans to shoot them as soon as possible. I think that the colour scheme for the site works well and all of the colours are not too overpowering over the other. The site works well and the content for each section of the site is very short but descriptive just like I wanted to achieve when I was doing my research. I am still adding more pages to the site and should hopefully be done with the desktop version in the next few days. I looked into the website diabetes.org.uk to see if I could redirect people to that sight when the click on the 'Donate' button, however when looking at the sites term and conditions I found out that they would prefer if you did not link to their donate system. This means that I will have to find an alternate way for people to send money to diabetes research. 

Phone Creation

This week I have been creating the phone version of my website, this has proved to be quite a challenge, due to it being very hard to find the correct leading and tracking so that it is clear to read for people using a phone. This is very important and I spent quite a while on perfecting this. If your phone version of your site does not work well or is hard to use then people tend to more else where. With more people using there phones more than ever, the phone version of my site needs to have the same if not more attention the desktop version did. 

I am still adding bits and pieces to my desktop and phone versions and have created a well working hamburger menu. This should allow people to go to whatever part of the website they like with a few simple touches. I am still yet to take the photos for my website, however working on both of the versions has given me a good idea on how I want my pictures to look and fit with the site. I will be taking these photos in the next day or two. I have also come to the decision that I will be defiantly using Invision it is a platform that I know how to use effectively and quickly, in case I have to make any sudden changes a few days before the deadline. The only problem with using the site is that it is missing a few things that are very vital to my site, one of the being that I cannot integrate my own video on 'How to use a insulin pump' that I will be shooting tomorrow on the site and I cannot send people to other websites by them clicking on my 'Donate' button for example. I phone version is still not completely finish due to it being a very hard process, I might have to move some things about to make it more user friendly. 

Finishing Touches

I am now at the time where I am adding the finishing touches to my website, I have decided to put it on Invision to see how everything works are operates. 

Everything seems to be working fine, it flows very well and everything looks in order. Now I have to make sure that it all makes sense and that there are not spelling errors on the pages. I am very proud of how it looks and hopefully I will be done with the making of the site in the next day or two. I have added the photos and have shot the video I have to say I am pretty proud of them as well, my photography skills haven't always been the best but here on the site I feel like I have shown how much I have improved.