Viva Voce Presentation

So nearly finished, a week until my presentation have been thinking about what I need to include;

- where did my ideas come from?
- why did I chose my question?
- mind mappin ideas - where they led to etc
- what worked for me?
- what didn't work so well?
- relate back to the research document
- key conclusions I found from that
- artefact findings and how it lead to next artefact
- still the same conclusions now after 5 artefacts? - strong reasoning and connection to why artefacts were created


My aim is to make the case for my research, I am seeking to justify the design of the process. Nedd to outline and analyse my findings.

Artefact 5 Evaluation

This being the last artefact allows me to look back over my research document and artefacts to see what I have actually found from my research question. For me this artefact has provided me with a good set of data, that may be because it has quite a large amount of participants from the other 4 artefacts. The results all link into each other in that customers of the older generation prefer typical methods to find out about businesses such as flyers and leaflets however a small percentage did prefer to look at Claires cake website which show that if the public older generation are on top with technology, small businesses need to do this too. The businesses may they be advertising a new company or information about themselves need to understand that no matter what there target market is young, old, male or female everyone is still varied in what they prefer to use to look up the business so they need to cater this and if they really want to be successful need to have social networking and a site as well as a flyer and business cards.

Problems with this artefact were that I didnt have the same amount of ages in each group so that will effect results, although I can get the general gist of results. Also the fact I gave them both options so the participants already had the leaflet in hand meant this was just an easier option to say they did instead of going onto a computer or device.

My research document and some results from artefact shows that businesses established more than ten years ago already have quite a well set up base of customers and for some of them they products they sell are quite hard to advertise on twitter and have competitions for on Facebook eg. David Ross Fabrications which sells sheet metal because it's so specific to a specialised customer that theres no need for them to get involved with social networking. However for a local cake selling business such as Claire where the customers have commented on how they like the social networking links from the website and would recommend the business to their social network friends and followers - it shows how businesses can really use the opportunities digital media now has to offer.

Artefact 5 Presentation

Artefact 5 Results

Findings from artefact 5,

reasons why preferred website:
links to facebook which has competitions
social networking links
website more accessible
easy to lose leaflets
view more images on website
up to date deals and offers
website provides more information
looks professional
most leaflets through the door are junk & get thrown away
easy to view wherever you are, iphone and ipad

reasons why preferred leaflet:
keep leaflet on notice board
easy to keep leaflet rather than remember the website if use business regularly
less information to take in
easy to find what you want straight away than look all over website
lazy, easier to look at leaflet if it's there
easy to pass on to someone else if they need it
simple to use
nice and creative leaflet, nice to look through it

charts to show my results from 64 participants:


Ages Of Participants

This shows the amount of females and males that chose either leaflets or website.

It shows that gender doesn't have an effect on the results as no option stands out more than others.

This shows results from age groups whom chose leaflets

Can be seen that the right hand of the pie chart which covers the 4 younger age groups doesn't have as much as the percentage that 51-65 and 66+ does - being 50% of the chart. Concluding that the older generation do prefer leaflets for whatever reason they may have listed.

This shows results from age groups whom chose website

This shows that the main percentage of age groups preferring websites is 26-35 which isn't surprising from the information gathered in the focus group in artefact 4. A small percentage of the 66+ group preferred to use websites but it shows that they don't rely on leaflets alone which businesses should take into account when thinking about who they market their product to.

Fifth & Final Artefact

FINALLY on my last artefact, over the weekend I was showing my client how to update her site I made for my client project, changing images and events etc when she asked if I could help in anyway to promote it which gave me the idea for my 5th artefact. We both live in the same village and I work in the village co op so we decided to ask people within the village to either visit the website or use the leaflet and to then simply let us know when we come back the next day what they preferred to look at for a new opening business - the leaflet or website and they would get a free cupcake. We gave people both the Claire's Cakes flyer as well as the link to the website. www.clairebears-cakes.co.uk People were told to either look at both and say what they found more informative for what the product was and pricing or just do what they would normally when looking up a business. We also gave them a small questionnaire to help me with my artefact:

Age
Sex
Prefer leaflet or website
Why?

Later on today we are going to go back around the houses we visited and gather the results and I have also asked customers over the weekend to bring their results back in for me.

Artefact 4 Evaulation

Although I found my last artefact very interesting and beneficial to me for future career choice, I felt I had gone a little off track from my research question so decided to gather some qualitative data to understand peoples perceptions and attitude towards how local businesses have reacted to the opportunities of digital media. Having varied age groups allowed me to get a good insight on all beliefs of the matter from different generations.

