Research: Moodboard

Research:MoodBoard

In this post, I am showing two moodboards. A moodboard is basically something like a collage. The point of the moodboard is to collect images that inspire you and has something to do with the idea you have. For instance, my idea is to make a beauty website so I have searched different kinds of images that portray make-up, hair, body etc. 

My first moodboard is about make-up and fashionable accessories. 

  The second moodboard is about natural beauty. How to look after your hair, nails, face and body with both natural recipes and products on the shelf.

Research: Typography & Text

Research:Typography&Text

'Typography (from the Greek words τύπος (typos) = form and γραφή (graphe) = writing) is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible'.

Typography is part of design and how the audience interact with the website. Overall, I want my website to have a visual look and feel to it. In this post I will be researching different types of font, structure of the text and colours as I need to plan how my information will be presented and organised on my site.

I'll be doing primary and secondary research. First, I will be doing my secondary research that will consist of different websites that I have looked at. By analysing the different texts the websites have used will help me plan the right text I want to use for my website. I will be looking at how the information is being presented (such as colours, paragraphing, headlines, sub-headlines etc). The websites that I will be looking at are the same websites I have listed and showed on a previous post. The reason why I'll be using the same websites is because they all use different type of fonts, colours and the use of paragraphs. 

The first website I'll be looking at is ASOS. I chose this website because I like the way the text has been organised. It seems like there is a heading for example 'NEW YEAR'S EVE' which is bold and in capital letters. Below is a sentence that basically explains what this post is all about. The little information under the heading says 'Count down of the biggest night of the year with supercharged party pieces'. Right under it, it has the option to view the post, which is also in capital letters and bold to capture the reader's attention. It is readable and this is what I like about this. It not all 'chunked' up. 

SimplyBe's text doesn't satisfy me and puts me off reading the text. Firstly, I do not like the way the text has been placed, for example; 'FASHION' as part of the menu. I used SimplyBe's homepage to show an example of a 'chunked' text. It may not be a long 'essay' but the text are too close to each other, the font is very simple and not creative (even though fashion is a creative industry) and puts me off reading it or even using the website to purchase anything.

I used Photoshop to test out some of the fonts and colours. I have used at least four different fonts in this one. I have tested out the colours but I have tested out how to place the text. For example, the name of my website is OneonOneBeauty.com and the tagline is 'Look Beautiful. Feel Beautiful'. I wanted to use two different fonts, one for the heading and a different one for the tagline. I also used different sizes. Tagline would be a smaller size so the audience notice the bigger sized font as it is the name of my website. I like to keep colours simple. Other fashion and beauty websites I have seen usually use the colour black. I like to have a little bit of colour. So, I'll use pastel colours as they are very subtle instead of using bright colours as some readers can't handle bright colours and won't be able to read it. 

My Proposal

Multi-Media Production – My Proposal

INTRODUCTION

In the first term of this module, I will be producing a website and a blog. The blog will contain my research, planning and progress throughout the process of making a website. In my website I will try to use different combinations of different contents such as audio, still images, moving footage, interactivity and text. These contents make up multimedia. I will be producing a website by using software called Adobe Dreamweaver and this will help me create a creative website because of the tools in the software. I will also do primary and secondary research to produce an effective website.

CONCEPT & PURPOSE

The overall concept of the website is going to be based on beauty and fashion. In the past, I have taken fashion and textiles as a subject in college. I usually follow the new fashion trends, and interested in looking after your body. That is the reason why I want to create a fashion and beauty website is because I am very passionate about it. I haven’t figured out the concept in depth, but it is between a blog that contains fashion and beauty tips or a store that sells beauty products and fashionable accessories. The first idea will be about techniques that I will be doing. I will be uploading still images accompanied by text that has something to do with beauty or fashion. For example, I want to show the audience how to apply Halloween make-up. I will upload images of the make-up (example: the eyes) and explain step by step how to apply the make-up. After I could put the URL of the product I have used on my eyes. For fashion, I can upload new fashion trends. For my second idea, I was thinking to make a website that sells products such as jewellery, shoes and beauty products. For that idea, I will be contacting the fashion students in our University to volunteer to help. Their help will help the website as I can use their products that they have produced in my online store.

