Primary Research

Survey

I conducted a survey where I asked some questions that would give me a clear understanding on what people like when it comes to the sort of website I am going to be building.

The first question I asked was, 'Where do you usually go for medical information' I got a lot of responses for this and it was very clear on what people wanted the most. Websites got over 3/4 of the votes over book, leaflets and other (Other = a doctor or person), this means that I will still stick with my initial idea of making a website.

I asked a question based on the actual layout and design of the website, I asked whether or not people like simple designs or more complicated extravagant ones. Once again the question had a very obvious winning answer, most people seemed to prefer simple website layouts, meaning that I will have to make sure that my website is easy to operate and easy to use for the audience.

The next question I ask was, 'What information do you find more useful' 'Information that doctors provide' or 'Information from people who have been through it first hand'. These two were quite close with information from doctors receiving only 4 more votes than the other. I think for my websites content I am going to include more pages based on doctors information than from personal information. I think covering a bit on both will be good just so I can appease both audiences.

My last question asked whether or not people like their medical information more simplified or whether they like a more detail explanation. The results are very shocking, it was a complete 50/50 split between both of the answers. This will mean that when I make my website I will probably include the more detailed part of information above a shortened more simplified version allowing the audience to choose what sort of information they will want to see. When people write posts on Reddit that are quite long they usually include a part below that says 'tr;dl' meaning too rambley; don't listen, obviously I won't use 'tr;dl' because it won't relate to what is being said but I will use something very similar that the audience will see and instantly recognize what it means.  

Audience

My project is focused on diabetes, especially type 1. My website is going to be focused on people that have JUST BEEN diagnosed with type 1 and the struggles and hurdles they are going to face. The websites going to include information on what to expect and how to get use to the daily routine. I will also inform them on what to expect later in life, this includes some of the new types of medication they can get hold of and, some of the health warnings.

I website is going to work the same way as a website called, 'First time in Prison' its a place people can go to, to find out information from people who have experienced it first hand. Due to this people are more likely to be more fond of this information because it will be more reliable and something that they might already be able to relate too.

Research

How easy was it to get into the routine of diabetes management?

First of all, I was only 9 years old. So I relied heavily on my parents for support with blood testing, insulin injection ect. It was a huge shock more so for my family as I thought it was quite exciting! I didn't realize what a massive life changing impact it would have on the rest of my life. 

In the first instance I was on two injections a day, of which I used syringes with an inch long needle. I had to draw up the insulin from a vial and mix the long acting the short acting together and then had to flick out bubbles. In addition to this I had to count the carbs in everything I ate (10 gram of carbs was 1 exchange) I was allow 17 exchanges a day and I couldn't eat anything else! I took responsibility for injecting myself from the first day in hospital when I was diagnosed. 

Over the years I have sought support and knowledge from my diabetic specialist to manage my diabetes, However even though this information has been valuable it is really down to the individual to work out how things effect them and what to do to compensate. I am still fighting a daily battle of managing my type 1 diabetes.


Throughout my teenage years I struggled immensely. I would eat what I wanted and only took minimal insulin. Many diabetics go through a stage of denial and this completely normal, you feel angry and lonely and just want to regain control of your life. I made myself quite ill but knew that I was doing wrong but couldn't stop it. I sought help from my consultant and he put me in touch with a philologist. Initially this helped but didn't really get to the core of the problem. I was in this state of denial for about 10 years and have now slowly but surly pulled myself out of it. I have recently gone onto pump therapy and this has given me a lot of freedom. The pump management is much more complex than injecting but this is worth it because it acts more like my pancreas would, and there for gives me better control of my blood sugars which in tern will improve my life expectancy and my diabetic complications later in life ( I.e. retinopathy, kidney failure, amputations ect.).

As I have grown older my attitude towards diabetes has changed, at first it was new and exciting then it became and enormous pain in the bum. Now it's part of me and something I need to work with to maintain happiness and quality of life. 

I believe that the ultimate key to great diabetes management is to ensure good psychological and emotional well being towards the illness. Anyone can learn the physicalities of diabetes management but if the person has not accepted ownership then really all of the blood testing insulin injections and carb counting ect. mean nothing at all. Therefore more psychological /emotional support needs to be provided through out the entirety of a diabetics lifetime.