My focus group consisted of 6 people 3, male, 3 female aged from 19 to 86. Had some questions to ask but the nature of the group led themselves to their own questions and answers. My conclusions from my findings were that the opinions were very mixed within ages, the young students both agreed that businesses need to keep up to date with digital media to be successful and that large businesses such as groupon and asos are solely based online are massive and this could be the way forward in the future. The middle aged mother and father explained how they used websites and social networking to look at small businesses and recommended it to friends by sharing on Facebook but they actually prefer to go into the shop and inquire about products when purchasing rather online.

I found it interesting how both participants from the aged 50+ had a tablet or smartphone which showed not only are businesses having to keep on trend with ever growing technology but so are the older generation. The participant whom had a tablet said she used it more for playing games and keeping in contact with family rather than browsing local businesses as she prefers to have a leaflet she can keep and use when needed, both agreed that some sites (not so much small local businesses but massive such as ASDA) have easy to use navigation and it's very beneficial to shop from home at time to time.

Moving onto artefact 5 I would like to try and tie it all together as a whole, artefact 1 showed businesses views on digital media, 2 was to the extent they used it. Artefact 3 was beneficial to me in which I looked into how a future career used digital media within the work force. 4 has given me a good insight on the consumers view of how businesses react to digital media. For artefact 5 I was thinking perhaps a mini case study or some sort of questionnaire on how customers actually use businesses resources.

Artefact 4 Presentation

Artefact 4 - Findings

From the focus group, the main information I gathered was; - all of the participants use their local services, however the students didn't use the village businesses as much as the others they tended to use bigger brands. The older participants would recommend by word of mouth, and the students and mum would often use twitter or facebook to share or retweet the information to their friends. Mixed view on preferring leaflets or website, the older generation prefer leaflets and they can easily hold on to them to regain information. One of the students uses websites for information for everything whilst the other enjoys looking at leaflets if creative like the 02 academy flyers but also enjoys sites such as urban outfitters for creativity. The older generation prefer leaflets because it's easy to see what you're getting and the price, however big brands such as Asda have easy navigation sites which they use to shop on-line for occasionally. All participants had some form of smartphone or tablet they use on a regular basis. Talking to the participants about businesses having to keep up with modern technology they came to the conclusion that businesses already well established didn't need to advertise themselves on-line as much as they already had a good customer base which is what I can relate back to in my research document with David Ross Fabrications.

This conversation then led to one of the young students explaining her friend had started a tanning business and twitter had helped her massively and she solely used this to promote the business, using business cards with the link to the twitter and website but didnt use any leaflets or flyers. The older participants argued that she should also create leaflets for the less technical generation but the base of business being tanning had a young market but other businesses should take this into consideration for all ages of people in the market of the product.

There was then a conversation about how emails are used massively to sell special offers and how discount codes can easily be sent out to provide advertisement for the business. Groupon and Moonpig are based on line but have no actual shop, Asos is massive for selling clothes but again there is no shop. Will it be like this in the future? The mother stated how she much prefers to go to the shop to try clothes on and see the food she is buying rather than get it all online.

Focus Group - Artefact 4

Questions for the focus group, I'm aware that being in a group will allow the participants to talk freely about what I ask which may lead to other questions, so mine may not keep to the structure I plan but I will have a fantastic insight to their views on the matter of how they feel - "local business have reacted to the opportunities of digital media"

Participants
female student aged 21
male student aged 19
mum of 2, part time job, aged 36
dad of 1, full time job, aged 43
female, retired, aged 86
male, part time job, aged 65

I can get a good insight on all generations.

I need to relate the questions to everyone in the focus group, for them to be able to open up and provide opinions within the group.

"I'm here for my university looking into the public consumers/customers of local businesses and how you think they have reacted to the opportunities of digital media"

- Do you all use services and products provided by your local businesses? e.g hairdressers, health and beauty, food, pets, electrics
- Are you regular customers or do you like to try somewhere new
- How do find out about new businesses?
- How do you recommend a business to a family or friend?
- For businesses you use regularly do you follow them on twitter & Facebook
- Do you prefer to look at a website for information or a leaflet/poster?
- Do you think technology growing rapidly means businesses have to adapt to it?

Thinking About Artefact 4

Although I found artefact 3 really interesting and gave me a good insight of a future job career I feel I have gone a little off track from my research project and want to now study on the effect the digital media can have on the customer.

lack of motivation has led me to youtube.

