IDAT208 - Production & Design

Due to the nature of the presentation that needs to be completed in order to gain insight and an evaluation by the lecturers I decided that I would make a PowerPoint presentation.

Some of the slides that I will be including in the presentation are as follows:

- Screen Shots.
- What I created.
- Vision of what I wanted to achieve.
- Positives.
- Negatives.
- What I have learnt.
- What could have been done to improve the project as a whole.

Throughout this project I always wanted to produce a working model of a website that can be made into something of a bigger scale and to some extent that has been the case but there is always ways in which I will felt that I didn’t quite deliver what I wanted to.

Timing as with all my projects over the years has never been something I pride myself in. I leave things to the last minute and end up wondering ‘what if’ I did it or started it earlier.

There is a working template which is good to see and I am pleased with the concept and content of the website. Also I feel that I have progressed very well with the planning of the project and to some levels time management when I have decided that this needs to be completed.

Overall I am happy with what I have achieved in the time I have allowed myself for this to be completed but when will I learn?!

I feel that if I am to critically evaluate the work and progress I think that I have made then the testing part of my project is vital, I didn’t have quite as much time as I would have liked but I feel its worthwhile. The testing hasn’t just been done at the end of this project, all the way through I have been making sure that what I have done is of the standard I want this project to be but things can be missed.

I have decided that there will be a series of small checks that will be made by myself and published in the table below.

1. Check Made - Main Menu button on the Local News page.
Problem(s) - None
Pass/Fail - Pass
Notes - Checked all other buttons on the page as well.

2. Check Made - Does beachclean.mov load when page is loaded?
Problems(s)- Yes. Didn’t load.
Pass/Fail - Fail (Passed*)
Notes - *Changed so of the code and now works and loads fine.

3. Check Made - Spell check home page
Problems(s)- None
Pass/Fail - Pass
Notes - N/A

4. Check Made - All pictures visible within the website
Problems(s)- Yes. One didn’t show.
Pass/Fail - Fail (Passed*)
Notes - *Had to change a file name in the NewsWebsite folder.

5. Check Made - Alignment of Heading.
Problems(s)- None
Pass/Fail - Pass
Notes - All headings are positioned correctly.

After completing the above checks I was also able to spot other areas that needed touching up like spelling mistakes and alignments that weren’t quite right.

This stage in the project is the most vital therefore there will be a few comments on this part about the implementation and how the website is taking shape.

- (20th February) Colour scheme never seems to look right… tried shades of red, yellow and blue and felt that that shades of blue have worked the best, and are the easiest on the eye and more intriguing.

- (23rd February) Pictures that were found for the website fit the information well as do the videos. I think some animation and more colour could have helped with the overall perspective!

- (27th February) Skeleton of the website has been completed. Look simple, nothing too special but a work in progress.

- (28th February) I was having a few problems with finding videos which would make perfect additions to the interface of the website. The only ones I could find were on YouTube.com that you cant download. Then I found http://vixy.net/. It’s a website that allows you to pick a URL from YouTube and it will save, format and allow you to download any file that the user needs. It was a big help in this project.

- (1st March) Embedding the video files into the interface of the website was a struggle as I wasn’t able to complete this part in the last module but I finally managed to crack it and I must say I am pleased with the results.

- (2nd March) Time Management is becoming at issue. I haven’t had any time to think about, let alone start to learn anything that could help me with this project. Continue to play around with the user interface.

- (6th March) The implementation part of the project has overrun. Testing will have to be set back a little bit.

Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is used to study how the user interacts with the computer and to what extent computers are or are not developed. It’s a good way of taking into consideration the user and ONLY the user.

Some of the things I feel I will need to spend some time thinking about are hyperlinks (must be made visible for users), Colours (blends of colour, Easy on the eye), links between pages in the site.

To be able to make this site as user friendly I thought it would be a good idea to keep in simple at first and then try and add interactivity I though the target audience would enjoy and appreciate. Simple colours, content, bold headings, easy to navigate buttons and links. All will make sure that the user enjoys the experience of the website.

Research is the most important part of any development process as it tells the designer what people want and what they don’t, for this the questionnaires worked very well and the feedback was positive. Therefore the project is still on course.

As I have decided to tap into the news market that is already established I decided that the best course of action would be to evaluate some existing news websites that may give me some ideas of how to go about presenting the content that I have written.

The websites that I looked at were:

- www.bbc.co.uk
- www.cnn.com
- www.foxnews.com
- http://news.yahoo.com___##0##___ - www.skynews.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk - Simple Layout, Search capabilities, Weather reports, Pictures, Easy-on-the-eye Colours, No large headings, Achieve.

www.cnn.com - Cluttered (Most US sites are), good use of headlines, Banners aren’t good, Bland colour scheme. Good selection of news (US and World), Kids may not understand the content.

www.foxnews.com - Much like CNN. Bland colours, busy interface, good selection of headlines, Lots going on and not kids friendly at all.

http://news.yahoo.com - good use of interface, headlines spaced out, search capabilities, video footage, good use of external links.

http://news.sky.com - Simple, Banners everywhere! Not good, good interface, clear and to the point.