The purpose of the website is:

a)      Educating young and middle-aged women how to apply specific make-up techniques.

b)      Entertaining the audience with the festival make-up ideas (eg: Christmas).

c)       Helping audience with different fashion styles and colours that match their skin tone.

d)      Updating the fashion trends (eg: Linking it to Instagram fashion accounts).

e)      Boosting the audience’s confidence by beauty products and tips to have a natural look.

TARGET AUDIENCE

I have been researching websites that has something to do with fashion and beauty blogs and online stores.  In my previous experiences, the websites I have been looking at that has online stores are Boohoo.com and ASOS.com which are sites I am always on to find new trends and buy the new trends. Because I am a female who is 20 years old, I figured their target audience are similar ages. However, both online stores also target at males as they have a male section on their online store. Most websites that have blogs that have something to do with fashion and beauty always link it to their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages. Usually, people who are on those social network sites are teenagers that are between the ages of 14 – 25 (most popular age groups). I figured out that I want my website’s audience to be the same audience that ASOS and Boohoo target.

RESEARCH & TIME MANAGEMENT

So far I have done some of the research for my website, such as topics and different websites. I will continue the research as I am learning how to use different software such as Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Flash. I will also look at the HTML technique to create my web page. Before creating my website on Dreamweaver, I will research accessibility, usability, navigation, layout and typography. Afterwards, I will be updating my blog while creating my website.

PROJECT TIMELINE

o   Week 1 – Research different websites, concepts and think about a unique concept for the website. Start using different colours on Photoshop.

o   Week 2 – Start thinking and write proposal. The proposal needs to include a flowchart, moodboard, target audience, concept and purpose.

o   Week 3 – Start learning Photoshop and Dreamweaver techniques to apply to website. I can find some resources such as Lynda.com and YouTube videos.

o   Week 4 – Start researching about Dreamweaver in depth by taking books out of the Universities’ library. When comfortable, start to learn about Adobe Flash. Finish off the proposal and submit it on the study space online.

o   Week 5 – Start creating website.

o   Week 6 – Continue with website and blogging.

o   Week 7 – Upload the different combinations of contents (text, images, videos, etc.)

o   Week 8 – Start searching which social network I want to link with.

WIREFRAME

FLOWCHART

MOODBOARD

Research: Topics

Research:Topics

In this post I am going to be discussing different topics and themes that interests me. In my previous post I was analysing different websites, the majority of the sites that I have been looking at have something to do with fashion and beauty. However, some websites contained products for sale and others are just fashion and beauty tips. I have researching online stores such as Asos, H&M, New Look, Boohoo and many more to figure out if I want to release a website that contains products for sale. Other fashion and beauty websites I looked at are blogs that are released by journalists and successful 'YouTubers' who post on their blogs about beauty tips, make-up tutorials and reviews. 

Fashion Boutique: 

This is one of the topics I am thinking to do on my website. I am interested in producing a fashion store online because I love fashion. I follow fashion trends, I also like to lead fashion trends. Fashion is a big part of me, because it helps me express my feelings. Since fashion and my fashion sense is so important to me, I always find myself on websites such as Asos and Boohoo looking at products. Not only I look at products, but I always look at how the website is designed because it creates an atmosphere. 

Creating a website for a fashion online store is going to be challenging. Before even thinking about making a fashion online store, I'll have to contact the fashion and designing head lecturer so students can feature they're creations on my website. After contacting the students, I'll have to search for the best outfits that I want to feature on the websites. Not only that, but I will also be on the search for volunteers who will model the clothes. 

As much as challenging this might sound, it also excited me because it is something that I am interested in and something that I love doing. 

