Tuesday, 19 February 2013

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...

Sunday, 17 February 2013

Aretfact Twoooo

Still a little unsure how this will work, but leading on from artefact 1 in which I found 29 out of the 30 businesses from questionnaires had some sort of online presence, i wanted to find out more into what for.. advertising themselves..selling their products. How well they use the opportunities of the web and ascertain levels of effort, investment and relevance the business put into their website / social networking site.

I'll look at companies that have both a website and Facebook page and then either or to see if this makes a difference, the time the company was established may make a difference, the type of industry the company is may also impact the results.

i'm going to take screen shots and compare the aesthetics, layout, frequency of content updates and just the general amount of effort put into the use of digital media.

Thursday, 14 February 2013

Artefact 2

For my second artefact I plan to compare the websites and social networking presence of the businesses from my questionnaire results to see to extent they are using the opportunity of digital media to do so for their business. I'm hoping it will give me an insight into how it also effects the customers which could potentially lead on to artefact 3

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

jQuery Slider

Trying to find a good j query slider for the home page, have this basic one at the mo but browsing for better onesss



Also going to see if Claire wants social network links on home page

Monday, 11 February 2013

Artefact 1 Evaluation

Artefact 1:
For my first artefact I gave local business owners a questionnaire to fill in to find out to what extent they use the opportunities of the digital world, to advertise their business. I thought doing a questionnaire would be a bit useless and draw results that I was already expecting, however on reflection it showed some interesting information about companies use of the digital media and certain things that could effect it, for example when established and the industry of the business. All 30 companies sampled used either social networking or websites or both, with 29 using a website. This high level of online activity suggests proprietors recognise the importance of the digital age they operate in. Websites were used predominantly for advertising and social networking to encourage online “word of mouth” I found that service industries focus more energy on social networking, especially hair and beauty companies.My results showed that businesses established 15-20 years ago don’t use social networking, although do have websites.All 30 used business cards which always included links to their website and social network sites. Clearly not all business believe social networking to be a necessity, however the fact that all 8 service businesses established in the last 5 years, show it’s a growing phenomenon.
My research project focused massively on both how the companies advertised themselves and how they used digital media to achieve this, as well as selling the products and services. The questionnaire results show that that all clearly think having an online presence improves their business but how much? and how much are they using the opportunities of the media to do so?
My results have lead to onto artefact 2 in which it left me wondering that although the local businesses have some sort of online presence, to what extent are they using the web to sell the business? I want to compare all 30 companies websites and social networking sites to ascertain levels of effort, investment and relevance.

Artefact 1 Presentation

Artefact 1 Presentation for 12th Feb.

Black To Pink

Claire has said she wanted the text to be pink not black..



May need to changed the navigation colour as it may be too much pink now.



Changed the hover to beige.

Friday, 8 February 2013

Artefact 1 Findings

All 30 companies sampled used either social networking or websites or both, with 29 using a website. This high level of online activity suggests proprietors recognise the importance of the digital age they operate in.

Websites were used predominantly for advertising and social networking to encourage online “word of mouth” Service industries focus more energy on social networking.

My results showed that businesses established 15-20 years ago don’t use social networking, although do have websites.

All 30 used business cards which always included links to their website and social network sites.

Clearly not all business believe social networking to be a necessity, however the fact that all 8 service businesses established in the last 5 years, show it’s a growing phenomenon

Thursday, 7 February 2013

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

Font

Claire got back to me on the font to use. She wants to "yummy cake" for headings and then just a basic serif font for content.





unsure if to leave black or another colour, going to see other colours i'm using on the page to see how well it will fit in.

Sunday, 3 February 2013

online shopping, came across this site which I like, layout & simplicity.

Fontsssss

Some fonts to use for client site, sent them to Claire to see what she likes best for headings etc etcccc



Thursday, 31 January 2013

Artefact 1

Questionnaire I sent to business owners for my artefact:
Are you:
Age:  
Is your industry mainly service based?
How long has your business been established? 
Does your business have a website?
Does your business have a Facebook Page?
Does your business have a Twitter Page?
Do you have business cards and posters to advertise your business?
If so does your literate include website and social network links?
What do you think is the most successful way to attract new customers to you?
Why do you think using the internet is important for your business, if at all?