- Jessica Perfect

Secondary Research

Charity Website

I looked at many different charity websites to find out if there was a theme that they all shared. One theme that I did find that reoccured on all of the different websites was that they used a grid format on their homepage to show all of the different parts of the websites. The different blocks in the grid each had there own photos and this made the homepage look a bit more busy and eye catching. It is also a very effective way of showing the user what the topic is about and what it consists of. Charity's are usually about something that isn't really very happy and cheery but for the main image on the homepage they feature someone smiling and talk about the good things that have come from the charity. I think this is something I will incorporate in my homepage because it seem like it could attract more users.

Every single website had a donate button, some had the button small so it would fit in with the website, others had the button a bigger size or had it on the page numerous times. I think it is down to the how the website looks, if you were to have numerous buttons on a website that is more type based it would look a bit out of place. I think when I design my website I will decide how many buttons I will feature on my homepage. As I mentioned earlier every website had a donate button, this was places on the header meaning that I would be on every single page.

Social Media is a big thing for all charity's because it allows them to reach out to there audience. This was no different when it came to the websites I looked at, some websites featured some of their most recent tweets and posts on their homepage to show their users what they are talking about. The users may decide to follow them because they are interested in what the charity is tweeting / posting about from looking at the preview.


Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is caused by a fault in the body's immune response in which the immune system mistakenly targets and kills beta cells, these cells that are located in the pancreas are responsible for producing insulin.

As the more beta cells are killed off the body begins to lose control of its blood glucose levels and the symptoms of diabetes begin to appear. 

“One of the most difficult things I found that I had to come to terms with when you are newly diagnosed is that diabetes is for life.”

The cause for the fault in the immune system is yet to be discovered, however research has shown that it can be a combination of genetic predisposition with an environmental trigger.

Type 1 can develop very quickly within children and young adults, you are more likely to be diagnosed when you are in this age range. "Only about 10% of all diabetes is type 1 however the number is ever so slightly increasing."

Living with diabetes

Looking after your general and diabetic health is very important, doing this will not only keep you in a optimum health state but it will also make treating diabetes easier and minimize your risk of developing complications.

Eating healthy, having a balanced diet and exercising regularly are all things that can be very beneficial to a person living with type 1. Doing these things will lower your blood glucose level, which is a massive bonus as it decreases your need for insulin. 

With diabetes comes a very big chance of the person developing diabetic retinopathy, a condition that can lead to sight loss if not treated. "If you are 12 or above you should be invited to have your eyes screened once a year."

"Most people will have to take insulin by injection with insulin pens - it uses cartridges that have to be replaced to give your body the insulin it needs. They are very easy to use and are given to people who are young diabetics because they can be used in schools and colleges at ease. On top of all of this the needle is almost painless and is portable and discreet."

The alternative is an insulin pump, you have to fit the eligibility criteria to be able to access one. You have to be educated on how to balance insulin doses with dietary intake and physical activity and how to use blood glucose testing to help control your diabetes.

Learning about Diabetes

When you first get diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, it is very important to spend the first few days learning about ways of controlling and taking note of your diabetes as well as creating a plan for yourself that you are going to stick to. This includes learning about foods so you can figure out the best types to eat in certain situations. A school/work plan is useful so you can make sure that you are prepared and know how to lay your day out around work and physical exertion. Most significantly, you will be dealing with the new emotions that you may be beginning to develop due to all of the drastic changes that Type 1 Diabetes has enforced on your lifestyle.

"One-week follow up, teaching should be done by a dietitian and nurse and a clinic visit with the physician. Here you will learn a whole lot more about food management, insulin actions and regimens along with identifying patterns in blood sugar and knowing when to contact someone if things aren't looking so good."

My Workflow

1.1 Reflect on what I have done in the past and plan out what I am going to do for this project.

2.1 I need to get everything needed for my production, carrying out my own research and analysing other sources.

2.2 Is all about reflecting and presenting my work (research) to an audience act on the feedback given and make changes / improvements.

3.1 Schedule our production and carry it out. While doing this I will have to blog and vlog on my progress made throughout

4.1 Evaluate on everything I have done (positives and negatives) and talk about the what I will do next time.

What could my theme be?