Artefact 3 Evaluation

After much research into Leicester Police and how they have adapted to social media sites to allow them to interact with the public I have come to the conclusions that Facebook and Twitter are used by all age groups, but a largely within the 16-25 year old age bracket. The use of the police using social networking sites means that although this group is probably the hardest to communicate with to enforce the law, the force can now have communication and dialogue with teens and understand them more now they have more interaction. Looking through the followers @leicespolice have a large number of them are from the younger generation, who may not want to read local newspapers to find out what's happening in the community but can easily access it from social networking.

Social media is also an helpful tool for educating the public. Tweets I saw covered topics from crime reports to tips, traffic updates, and even weather updates. This is now spread to the public quickly and efficiently. Crisis communications can also reach community members quickly and efficiently. There may be a missing person, and these social networking sites become an active way to get information out within seconds. Times have moved on from having to update the homepage on the website. Although this is still done it also provides information about the police, what to do in emergencies whereas the social networking side covers incidents all day every day.

In terms of my research project this has allowed me to see not only local businesses reactions to the growth of digital media but how it can effect the community, I feel for my next artefact I really want to focus on the consumer/customers point of views on how the opportunities of technology have effected them in terms of businesses they use. Obviously I know it will differ within g generations but to what degree will this be?

Artefact 3 Presentation

More On Artefact 3

Been doing some more research into the police and how they are reacting to the opportunities of the digital world. Way Back Machine is a site allowing the user to view websites from the past.

A screen shot from 1st Feb 2003 of the Leicester Police site. Looking away from the design which will obviously have improved massively over the years, the actual content shows no advertising of the social media sites unlike todays version. I am unable to view the actual news that was displayed but the layout of it doesn't seem as up to date with how it is today.

A shot from May 2007, a improvement from 2003, the latest news is on show to the user, job vacancies are on the home page, links to other sites such as crimestoppers. Shows how much digital media has improved over 4 years from the site looking so bare with hardly any information on the site to where similarities can be seen from this site and now today, 6 years on.

The Facebook page, surprises me that it only has 6000 likes on the page whereas the Twitter page has over 25,000. The page doesn't display as many issues and reports as the Twitter, just more information on how to reduce crime like locking your house securely because of robberies within the area.

http://www.youtube.com/user/leicspolice

The YouTube channel for Leicester Police. Created Jan 2009, it now has 146 video uploads and 201 subscribers. Used to mainly show footage of crimes such as assaults and robberies, this enables the community to be able to try and help if they have seen anything, which from 5, 10 years ago would have just been a photo capture in a newspaper. Technology improving has clearly massively helped the way the Police not only try and reduce crime but also involving the community to help with any information they may have.

Artefact 3

I have started artefact 3,looking at the Police as a community as this is the job I hope to enter after graduationg & Simon said it would be both interesting and beneficial to me. I have looked at @leicspolice for this artefact as I have applied for this force.

With over 25,000 followers it makes it easy for people living in the small community of Leicestershire to keep up to date with the crimes and news happening. The tweets contain information about small crimes such as a robbery in a village to murderers being sentenced. Five, ten years ago without twitter this information would have been seen not as important to publish in the papers or on the news so wouldn't have been mentioned.

The local newspaper, The Leicester Mercury still keeps the community up to date on crimes for people whom may not use twitter, for example the older generation - who can still keep up to date with the local news on the TV and paper.
Also looking at Leicester Police website:

This shows the latest news along with job opportunities, I noticed the twitter account was used massively to advertise jobs coming up and seminars about roles for the Police. After applying for the force myself and learning how to difficult it is to gain a role within the Police, the fact they now advertise it on social networking sites allows so much more people to apply.

Pinch, Punch 1st Day Of The Month

completed both internal and external client projects now, context 3 images are to be submitted soon for mm degree show. Presentation is on 20th may so around 6 weeks away, only done 2 artefacts need to crack on with the third.

Client Feedback

Final External Client

Responsive Site

Client Projectttt

After spending yesterday adding content, seems I have actually saved it as it's not there so yesterday was a brilliant waste of time. Seeing Shaun today to show him the site so far. Made a domain so can now view it live & also finally managed to make it responsive although needs some work on postions & that.

Seeing Claire today to show her the progress as she couldnt meet yesterday, sent her emails of screen shots and she seems pleased with it but can now show her it live. Just need to work on responsive code and re add content

On the content page I added her address as map of business which is her house, she didnt want this on but is happy to keep her phone number and likes the email form link

Artefact 3

Haven't been up to date with research for a week or 2 as I just came to dead end with is after the 2nd artefact. After seeing Simon yesterday I explained how i didn't think artefact 2 would lead on to a good question for artefact 3, he then asked what I want to do when I leave the course & I told him about joining the police. He said using this could be a good artefact as it will be interesting to me and can make it relevant to my research project.

