Introduction to iWeb.

Using iWeb we were instructed to create a website. The website I made met the brief provided as it contained; a black background, the sites name (The Southern Consortium and has the five pages, three of which were suggested (News, Events, Blogs) and the manditory homepage. All five pages are linked successfully to one another, however, I did encounter problems; I wasn't able to properly experiment with the software or add any information to the pages. Also, when I linked the pages, fonts of certain pages were smaller and/or of a different colour for no apparant reason.

11th October 2010.

How did you use your iconography research and web page analysis' to inform your homepage design plans?

My mood board gave me ideas for the home page, like what to include (things such as downloading opportunities, communication websites etc.). It also helped me decide on the types of fonts I would use, I could choose between block fonts (as seen on other artists website) or graffiti fonts (concerning the genre of music, and my research on logo designs.). It also helped me decide on colours and even particular images (background etc.)

Research on Professor Green's official website, though it is itself effective, using all the conventions, helped me decide what I would and wouldn't include. For example, I've chosen not to lay it out in the same way, rather drawing inspiration from Eminem's website, not wanting it to be too similar to my chosen artist.

Analysis of Professor Green's Homepage.

Professor Green's Homepage as a whole;

As a homepage, Professor Green's is very effective as it sticks to typical conventions. Its layout is simple and enables any viewer who accesses this site to navigate around it easily enough. The whole site is laid out in a particular way which makes information easy to access and read the necessary information. Cleverly, this site taps into viral marketing as the link to it can be passed around amongst friends, thus giving it more viewing, there are also displays of videos from the artists, meaning existing fans and others who are linked to the website can listen to Professor Green's music. There are also other ways which are given, such as downloading the album from itunes (seen in the top left hand corner), appealing to the fact that many people (especially Professor Green's fans) use technology. There is also a very conventional use of text through out this page, giving viewers the necessary information, tapping into the existing fans of the artist who want to connect with him and even using the text to draw a potential audience member/fan in.

As an artist Professor Green doesn't have an official/recognisable logo (though there is a specific font on his website, shown in the image on the right). Despite this, Professor Green uses his tattoo as a part of his image, the specific font on his website is quite similar to the font of his tattoo. The colour design of this page as a whole is rather interesting, it takes what a person would expect - the use of the colour green - and twists that, rather than making the whole thing vibrant (which would admittedly appeal to others, though sometimes younger people), it has a dark, more mature feeling to it, thus reaching out to his vast audience (being adolescents).

The use of a menu bar allows effective navigation around the site itself, allowing viewers to use these links to get to other pages on the website as a whole and access different kinds of information such as blogs, news, biography, gigs and video's. However, the lay out of this menu bar is quite different from the regular webpage's (taking Eminem's as an example where the menu bar is found at the very top), this draws attention to it and encourages viewers to look at other pages. A sense of community is created due to the page labelled 'members', perhaps those who have joined the site have access to certain things, encouraging people to join.

Analysis of Eminem's homepage.

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Analysis the homepage of Eminem's website.

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Audience Surveys/ Audience Profile.

Overall, we handed out 90 surveys to all years in our school and, we received 35.5% in return. Due to this lack of feedback, as is the danger of surveys, we decided to combine three genres, all of which are quite similar to one another; R'n'B, Hip-Hop and Rap. 22% of males who participated in this survey liked Professor Green whilst 43% of females who took part liked Professor Green. Although, in our survey, the percentage of females who liked professor Green was higher, as a group we have decided that we're going to try to appeal to males more in a video. Due to the lack of feedback, it is quite possible that our survey isn't representative of both genders preferences.
As a whole,59% of those who took the survey, accessed their music through the internet whilst 75% gained access to their music through the television. Of those who preferred the three genre's we have chosen to consider as a whole (or at least related to one another), 65% of them used the internet (39% being female and 26% being male) and 73% of them used television (47% were female and 26% were male).


Audience Profile;

John Webster is 15, and is still in full time education. In his spare time, he likes to access music through either the T.V or the Internet, spending a lot of his time using the both of them. His three preferred genres of music are; Hip-Hop, Rap and R'n'B due to their similar links to one another and the fact his favourite artists over lap.

The internet as a promotional tool.

Advantages:
Viral marketing; making information easier to access and granting the ability for a link to be passed from fan to fan.
Community; creating a sense of community for an already existing fan base.
Recognition; newer bands can use the internet in order to gain recognition, accessing the technological generation (many people using computers), pitching their music to a particular audience (unsigned bands on myspace).
Accessibility; the internet is widely accessed.
Technology; has advanced majorly, allowing more things to be done.
Image; allowing the band to represent themselves.
Conventions; using conventions in order to pitch to particular audience.
Audience; allowing them to reach a wider audience.
Contact; allowing fans to contact the band.

Disadvantage;
Hacking; could ruin this advertisement.
Technology failure; risk of the website crashing, which could then loose money.
False advertisement; viewers could be shown something that isn't genuine.
Server space; if there isn't enough space on the server, then what is promised cannot be provided, again loosing them money.
Communication; panic can cause troubles in communicating, making false promises.

Glossary.

Conventions and functions of a webpage;

Images - engage the audience and help them identify the web page content;
Information or text - inform the viewers.
Links - lead to other data.
Adverts or banners - promotes relevant information.
Design or colour scheme - particular photos display different things.
Logos or symbols - represents the site/product in such a way that viewers remember it.
Layout - easy to navigate the site.



A webpage is a single page of information where as a website contains multiple pages of information.