Paradox

A seemingly absurd statement which when investigated may prove to be well founded or true.

When I was thinking about what I could do for Paradox I thought about conspiracies and things that have not been proven possible yet. Aliens and Time Travel were two that I thought up first, these both have the potential to be very interesting and lots of things can be done with these topics, however they might be hard to produce in the moving image section. Human sense / health was the next topic I thought of, its something that we haven't fully discovered the full capacity of. This could be interesting but maybe not something that I would be fully invested in. The Universe was the last idea I thought of, there are a variety of different things on the universe because people are very interested in what it has to offer and lots of research has go into it. This has the possibility to be very interesting and could be achievable. 

One idea I could base my project on is a website that is themed in the future that talks about aliens or time travel or I could create a book / story on Aliens and Time Travel and design the Front cover, blurb, contents page ect. 

Hunger

Have a strong desire or craving for.

This was a theme that I thought had a lot of potential because hunger can mean a lot of things. The first thing that came to mind was money, in this day and age people are moulded be money it changes people for the better or worse. It is also something people have different opinions on, some people feel like they need more money to be successful when others feel like they need to give money away to people who don't have much of it. Fame was the next topic that came up, once again people have different opinions on this, some people like to be in their world and don't want to be notices while others feel like fame is something that they need to be noticed and relevant. Lots of things could be covered on both of these topics and I think they both have a lot of potential. Food was the next thing I thought about, I could talk about third world countries and how first world countries are helping them out. Internet / Phones was the last idea I had, with this generation being the most internet focused and with tech getting better and better each day it is something that is very relevant. It is also becoming a very big problem for certain people.

I could create my own charity website, for a made up charity. I could make the homepage, about us page and a donation page for the website. This would allow me to make something that covers all areas that we have covered in media this year.

Music / Film

Music is more popular than ever in this day and age, there is a variety of different genres that appeal to everyone. Some songs / films change people and make them have a different outlook on life, for my project I could interview people and find out what there favourite film / song is how it has changed them or made them feel. The industries themselves are very interesting and that could be incorporated into my piece.

Requirements of the Brief

The point of this project is to find out what we have learned from the past year. We will show this by applying it to our FMP, we can do this anyway we want to due to this project not having a set theme. The FMP is a very independent project and will require us to make sure that everything goes well and is to highest standard it can be. I can do this by checking over my work when I have finished writing it and by making sure that it does what the target says. We will have to make sure that we plan everything out and reflect upon our choices. 

We will be moderated by our lectures throughout the project to make sure that we are constantly working towards the end date. We can also link our blog posts on the spreadsheet to receive feedback and to find out whether what we are producing is along the guidelines set. I will make sure that I do this regularly so I can find out whether my work is to the right standard.

With every project comes lots of planning and research, this project is no different. We have to do an extensive amount of research so that we clearly know what we are going to do for our production and how we are going to keep it all in order. We also need to cover all aspects of media that we have covered over the past year. We could do this by; making posters, creating an animation / stop motion, make an advertising campaigns or films based on the theme. 

What excites me about this project?

Probably what I am excited for the most is having the freedom to base our FMP on what we want, in our last Moving Image project we had to base our narrative on something that I was not interested in. Meaning that I can really put my heart and soul into this project and get the best mark possible.

I also like that we can work at our own speed, we don't have to get one section of the project done by a set date, sometimes it takes me longer to do one section than another so this removes stress.

Reflection of progress from Units 1-7

Over the past 7 Units I feel like I have learned a lot in all of the different departments. Joining the course with minimal experience in most of the subjects meant that I had a lot to learn and had to prepare myself for the point of the year I am at now. 