Wednesday, 23 January 2013

Wireframes

Wireframe idea, just basic for 5 page site have emailed them to Claire & she is happy with them but going to design some more & mock ups for her to choose from. I showed Claire my previous work and the options



Tuesday, 22 January 2013

Coloursssss Etccc

Claire already has a business card she uses although will change it after the website as she would like to include the new logo on it.

The current business card looks like this:


Claire would like to stick to the theme of the cream, pink and brown colours, I had a look at colour themes on Adobe Kuler. I searched for “cakes” to see some themes I could perhaps discuss and use with Claire.

Friday, 18 January 2013

Cake Sites, Ideas & Inspiration

http://www.charmcitycakes.com/



http://www.liggyscakes.co.uk/



http://www.dotscupcakes.com/



some sites we found, that Claire thinks would work well for what she wants. The simplicity and clean look is what she wants.

Wednesday, 16 January 2013

Student Briefing Document.

Creative Brief for: Claire’s Cakes

Brief drawn up by: Claire White

Company Employee Contact Details:

Claire White

07595761848

clairebearscakesleicester@gmail.com, https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Clairebears-Cakes/110371029092593

Twitter = @clairebearsc

Project Objectives: to design and implement a clean stylish website, to raise my profile & gain more custom.

Background overview:

Clairebear’s Cakes was Established April 2012. I make my own cakes, for many different occasions. I like to use the internet to show what I am capable of making. I would like to raise the profile of my business, I currently has 700 likes on Facebook. I would like to link my Tumblr, blog, Facebook & Twitter to the website. In the future, I would like to set up a tea room, although would like to create the website and awareness of the business first. My aim is to provide good service & satisfy the customers so they come back for more and hopefully recommend me.

What is the purpose of the product?

“My customers can now view my gallery of cakes and occasions and order them whilst word of mouth will raise my profile”

Target Audience:

The main audience is typically females aged over 20, wanting cakes for their children, friends and partners. I will often word my status’ on Facebook to relate to the audience, for example knowing valentine’s day is approaching I will use this to sell more cakes. Cakes can be brought from many different businesses so mine needs to stand out and if using rapport with the audience they will want to use me again & hopefully spread the word about the business. Women are much more likely to do this than men.

What is the single most important thing to say? “Clairebear’s cakes, a taste of heaven.”

What kind of relationship will you be looking to establish with the student? Living in the same village we can meet up quite often, once a week if needed to discuss ideas and if any work is needed after University course has finished then updating the site and any other websites needed, I’ll be happy to ask.

What is the deadline?

The university deadline is 22/03/13. Claire is fine with this also being the deadline for her.

1) 21/01/2013 meet to discuss about the business and what Claire wants.

2) 28/01/2013 look at moodboard, wireframes and colour theme ideas to see if they fit with what Claire wants. Any mock ups of the site to be shown too.

3) 11/02/2013 home page & about page should be complete, present and discuss.

4) 25/02/2013 gallery of cakes and contact page to present & discuss.

5) 11/03/2013 present final product, any changes or amendments to be made at this stage

6) 18/03/2013 deliver final product, in plenty of time for university deadline.

Other notes: Business card has been given for logo & colour theme ideas to use.

A check list provided for the student”

Do they have sufficient reference sources: previous ads, brochures, competitor ads, books, videos or Web sites? Yes

Do they have contact info / links to people, research or resources that can help the creative team? Do we need a supplemental brief / info for a long format, social media, direct response, or new business pitch project? Yes

have we made it clear what must be in the communication, and what might be in the communication? Yes

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Artefact 1. Questionnaire.

For my first artefacet I have chosen to produce a questionnaire to give to business owners on what extent do local businesses use the opportunities of the digital world, to advertise their business?

Going to go around leicester city & villages with the questionnaire and get as many results as possible, also going to ask a varied of different sectors within businesses to get a wide range of results. Questions I want to find out

What is the main reason companies use the internet for?

Will it differ depending on the industry of the business?

Does when the company was established have any affect on the amount of internet usage?

Is social networking now a necessity for a business to be successful?

Monday, 14 January 2013

Claire's Cakes

my external client is from a woman near my vilage who wants a website creating for her cake/baking business. I didnt really want to do a cake site but the other options were for people I knew which I also didnt want to do as I felt they would be too easy on me as they are my friends. I had some other offers for companies such as carpets, sheet metal but thought I could do more with a cake site so have finally got a client.

p.s i HATE the name of the business "clairebears" but she won't change the name of this as she said she feels quite established from that.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Clairebears-Cakes/110371029092593?fref=ts

Friday, 11 January 2013

External Client

Put an advert in the shop I work in and left a few tweets to have some options for clients. Think i'm going to go with someone who approached me a while ago about making her a site. Really want to get a head start on this project to allow time for artefacts and any changes on this site if needed.