Beauty Blog:

This one is less challenging than the other topic. This topic is about a blog that dicusses make-up, hair, how to maintain your beauty, reviewing products and beauty tips. I have looked at many blogs that discuss beauty and make-up. The website that inspired me to produce a website that discusses beauty is beautyandmakeupblog.com which is amazing. The topic and theme is great, so is the design, accessability and navigation. The website also had a section for fashion, which is a bonus for me. 

Research: Websites

Research:Website

Firstly, I'll be researching different kinds of websites to help me figure out what kind of website I want to make. I'll be looking at websites that interest me such as; fashion, beauty and music. The reason why I am going to start looking at different websites is to analyse if the website is easy to access, how interactive it can be and the design. Hopefully I will come across different types of accesability, interactivity and designs to compare the sites I dislike and like.

My first website I checked out is Asos. Asos is a fashion online shop which I absolutly love. The reason why I love it beside the garments they sell is the design of the web. The thing I like about the design of the website is the layout and the way they used the colours. There isn't much colour to the homepage of Asos, but it is quite clever how they use the colours. The picture on the homepage is black and white, background is white and the text is also black and simple. Everything looks simple, and the name of the company 'Asos' is visible. It isn't hidden, it also doesn't need a bright red colour to be 'in your face'. On the site there is a little brief about Asos and the company. It is a short text, not an written essay. It explains what Asos is and its purpose. Right away the blue box caught my attention, and this is also another clever technique they used. Putting a bold, bright and colourful box around a simple design makes that person/customer instantly look at it. The reason why the chose such a simple design and one colourful feature is to direct that customer into buying products from the online store.

 This image is another screenshot of Asos homepage. I wanted to analyse this part of the website because it is a great example of accessability, usability and navigation. There are four different pictures with four different purposes. The four images naviagte the customer to four different pages such as fashion blogs and a page to download the Asos magazine (digital copy). Below the four pictures are eight icons that you can click on to access Asos' pages on different social networks. The image right under is a screen shot of  Asos Twitter page. I was navigated by pressing on one of the icons on the Asos homepage. This takes me to an entirly different website which is Twitter, a social network that is used by companies, celebrities and recently the 'norms'. This boosts up Asos' business by selling products to followers and updating their new fashion products on their website.

Moving onto another fashion store online. The reason why I am looking at a different fashion store website is to compare it to the Asos website that I analysed. This website is SimplyBe which is a fashion store online. The reason why I picked this website to compare it to Asos was the layout, text, colours and the navigation. SimplyBe's homepage is cluttered with a lot of text and too many colours. I feel a little overwhelmed by looking at their website. However, there is a positive thing about this website, the accessability and usability on this is amazing. The access on this website is quite large. For example, on the website you can access your basket, access another page to request a catalogue, how to contact SimplyBe and videos. However, the way it is layed out on the web is too cluttered. Layout is not the only problem, but the text too. The problem about the text is the typography. The appearance of the text and the style doesn't really encourage me to buy any products, or I would want to quickly buy my product and leave as quick as I can. The reason why I checked out this website is to avoid the techniques and try to focus on design as it is important.

Moving onto a different website with a different aim. This website I just discovered through the fashion stores (Asos and SimplyBe) is Pinterest which is a blogging website for business and everyday life. The reason why I looked at this website is the design.

Pinterest is a website where you can "pin" up images that you want to share with other Pinterest accounts. These pictures that you pin up are pictures that interest you and might interest other people. I like this website because I like how simple it is. An image in the middle and a little menu on the side to navigate the people who use this website is something I would want to do for my website. The reason why I like websites that are simple (as in simple colours, not many colours, not many images and simple typography) makes it easier for me to spot the access that want to go to.

This is the sort of website I am looking for. I mentioned that I was looking at websites that interests me. What interests me are music, make-up and fashion. I love to discover new fashion trends and make-up techniques in my own time. This website is a blog for fashion and make-up. The person is a freelance writer that is obsessed with make-up and fashion. This website is beautyandmakeupblog.com which was launched for more than five years or so. The reason why I love this website isn't only because we both share the same interest but because it is readable, the design is presentable and the accessability that this website provides. Reading these posts are comfortable and a pleasure because of the typography, the use of colours and how interactive it can be. This is the home page of the website, and a little window pops out which makes the website so interactive and that is what I want from a website. The window that popped up is to attract readers to sign up for the free daily newspaper. I feel like another person is interacting with me, its like serving a customer or looking after the reader to keep that reader intrested in the blog and articles.