Moving Image is a part of the course that I had never really touched on before I came here. It was something I was interested in due to it being practical. The first few months consisted of us being shown the basics of film making, like using different types of sound, camera shots and analysing other pieces of moving image work. Shot types was a phrase used a lot throughout the course, they are basically different ways of shooting something. One type of shot type is a long shot, this allows the audience to see many things on the screen at once that deem to be important. Behind the shoulder shot is another, this allows the audience to be put right in the moment and feel like the character is having a conversation with them. I felt like I had learnt a lot in these first few months and it set me up for the project we had later in the year. It allowed me to get a clear understanding on how to use equipment effectively and how to use software efficiently.  We also looked at directional styles these are basically the ways people direct, an example of this can be a creative director, creative directors allow everyone to contribute ideas forward but the director has the last say in what happens. This can mean that films can be more adventurous and out there. The next project was all about creating our own mini film, this was the first time I had ever had to make my own production and I felt like I had learnt a lot from some of the mistakes I had made and from the good things that had happened throughout it. I had to make sure that I did an extensive amount of research before I even started filming this involved creating; a script, shot list, treatment, location scouting and developing characters for my film. Doing a massive amount of research meant that I could deliver a piece of work that was to a high standard. After doing all of this research I feel pretty confident with doing it again and I feel like I can conduct my own research effectively. When before I had no idea on what some of these media terms even meant and how I could carry them out.

Interactive was a part of the course that I had very limited skills in. The first few months was focused on developing our skills in publishing and the learning about the laws that we had to stick to, when publishing our work to the public. One thing we looked at was Copyright, this is a very important part of development and media in general because if the Copyright law is breached you can be sued and would have to go through a lot of legal actions. This also helped us to think about our own original content and what actions we can take if it is stolen from us. I thought that this was a very important and useful part of media to learn about and I am very grateful I learnt this at the start of the year instead halfway through. We also learnt about graphic designs in publishing and how to show data in an attractive and effective way, I now feel confident when it comes to creating my own infographic. Then for a few months we learnt how to create animations  like the shape one that you can see above and how to use flash, this was my first time using flash. However I picked up the skills on how to use it very quickly and ended up making a very good animation at the end of the project that was all about showing the audience how my construction toy worked, it ran very smooth and featured barely any errors. The improvement is very visible when looking at my first and last animation. The next segment of Interactive involved creating my own app all about the creation and functions or Popcorn and Steam. Also during the animation segment we started a toy project, we had to start from the ground up producing a advertising campaign for the toy. At the start I found this to be quite challenging but I ended up making some high quality work at the end of it. I would have had no idea how to ever begin this at the start of the academic year, however now I feel like I can do it with confidence.

Theory is probably the aspect of this course that I had the most experience in before I started. We started the year off with surveys for this we had to do primary and secondary research on other surveys so that we had a better understanding on how our surveys should ask questions. This was something that I had done before, however I felt like I had learnt a bit more about how audiences react to certain things. We then moved onto advertisement for the remainder of the year this involved looking at print, broadcast and web advertisements and how they are effective and not effective. Advertisements are something that I also covered a lot in Secondary school however like the surveys I learnt things that we did not cover well or at all in my past school. Throughout the whole academic year we looked at media theories and their meanings. I found this to be very useful when writing up blog posts and when trying to portray a point to someone.

Publishing is the subject that I have enjoyed the most throughout the year. I had very limited skills in the software we used in this subject however now I feel like I can use all of the software we have covered very effectively and can create some high quality pieces of work. I enjoy doing this because there is almost no limits when it comes to digital publishing and I enjoy learning something new about the software every lesson. We also had to create our own typefaces, rules and colour scheme to a game board we had to make and how this builds our product and makes it our own. I found this project to be very fun but challenging having no limits on how the board could look and play was very interesting and allowed me to make my own product that I had put my heart and soul into. I also had to make my own website from scratch to promote a product, again like the board I had 100% control on how it could look and interact. We used our skills learned from the board game part of the project so that we could make sure that we fully understood what they mean and what they can offer. If I were set this at the start of the year without the training for the software I don't think I could have made anything as impressive with the time I had.

Audio Production was a part of the course that we started midway throughout the year. This was solely to improve our skills in Moving Image. Even though we had not had much time with this section of media I felt like I learnt a lot and I now know a lot more about how audio works and also when to use the right equipment in different environments. We also looked at the different types of Copyright for audio, for example royalty free music this is where the content is free to the public and the creator does not need to be contacted to gain access to the content. Going into the course with no idea on how to use sound effectively I can now say that I can use sound to create some impressive pieces of work.