I am going to look at the police a s a community, how a situation (such as the riots) could lead them to using the internet such as their website and social networking. How has it changed from a few years ago to now?

Close To Client Deadlines

Less than 2 weeks to client deadline, been in contact with Claire a lot & she seems to like what I have done, meeting with her tomorrow so she can see it live & then I can make any final changes before Monday then start on evaluation.

Lightbox Gallery

Claire wanted a gallery page to showcase the cakes she has made, I used the lightbox gallery which isn't working on IE at the minute but i'm working on it.

Just Wondering

Why I agreed to do a responsive site, can not for the life of me get it to work, about ready to cry.

Client

Haven't posted about client project for a while, still ongoing with it, meet with Claire regularly to discuss ideas. Explained to her about responsive sites and she decided she wants that, so going to start working on doing that. She liked the lightbox gallery to show the cakes, contact page hasnt been done yet but she wants it connecting to her social networking sites & if possible to also do that on the homepage.

How the homepage currently looks:

At A Dead End

For artefact 3, don't have a clue where to go with it next.

Artefact 2 Evaluation

Following my first artefact of the questionnaire from business owners, I wanted to look into the extent of how much they used their online presence to sell their business. I looked into 15 of the 30 companies from the results of my first artefact I wanted to find out more into what they used digital media for e.g. advertising themselves or selling their products. How well do they use the opportunities of the web and establish the levels of effort, investment and relevance the business put into their website / social networking site. I also looked at companies that had both a website and Facebook page and then either or to see if this made a difference. The image created of comparing the sites can be seen in a previous post, I looked at how relevant the information was, the general design and layout, how often the site was updated. It was surprising that even though all companies from the questionnaire answered that their business had some sort of online activity that only 2 out of the 15 I looked into had a generally good website that was used to the full degree. Narborough Hall and Marks Electrical had the ability to not just view products but also order them online. Companies that ticked they had a Facebook page, the majority of them didnt actually use them at all. Claire's Cakes had 700 like on her Facebook page, often updating images and introducing competitions for her online views.

Marks Electrical were a business I interviewed for my actual research project and they said how much social networking had improved their business. Angela Adams, manager of Marks Electrical explained that the website which was set up 10 years ago for customers to buy the products online has massively boosted sales, with around 70% of sales being online. The Internet as a whole has a massive impact on the profits of Marks Electrical. The website allows an online booking service for the product to be installed the next day. An automated email or text is then sent to the customer to tell them of delivery times. It allows it to be quicker and easier for both the customer and business. This shows me them using the web to a full extent, being the local business that has the highest turnover (annually of £18 million) that I researched into leads me to question if using the digital media opportunities reflects on the success of the business.

The results also showed that some businesses established 15-20 years ago use social networking, some don’t although do have websites. Showing me that time businesses established doesn’t effect online presence. My results show that all local businesses have an online presence of some sort, however the extent to which they use them to good degree isn’t applaudable. Many websites are very basic, simply designed with no links to social networking or ability to buy products. Many create a Facebook page so the content has the potential to generate favourable search engine results for the business and brand.

Artefact 2 Presentation

Artefact 2 Presentation for 27th Feb

Artefact 2 Findings

Findings from Artefact 2..

Although all 15 companies I researched into had some sort of online existence, only 2 of them actually used the website to the full degree and their Facebook pages were frequently updated with the public also engaging, Marks Electrical had over 13,000 likes.

Websites were used predominantly for advertising and social networking to encourage online “word of mouth”. The only site avaliable to buy products were the two that had both a frequently updated facebook and website with good layout and design. (Narborough Hall & Marks Electrical)

My results showed that some businesses established 15-20 years ago use social networking, some don’t although do have websites. Showing me that time businesses established doesn’t effect online presence.

Hair and beauty services rely massively on social networking & word of mouth.

Artefact 2,

Artefact 2:
To what extent do local businesses use the opportunities of having an online presence, to advertise and sell their business?

After comparing the local businesses online existence, be it Facebook or a website or both, it became very apparent that although id did exist it was rare for the site to have good aesthetics or be regularly used by both the business and the public (many had under 20 likes on Facebook pages.) Marks Electrical had the best concept website, being able to order online, look at stock and links to the social networking pages which had over 13,000 likes.

Artefact 2 Website Images

Just for need of anyone to see the images, as the document I have created with them all the images are quite small so this is just for them to be compared as a larger image.
Some companies will show both facebook and website, what works well, what doesn't. If they have either a website or facebook then the companies that use it to the full extent and others that don't...