With each of these websites I looked at I made sure that I made notes on the first page of every site within the Appendix. They are labelled Appendix 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

After studying and looking at how they display the information, I was able to understand what was needed for my project to be a success.

Some of the areas that I feel I must look into more closely include:

- Colours
- Headlines (Eye-catching, noticeable)
- Use of pictures and colours
- Content (Easy-to-read, simple, to the point!)

I thought about having a chat room or forum placed within the website but felt that will all the concerns with child safety I decided against that idea.

Screen Layouts/Design – 8th/9th February 2007

The most important part of this whole project apart from a working model is how the website looks. If it doesn’t look welcoming and intriguing then people wont want to log-on, if its too bold and amateurish then users will loose interest or feel the website isn’t credible enough for believing what has been written.

I could have classed HCI within this bracket but have decided to focus on that later on in the project when the development/implementation stage is in progress.

The appendix that show the layouts being designed are numbers 10 and 11.

Content – 12th February 2007 to 16th February 2007

The idea behind the content of the website was to use current news articles I found when I was researching the structure and content of the other websites and create my own mini-articles that would be read by kids. In order to complete this I set aside a few days that could be used to collect this data.

It had to made up of articles of different interests to show the website at its full potential. I have decided to choose one for the weather, one from world news and two for local news.

Below are the articles that caught my interest and gave me the inspiration to create the smaller mini-articles.

Article 1 -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6433897.stm

Children Medicines Can Be a Problem - Health

A new study into medicines for babies has shown that nearly all can contain additives that could be a problem. This is because kids under 3 years old aren’t allowed colours and sweeteners in their food or drink.

Out of 41 medicines tested only 1 had no colours and sweeteners, which isn’t very good at all. Preservatives were found in 31, and sweeteners in 37 of the products tested.

Some side effects of these preservatives and sweeteners in food and drink for under 3 year olds are:

§ Skin Problems
§ Eye Problems
§ Stomach Problems

So be careful.

Article 2 –

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6437003.stm

People help in Beach Clean Up - Environment

People from the local area are helping out with the cleaning of Seaton beach in Devon. After the bad news that the ship MSC Napoli was grounded (stuck) on the shore of the beach, 200 people have decided its time they helped.

Things contained on the ship have been found on beaches from the Isle of Wight to south Devon.

The main reason behind this is to have enough time to get the beaches ready for the Easter holidays.

We will have more news on this soon.

Article 3 –

The Football Association finally gets Wembley! – Sport

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6379165.stm

After months, and months it looks at though the FA and all England fans have finally got what they wanted. A NEW STADIUM! The company paid to build the new stadium, Multiplex handed the keys over on Friday.

It has cost a total of 757,000,000 pounds to build and has overrun by over a year but its now finished.

It is not open yet and there are still doubts it will be completed in time for the FA Cup Final, which takes place in May of this year.

Lets keep our fingers crossed..

Article 4 –

Weather – Today’s Weather

Today will be cool and breezy in some parts of the UK including Plymouth and Dover. Wales and the North can expect some showers but the temperture will stay cool. Scotland should expect some serious wind and rain throughout the day. For more information please click here.

Article 5 –

EU agrees to start using Renewable Energy

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6433503.stm

After years of warnings the EU are finally starting to agree on what needed to happen with our energy situation.

They have all agreed to have a target of how much renewable energy, such as wind and solar power will be used within the EU instead of other energy sources.

The 27 EU states (including Britain, France and Germany) will each decide how they contribute to meeting a 20% boost in the overall use of renewable fuel use by 2020.

A compromise was what was needed and it has been solved.

Main Page Article 1 –

Welcome to ChildNews.co.uk. This site has been formed and created for the purpose of allowing the younger generation to access certain news website for their learning, development and understanding of world events.

After collecting the content for the website I started to think that it is going to be hard to display this information in a way that kids will find easy to read and interesting.

As well as the text content there was also some small video files and pictures that also had to be collected and with the help of vixy.net I was able to gain the video and picture files that I needed to support the content of the website.

The most important part of this whole project apart from a working model is how the website looks. If it doesn’t look welcoming and intriguing then people wont want to log-on, if its too bold and amateurish then users will loose interest or feel the website isn’t credible enough for believing what has been written.

I could have classed HCI within this bracket but have decided to focus on that later on in the project when the development/implementation stage is in progress.

