The first day of shooting the instructional video

So today was the first real day where I began making my product. Like I have stated before, I really want to get all of the content for the site out of the way first so that when I start to create my site, everything just falls into place. It also means that I have enough time to plan and get more content in the future if needed. Camera work is not my area of expertise as I have mentioned in the past, so I really wanted to take some time before we actually started shooting the video, to make sure that I knew how to operate the camera well. I got to grips with how the camera worked relatively quickly and I also got a chance to move around lighting to make sure that the area that I wanted to be shown and the objects that I wanted to be focused on, were well lit up. I believe that I did not get it perfect and I did run into a bit of trouble setting up one of the cameras, resulting in one looking a bit more dull than the other.

I had already purchased the piece of furniture that I was going to construct. I decided to get a piece of furniture that looked relatively hard but at the same time a product that looked quite popular, that a lot of people may or will own in the future. I believe I was successful at this, there were a lot of parts and a vast amount of steps to building the furniture. So, today we began building the product once we had our test with the camera and set everything up to what we thought was a professional standard. 

My friend, who was the star of the video, ended up leaving early which impacted my initial plan to get this all done by the end of the day.  Due to this, things did not work out well and we will have to bring the next shoot to tomorrow. When building the product, we really struggled, we ran into many problems and actually got stuck for the good part of half an hour - it really shows that even people from our age range struggle at this sort of thing. We also did not have the correct tools for the job.  We believed, along with everyone else who I had asked, that we did not actually need any of our own tools to make the furniture and that everything we needed, would be in the box.  However, we were all wrong!  We actually needed a screw driver for quite a lot of parts plus, I believe that if I had a video to follow, I would not have made the mistakes that we made today.

I got some great shots today and I am really happy with how it turned out. Hopefully tomorrow we can finish the shoot and not run into anywhere near the amount of problems that we ran in to today.

Problems that I may run into!

I think one of the biggest problems for me is going to be quickly adapting to 'Muse' having never used it before. I will have to be very quick at learning everything I have to know. Luckily, I looked at the very descriptive video and I will also have Steve, one of my lecturers, that should be able to guide me in places that I might be struggling in.

Another problem I might run into is due dates as anything could go wrong during production. Obviously, my goal is to make sure nothing like that happens but lets say I get finished taking all of my photos and I realise that it might not be very well focused, or the video that I shot had a bad angle, then this could really effect the outcome of my website and the content within it. When recording my video and taking the photos, I will make sure that I set myself a shot list, have down numerous photo angles that I may want and make sure on the day that everything looks fine and professional. 

I could also run into a problem where my computer turns off and I lose some work due to this -  I will make sure that I save my work regularly but I will also set myself a detailed timetable that allows me to have some time after I should have created my product, to tweak things or catch up on lost time. The forum might not work as intended due to the software that I am using. I am not sure, but if I do encounter this problem, I will have to make a way around it and maybe make a few extra pages to show the audience what I would have wanted to happen. This goes for anything that might not become producible for my website.

Animation is a big one.  It is probably the area that I believe will take the most time, due to me not having really any previous knowledge on animation and the high standards that it has to be to not look odd or out of place. I will most likely give myself a lot of time to create my animation and I will have to make sure that I use the people around me to guide me at parts that I may struggle with.

How useful was my research?

I found my research to be very useful, it gave me great insight into the sort of audience I am aiming for and it also gave me some great ideas on how I am going to set up my inter website.

What I learned from my research and what could I have done better? 

Throughout my research I was constantly coming up with new ideas that I could do to make my website more interesting. 

One major idea was the review system.  Initially, I had no plans to put this on my website but after looking at competitor sites and seeing their missed opportunities, I realised that it would be a great idea to add it to my site. Including videos was another big feature. I mainly got this idea from looking at the websites that I looked at in Unit 12. Once again, I came up with this while doing my research, I am so glad I came up with the idea because it allows me to increase my skills in filming. I also came up with the R&U system, this wasn't included on the websites that I looked at however while I was submitting my survey to Reddit, I looked at the voting system and this struck inspiration.

This and the many other ideas that I had come up with could not have been realised unless I did the amount of valuable research that I did. I feel like I have benefited massively from my research and this just shows how important it is to carry out a lot of research even if you believe that it might not be all that useful. 

I think one area that could've been better is my interview, I felt like there was not much content in this area. the answers that I got were helpful but I would've liked to get a little more detail and maybe some other options.