This is the homepage of the website, again there are some thing that makes this website interactive. Before I analyse the interactive part of the homepage I want to discuss the design of this homepage. The layout of this home page is a banner that changes every five seconds to a different kind of cosmetic.

Once you start scrolling down the webbsite the recent posts come up. This is some sort of accessability aswell, we can access recent posts on the homepage without clicking away to get to that destination. This is an image of Bohemian Republik which is a cosmetic brand. This is a review on four different nail varnish. She writes a brief summary of the new cosmetics that have been released. She uses them, takes photos of her nails with the cosmetic on and write her own opinion about them. It is like she did our research on products for us. However, if I had to make a website about make-up reviews etc I woud like to have a homepage and a menu that pops up to navigate the reader to their destination. Even though this is more accessable, I find design and appearance is very important to me, so that is the only critsism I have for this website.

Like I was saying above, I prefer a menu popping up and it navigates me to my destination. This is what I am talking about, I like the way it has been designed. For example, the grid that has 'hair' has an image of her hair. It is easy to read, it is presentable and caught my attention. I also love the way the pictures are filtered because if all eight pictures were in colours it would be too much and clashing. It compliments the other colours on this page such as the pink font where it highlights the word 'catagories' which tells me that I am currently looking at the catagories. I also like the little search engine that is next to the menu. Again, this is great accessability and usability. On top this also navigates readers to other websites such as FaceBook and YouTube to follow her group page and to watch tutorial videos.

Zoella is a website by Zoe who is a make-up fanatic and shares her techniques and tutorials on YouTube. After receiving positive comments and many views on her YouTube videos she created her own website. Her website is about tutorials she made on YouTube, with pictures of the products, pictures of her final look and explaining the process and reviewing the products that she used in her videos. I chose this make-up blog to compare it to the other blog above. First let me start with the design. The colours used is quite colourful but it isn't distracting because of the light tones that are being used on this homepage. They aren't 'loud' colours, they are pastle and it is quite simple but not plain. I love the polka dots in the background. I usually dislike random patterns as a background, however it goes well with the little splash of colours in the middle. Layout bothers me a little bit. Comparing it to the other one, there was so much accessability and it was organised. There isn't many pages that we can access on this website like the other website above.

Anlysing these different websites with different purposes has helpt me think about the design for my website, how accessible it can be, how to navigate users to their destination and to interact with the audeince. In the near future I will be releasing more posts to help me write my proposal and to produce my website.

Introduction

Introducing Multi-Media Production

Second year of my Media and Cultural Studies course, I have enrolled to a course called Multi-Media Production. Multi-media is a media and content that uses different combinations of different contents. The different contents are ;

- Audio                              - Still Images
- Interactivity                     - Animation
- Moving Footage              - Text

In this module, I have to create my own website accompanied by daily posts on my blog. For my website, I need to apply accordingly design principles and artistic concepts which include colour, layout, composition, typography, time, movement, interactivity and sound. The softwares that I will be using to create the website are used to be easy for usability, readability and accessability. The blog will be used to evaluate and update my research, plan and post-production.

So what is Multi-Media?
Process of the creation of new media by using different channels.
Utilized more than one media, put together in a software. 

In three weeks, I will be researching and planning my website. Research will help me look at different websites and compare websites. Looking at samples of websites I will start looking at different colours, texts, layouts and sound. After researching I will be writing out my proposal and presenting it to the class so I can get some opinions and constructive critisisms. 

After researching and planning, I will be using Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Flash to create website and make it interactive as possible. After pre-production I will keep on updating the blog with steps and the techniques I have used to do this website.