The appendix that show the layouts being designed are numbers 10 and 11.

Research is the most important part of any development process as it tells the designer what people want and what they don’t, for this the questionnaires worked very well and the feedback was positive. Therefore the project is still on course.

As I have decided to tap into the news market that is already established I decided that the best course of action would be to evaluate some existing news websites that may give me some ideas of how to go about presenting the content that I have written.

The websites that I looked at were:

- www.bbc.co.uk
- www.cnn.com
- www.foxnews.com
- http://news.yahoo.com___##0##___ - www.skynews.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk - Simple Layout, Search capabilities, Weather reports, Pictures, Easy-on-the-eye Colours, No large headings, Achieve.

www.cnn.com - Cluttered (Most US sites are), good use of headlines, Banners aren’t good, Bland colour scheme. Good selection of news (US and World), Kids may not understand the content.

www.foxnews.com - Much like CNN. Bland colours, busy interface, good selection of headlines, Lots going on and not kids friendly at all.

http://news.yahoo.com - good use of interface, headlines spaced out, search capabilities, video footage, good use of external links.

http://news.sky.com - Simple, Banners everywhere! Not good, good interface, clear and to the point.

With each of these websites I looked at I made sure that I made notes on the first page of every site within the Appendix. They are labelled Appendix 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

After studying and looking at how they display the information, I was able to understand what was needed for my project to be a success.

Some of the areas that I feel I must look into more closely include:

- Colours
- Headlines (Eye-catching, noticeable)
- Use of pictures and colours
- Content (Easy-to-read, simple, to the point!)

I thought about having a chat room or forum placed within the website but felt that will all the concerns with child safety I decided against that idea.

To gain an idea of what is needed within this news website I decided to carry out a small questionnaire to a couple of the younger generation so that I can get an idea of what they want out of a news website.

They will all be closed questions so they will be easy to understand and give feedback on.

Appendix 2, 3 and 4 are the results of the three questionnaires.

Below is the questionnaire that was constructed to gain information that could help me with my project.

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IDAT208 Research – Questionnaire

Name: ………………………………………………………………………………..

Male [ ] Female [ ]

1. What age group are you?
10 or under [ ] 11-13 [ ] 14-16 [ ]

16 or above [ ]

2. How often do you use the Internet?
Once a week [ ] 2-3 times a week [ ]
4+ times a week [ ]

3. Are you interested in Local/World News?
Yes [ ] No [ ]

4. How do you access what’s happening in the world today?
TV [ ] Radio [ ] Internet [ ] Newspapers [ ]

5. What do you think is more important to you?
Local News [ ] European News [ ] World News [ ]

6. What do you think is the most important thing about the Internet?
Learning [ ] Gaming [ ] Messaging [ ] Other [ ]

If other please state here what it is: ………………………………………………..

7. What makes a website (pick up to three)?
Colours [ ] Design [ ] Pictures [ ] Content [ ] Links [ ] Safety [ ]
Multimedia (e.g Video) [ ]

8. What news would you be most interested in?
Sport [ ] Weather [ ] Business [ ] Political [ ] Education [ ] Health [ ] Lifestyle [ ]

9. Any other comments?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Thank you for your time.
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Below is the proposal that was drafted for the project. It was used to identify the aim and plan of how the project will be carried out. In the end as you can tell by this workbook it has been adapted and changed as the project has progressed.

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Proposal for IDAT208 – Term 2
Individual Project – Ben Place (810618)

Aim:
To produce an interactive product that is able to show that there is a clear understanding of interactive multimedia within a certain sector.

Ideas:
Re-edit Term 1’s UPFC Website (Content, Structure, Interface)
Children’s News Website
Children’s Educational Program (Maths or Science)
Gossip Website

Research Methods:
Internet – searching websites, browsing forums, viewing products already on the market, adverts.
Interaction – questionnaires, feedback.
Programs – Microsoft FrontPage, Macromedia 8, Internet Explorer, FireFox.

Plan:
- Proposal
- Initial Research
- Screen Layouts, Colours, Images, Content
- Development of Website
- Evaluation/Testing
- Presentation

Concept:
To produce a website that is fun, easy to read, colourful and makes news of day interesting for the public audience of children.

Chosen Solution:
After discussing the ideas with certain people I came to the decision that the children news website is something that allow me to express myself with colour, images, structure and the content.

I will be using Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 amongst other software packages to to develop the site for young children about events that are happening today.

Interactivity within the site could and may include video files, audio files, a forum, chat room, small games, stories (content), pictures, links. These are the areas I feel are important for the completion of this project.

Due to the project mainly aimed at children special attention must be made to the interface, how it is constructed and layed out in order for the users to get the most out of the site. Therefore everything within the website must be clear and bold.
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