Conclusion

All the research I have done into my audience has helped me out massively. At the start of the project, I believed that the main type of people the website will appeal to will be students who are maybe at university or just moving into their new home. People like this usually have very little knowledge about making things and may find reading instructions challenging or too time consuming.

However, from my research, I have found out that I should be aiming my website towards older adults, 20-40 because making your own furniture provided by companies is meant to be easy to understand and people from the younger generation usually do not struggle with this. People who are ages 20-40 struggle more, this may be because they buy more complex products from around the world than teens and university students would.

I also found out that I should be aiming my website more towards females because from the information that I had got from my survey, I found that females almost always run into a few problems while men,not so many. People who buy these sorts of products also usually have little to no skills in building things and people who do, usually just make the things they want without needing help or guidance. This once again, further backs up why I should make my website easy to understand. Places like ‘Ikea’ sell items that are quite low budget so I will be appealing to the middle-class/ slightly lower class region.

Types of Research

When it comes to research, it is always very important to make sure that you get information from a wide variety of places. This could be by finding information from the web, that was written by a website developer or by reading a few books and finding some information that another website developer has written. Using two different sources means that it can back up your point even more and could mean that you could see how data has changed from the different times the sources were written.

Using the web means that you can find a wide variety of information in a quick amount of time, however a lot of information can be unreliable so you have to be sure that the information you are using is correct. Books provide you with a lot of information on the chosen topic of the book so if you are looking for quite a lot of information on a topic, whole books are very useful.

Interviewing people can also be a very, very good way of finding information. Interviewing the right people can mean that you can find out high quality information, that can go into as much detail as you like. You can also find out as much information as the person knows or anything you would like to know. This is great because sometimes you just can't find what you are looking for on websites or in books.  This is all well and good however, the information that you get from interviews might be bias and if you are not looking for bias information then you might want to avoid those types of questions.

Questionnaires are also great and if done well, they can result in you finding out a lot from a wide variety of people. This can be great for further backing up points or finding out things that you did not know before. You can ask questions in questionnaires so that you can find out the age and gender of your audience, this can be great for finding out what specific ages prefer and whether a particular gender finds one thing more difficult than the other. 

All of these types of conducting research are all very effective in their own special ways and all provide me with a benefit. The more you do of each, the stronger your research is going to be, resulting in you having a stronger idea on what you are researching about. Harvard referencing is one of the best ways to reference your work, it shows the place where you have obtained the information from, who wrote it, when it was written and when you researched the information. All of this information can be beneficial to someone that may be looking at your research and wants to find out whether everything is right and not just made up and unreliable.

Research in Web design

Website I have looked at

'Do it yourself', is a website that shows people how to fix and improve things around their home with simple guides. Most of the instructions provided by the website are word based and do not feature images or video alongside. If I had to use this website to improve or fix something around my home, I think I would be a bit more skeptical on whether I should do the job; having the images, allows me to easily copy what is in the picture and would make me feel a bit more secure about doing it myself. I think this is what a lot of others think when visiting the site and this further backs up the reason why I should include animations and video on my site. However, this website is still rather successful so it must not be a problem to a lot of people. This is a good thing because this means that instructions on the website that has not got videos or animations can still have significant uses for people.

The website looks rather boring at first glance, quite bland and there is not really anything that stands out on the front page. The front page looks more like a sub page than anything else. I think there are a lot of things that could be improved here and if I was a first time visitor, I would most likely leave the site. A strong home page is very important to a good website because it's the page that the audience sees first and can be a deal breaker (like I said in the last sentence). Good navigation is also key and I think this works well on this site -  the search bar works as intended so does the drop down. The site also shows what topics you have clicked on to get to your current page; it is quite easy to refer back by looking here.

Looking at a website, 'Ifixit' that is a website about finding parts for electronic devices and which includes a board where people can help each other with problems by simply asking questions. This may not be exactly what I am doing but it is very similar. I managed to gather a lot of helpful information - I found out that it is key to organise your website so that it is easy to navigate and easy to understand. Some 30-40-year-olds will benefit a lot from a website that is easy to use. This is because people that age usually have a good understanding of the internet but not the best. If the site is easy to navigate they shouldn't find themselves getting lost or confused with what they are looking at. Big buttons and a simple but stylish design works very well for this. A big search bar that works very well is also key, due to how important it should be to quickly find and have access to the information you need. Images are shown to be big and clear on the website and this is something that I will have to make sure I replicate when producing the animation and the pictures for the products. Clearly stating the product name and the model number (furniture equivalent)/ version (year produced), needs to be used on my website to ensure ease of use and to prevent potential confusion.

