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.