Tuesday, 8 January 2013

Back To Deadlinessss

back at uni, still awaiting research results but did ok for exhibition images context 3 with a 2:1 :)

not half as much workload this term, client presentation due in on the 31st jan, final project and evaluation on 22nd march.

artefacts for research to be done throughout the term with presentations to be shown in tutorial with Simon.

Friday, 7 December 2012

Finished Client

















Areas of strength

I think I have understood the brief well, I now have good knowledge on ATRG and the products they produce and hope this comes across through the website. I have created a scrolling 5 page site which gives the user a sense of facilities on offer, sense of the expertise, staff and student and are left with the lasting impression of the tag line I created and Twitter and Facebook details.
I researched well into this project before creating the site, looking at sites for inspiration, creating mood boards, logo ideas, colour themes and wireframes to see what would best fit into the concept of the website. I have used many different skills to construct the site, Photoshop,  Dreamweaver, JavaScript, HTML5 and JQuery.
I have blogged all my process from start to finish, from very first initial ideas to the finished project. I have shown the ideas I had, why I applied them to the work, how it worked, if it didn’t work so well – for example using a light box gallery to show images didn’t have the effect I thought it would, as it became very boring for the user looking at very similar photos of the textile machinery.
The finished product of my site, I personally feel meets the assignment brief soundly. I think the logo and tagline are effective, the font used fits well into the theme of ATRG. I’m glad I kept to the idea of having a scrolling site, considering the site is aimed at an audience of whom are research students/researchers who are interested in the group and want to join as a career and crucially prospective investors, the site has to be informative yet contemporary. The scrolling gives it slight edge to the standard 5 page site.
I particularly think the contact page is effective in terms of the ability to contact ATRG but also the lasting impression of the Twitter and Facebook page, placed on the contact page and then again on the footer, both being at the bottom of the scroll page so the user can’t be distracted away from the site until they have covered all the pages.
My site is compatible with all browsers, although due to some JavaScript code it is best viewed in Firefox. The interactive experience leads to users having a lasting positive impression of ATRG.


Areas to improve

In terms of improving my work, I would like more of a better text and image ratio. I do think there is a lot of text in each section but the purpose being to inform the user to ATRG and the facilities, I found it hard to achieve this without so much text.
I did have a textile colour theme I found on AdobeKuler but because of the background  changed to, only white worked well with is as a background so the other colours had to change to fit to this and I don’t think it works quite as well, maybe looking a little dull.
I found it quite difficult at first creating a site for a client whom I knew very little about, so had to research quite a lot into ATRG until I could understand fully what they did.
Seeing my peers final product, I would have quite like to have the timeline on the site, however I feel this would have fitted the brief of what we have done more than mine of where we are now better, I would like an element to show information other than just text.
I did initially want a theme for the site, a modern world science feel shown with colours, images and text to engage the audience, creating curiosity but at the same time creating user awareness.  The science theme was hard to create due to the codes not working for moving the background .I think the site no longer has a theme but more of just this is ATRG site.


Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Facilities Page & Images

Javascript on images for facilities page, did create a light-box but it wouldn't work properly with a code from the scrolling and looked quite boring for the user to scroll through lots of images of machines. Decided to add Javascipt code for changing images on this section and it works a lot better.

Images I plan on using to show the facilities of ATRG:











Monday, 3 December 2012

Contact Page

contact page for ATRG, think it completes brief with the user being left with the lasting impression of the ATRG and it’s Facebook, Twitter and website details.



in terms of the ability to contact ATRG the user is able to message for any information and also have the lasting impression of the Twitter and Facebook page, placed on the contact page and then again on the footer, both being at the bottom of the scroll page so the user can’t be distracted away from the site until they have covered all the pages.

Sunday, 2 December 2012

Saturday, 1 December 2012

1 week To Go

submitted my context :) feeeel ok about it, feel the rationale explained why I used the images well.

research on about 2000 words.. still need to reference all my work & add more to discussion and do abstract.

Client, almost done then going to blog & justify everything Ive done & why

slowlllly getting there.