I really like the look of this site, the home page especially. If I was visiting this site for the first time I would definitely stick around. I think this is because it looks very professional, is neatly laid out and their search bar is presented right in the centre of the cover image (plus, it is always at the top of the page when on any other page of the site). It is clearly a function of the site that they want you to use. They are not wrong here as it works incredibly well, showing the product you were looking for, followed with an image for reference. Whether you are looking for the reviews, the parts or how to repair your device, they are all sectioned off into different parts so it is easy to find the section you are looking for.

Logos

Designing a logo is not an easy job, it is something that has to have a lot of thought and planning put into it so that it works well. Knowing that my logo will be almost everywhere on the site, I will have to make sure that it stands out and is memorable.

I had a look at a lot of logos to see what they all have in common, to try and incorporate this into my design. I also looked at a few articles to see what they had to say about good logo design. 

Looking at some logos from similar type companies, for example 'B&Q' or 'The Range' I found that they like to keep their logos very simple and straight forward. This makes sense, I think companies like these want to make the impression that they provide a simple service, with nothing hidden. They also include type in their logo and not a whole lot of pictures - this may be because again, they want to keep it simple.  Furthermore, they also have a very big following and many people instantly know what you are referring to, when you use their names like 'FedEx' and 'Coca Cola'. I don't really think this will work for my company due to how specific and slightly complex my product and service, I am providing, is. I may have to make the name of my website something that relates to building things so people can kind of guess what my website might be about. I may also want to use an image in my logo to go alongside this.

I looked at an article, "5 Must-Haves for a Successful Logo" (Entrepreneur Media Inc) from this site I found out that a logo has to be simple to show, "That newfound simplicity makes the logo easy to look at, which customers appreciate. “The easier it is to process things, the more we like those things,” Berger says. For that reason, most brands want to present a simple aesthetic, that's easy for consumers to digest." I agree with this one hundred percent, people like seeing simple logos, they are everywhere at the moment, they are easy to identify and they are the 'in thing' right now. I will definitely make sure my logo looks as simple as possible. Another great point made on the article is, 'Brand Consistency' basically meaning that your logo has to mean something and relate to what you are giving people. If the logo has nothing to do with what your company is about, people will get confused and may get the wrong message. Making it sound like your company is something that it is not, is also a strong way to turn people away and this is not what I want at all. 

Software

I decided to ask my lecturer Software that I am going to use for my site, (Steve Spicer, 2017) what the best approach would be when it comes to the making of the site. He told me about the software, 'Muse' it looked very interesting and did not require me to learn any coding. I thought that this would be a great piece of software to use so I decided to look at a YouTube video to find out more about the software and see how easy it would be to make my site. I also wanted to find out how limiting the software is and see if I can do everything that I want to achieve for my site. 

Other Resources 

"How To Get Started With Adobe Muse CC - 10 Things Beginners Want To Know How To Do" (Terry White, 2014) Even though this video is a few years old, I think that it will still have some great tips for me to find out. This video was very long but was packed full with information. Before looking at this video, I had no idea how easy it was to make your own site. One very important tip that I found out from this video, was how pages work, if I was just going into making my site blind I would have probably put my header or footer of the site in the wrong places, making the site look odd and out of place. Knowing that 'Muse' does not have a lot of limitations and "wants you to be creative" is great. For example, 'Muse' provides you with your own menu type system that works with the site, you do not have to construct your own. However, it is very bland, this is so that it pushes you to design your own menu and make your website your own. 

Knowing that 'Muse' incorporates YouTube videos and Gifs onto your site is great, this makes me happy knowing that I will be able to put on the video content that I have had planned from the start for the site. Muse also allows me to make my own phone and tablet versions of my site, I would really like to have a crack at this because I believe that most of my audience will be using a tablet or phone at the times that they need the site most. If they do not have access to an easy to use phone or tablet version of the site, then they may decided to look in other places for the content they need. If I have enough time I will make other versions of the site for my audience.

Bibliography: Do it yourself (1995) Do it yourself, Available at: http://www.doityourself.com/ [Accessed: 25 March 2017]

Ifixit (2017) Ifixit, Available at: https://www.ifixit.com/ (Accessed: 25 March 2017).

Entrepreneur Media Inc, (2015) 5 Must-Haves for a Successful Logo, Available at:: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241956 (Accessed: 25 March 2017)

Range Logo source: (2016) The Range Logos. [Digital] Flickr. Available at: http://www.insightdiy.co.uk/logos.htm?retailer=15&category=3 (Accessed: 25 March 2017).

Steve Spicer (2017) Software that I am going to use for my site [Lecture to Digital Publishing Level 3]. Bath College 24 March.

Terry White (2014) [YouTube Video], Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESUPCpOZ5Dc [Accessed: 26 March 2017] 

Target Audience

My target audience is going to focus mainly on the 20-40 age range. This is because this is the sort of age range that shops at home appliance places and constructs their own appliances. They are also an age range that have good enough skills to use the internet to be able to access the website. Almost anyone can find anything difficult but I believe that this age range, especially the 30-40’s will benefit from this a whole lot more. The gender of my audience will be male but women should definitely not be taken out of the equation because like I said earlier almost anyone can run into problems when it comes to construction. 

I think the main areas of people the website will cater too will definitely be students who are maybe at University or just moving into their new home. People like this usually have very little knowledge about making things and may find it hard reading instruction. Mainly they will be constructing objects that are quite simple to make for example desks but maybe confused about the little things described on the instruction book.. The other area will be parents of families, these people may have a decent amount of knowledge when it comes to construction and reading instructions but will be building quite large objects, for example bunk beds, wardrobes that will challenge even the most experienced home appliance builder. Places like ‘Ikea’ sell items that are quite low budget so I will be appealing to the middle-class/ slightly lower class region.

Looking at a website, https://www.ifixit.com/ that is a website about finding parts for electronic devices and including a board where people can help each other with problems by simply asking questions. This may not be exactly what I am doing but is very similar. I managed to gather a lot of helpful information. I found out that it is key to organise your website so that it is easy to navigate and easy to understand. Some 30-40 year old will benefit a lot from a website that is easy to use. Big buttons and a simple but stylish design works very well for this. A big search bar that works very well is also key due to how important it should be to quickly find have access to the information you need. Images are shown to be big and clear on the website and this is something that I will have to make sure I replicate when producing the animation and the pictures for the products. Clearly stating the product name and the model number (furniture equivalent)/ version (year produced), needs to be used on my website. 

Having a forum/ board is almost essential when making a website like mine because it allows people to talk about their own problems they may be having. A website that only features problems that the maker runs into can almost mean nothing to other people so allowing people to discuss between each other is idea for the website to do what is advertised. 

I have designed this little sketch on how I would like the homepage of my website to look. I really want to capture the simplistic look while at the same time looking as good as possible. The search bar is going to be the thing on the site that people should and hopefully will use the most. It will allow them to navigate around the site quickly and stress free. The homepage will feature almost everything the site has to offer so that people who are not a member will get a chance to look and see what they are missing out on. The forum will also be shown on the homepage so that users can quickly look at the trending topic floating around the community. 

I think the most important thing to get right when creating my website has to be the animations and the forum. What makes the website so unique is that to makes things that people struggle with easier to understand. Animations almost fully achieves the goal I have gone out to set but having the forum alongside the animation allows for it to be complete. 

I asked my dad whether or not had had struggled with constructing his own home appliances in the past. He believed that the instructions given to him were not 100% accurate and would sometimes skip parts of the assembly or not give parts of the assembly the full recognition leaving him very confused and having to go back steps to see what he had done wrong making him very angry at times. He would also finish assembling something and still have many parts left over thinking that he had forgot to screw something or missed out a part feeling like the appliance he had made may not be safe. He also sai that at times it was not clear enough on where the certain instruction was pointing to in the appliance and this would also leave him confused at times, this could also be down to the manufacturer however (Hole in the wrong place / not big enough).

I also asked my auntie and uncles to see how they feel about constructing home appliances. My auntie said she had run into trouble before, she tried to make a desk from Ikea, she said that it looked very simple and she thought that it would not cause her a lot of trouble. However she ended up getting stuck while trying to fit in the drawers, she spent many as she would put it, 'excruciating' hours trying to figure out what the problem was and had realised that the parts she was given were incorrect and were not viable for the construction of the desk. She has not tried to build her own home appliance since and said that she will not be returning any time soon. I will have to include a feature in my website that allows users to find out the parts required for their build so that they don't run into the same problem as my auntie did.