Visualisation diagrams - code and conventions

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Codes and conventions of visualisation diagrams - "effectiveness"

• The product - so that the audience knows/regonises it (£)
• The brand
• The name of the product
• House styles - 3 colours, san serif
• Slogan - (<5 words) used for branding to remember the brand
• Logo - branding, bold, bottom/top (eyecatching)
• Text to sell the product
• Product being used - see what it looks like
• Website URL, social media links - Shows digital naative audience and their habits (use ofsocial media) SYNERGY as the brand is beign cross promoted 
• Models - Ideal self/partner (pursuading to buy and use product) 
• Trademarks - Registered brand (audience can trust the products, has a good reputation) 

Annotations

Websites and Apps - they have pages

• What interactive features would be on each page with examples - photos, videos, sounds all linked to the brief
• Examples of how the layout and features would appeal to the target audience
• How the brand will be the same across all pages - colours, layout

Games - they have levels

• Scoring systems
• What each level would be like
• Interactive 
• Consept artist - designs the characters, levels 

Use key terms:

• Hierarchical structure
• Pages
• Links 
• Breadcrumb trail
• Sub pages

LO4: Site Structure Diagram

Conventions of a Website

• URL - website address
• Navigation bar - at the top of every website that allows you to browse content on the website
• Logos - so that it establishes the brand
• House style colours
• Name 
• Images or graphics
• Web banner - form of advertising (website owners get pay money to advertise as a form of revenue stream - appeal to your target audience)
• Legal disclaimers

Site Structure Diagram <-- might be asked to draw this in the exam or asked to evantuate (20 marker) 

A diagram that represents the navigation for the "end-user" when using an interactive product.  

Navigation - how you move / access different pages of an interactive product. Home page is the first thing that you see when you access a website and sub pages are the different pages that you can go to. e.g. Facebook's home page is the newsfeed but then the sub screens are things such as notifictaions, profile page, messenger, groups / events, friend requests. All the pages are linked together. 

End-user - Whoever is using the content once the content has been published. Target audience. Who the product has been designed for. 

Interactive (media) product - User or gamer physically operates and uses the product User physically affects the product and is normally something that you can touch like social media. Interactive media products force the end-user to engage with the product. Apps, websites, video games are all examples of interactive products. Websites are interactive due to the end-user have to navigate through different pages to find what YOU are looking for. You can write and add content to interactive products through chat features. Buttons allow you to go to different places, these are interactive. When buttons change colour or go in are called a hyperlink button which allows you to access all the different pages. Images are interactive as they grab your attention and allow you to be engages in the website or app. Videos are also interactive along with adverts. Everything you see in an interactive media product is an interactive feature as it keeps you attention. 

Question 7 & 8

The insert/brief will be 1 side of A4. - Read and COEI - maximum 5 minutes

Section B- towards the end of the exam

Have to draw two pre-production documents

• Visualisation diagram - sketch of the final product (poster, home screeen of an app, homepage if a website, DVD cover, mostly printed media products, advert, billboard, interactive product)
• Storyboard
• Script
• Site-structure diagram (site-map) - navigation for the website, game or app
• Use annotations - colour sceheme, font style, layout, appeal to audience
• Justify drawing - give reasons for why it looks that way 

LO3: Research Types

Primary Research- This involves gathering new data that has not been collected before. This type of research is something tht you have carried out yourself.

Questionnaires can be used to carry out this form of research, these are good at the information is being gathered first hand. Questionnaires are also usually cheap so quite cost effective and represent a large amount of the population however there is limited options so they dont represent everyones views and people may not be honest when answering the questions. Questionnaires are made up of many closed questions, these are tickbox answers yes/no). These provide instant information as they are NOT time consuming to analyse. A disadvantage of closed questions is that they offer limited detail and there is not that much information given. There are also open questions that force the audiences to give explainations to their answers to give the audience a deeper understanding on how to develop and improve the product or designs. Open questions are good at getting views and opinions. These however are harder to analyse and take a lot longer as answers contain more than one word. Closed questions are quantitative data. Open questions are qualitative data. 
Interviews are another form of primary research, these are good because they allow more detailed questions and are personal however they are time consuming so a large amount of interviews cannot be carried out and they can be costly as staff need to be paid to do the interviews. These are similar to questionnaires as they are asking people however are also similar to focus groups as they are personal and ask the information. Usually these are for magazines and newspaper which are carried out by a journalist. 

Focus groups are another form of primary research. This is where you gather a gorup of people that are from the target audience and then allowing them to give feedback. These people reflect the audience of the product. Verbal views are opinions are more detailed as you are working with a smaller amount of people so the answers are more focused. This is verbal feedback. Focus groups are very effective for audio-visual products ot things that are design based. Also they have the same benefits as interviews but are more cost effective and do not take as much time but are still time consuming as people need to be gathered and arranged for the focus group. Also as the information is verbal equipment is needed to record the focus group so that the feedback given can be analysed. They also provide a wider range of opinions. The disadvantages of focus groups are that people might disagree but people may more so just agree with the majority. This means that the research has now become bias. Focus groups arent anonymous. 

Surveys are different to questionnaires as this is a measure of opinions as this is not as detailed as a questionnaire. Websites such a Surveymonkey can be used to create surveys. These can be shared on social media platforms which allows wider audience feedback. Surveymonkey is easy to use and it is free, this is the same as a questionnaire. It also analyses data for you. People may not respond to your survey though. This will limit your sample of feedback. 

Secondary Research- Secondary research is research that you have not found out yourself but is something that you find it out from other sources. This could be looking at existing research and data. Secondary research is usually created by an expert or professional. These type of people have knowledge in specific subject ares. Research has already been done so there is less work to carry out.

An example of secondary research is books or acedemic journals, these are written by authors that have a specialism in the subject on hand. This is a crediable source. These resources can be found in libarys.
The internet is another example of secondary research, this has a wide range of sources that are easy to access.
Examples of secondary research:

• Magazines
• Tv
• Radio
• Documentaries
• Video
• Books/academic journal
• Internet

PQ- Identify and explain an example of secondary research that would be effective. (3 marks)

Brief: 

• Games-ed
• Game to educate children 
• 8 to 12
• British monarchy
• Entertains

A source of secondary research that would be effective for Games-ed to use as part of their research in order to create their game would be TV shows. They could watch something such as the TV series "Victoria". This includes the history of some of the histroy of royal monarchs such as Queen Victoria I. This is a form of effective research as the series is created by the BBC which is a reliable source due to it being a public service broadcaster, this means that it has a remit and is funded by public money so that they make educational programs. Due to the program not being a documentary but instead a period drama it means that the information in the series is not just fact based but also visual so that the uses of things like clothes for the characters to wear are historically accurate. In the program it is more just the story of Victoria's so the information is already not as fact based but the language would be simplified further for the target audience of 8-12 year olds.

BBC documentry

• Presented by historians
• BBC are reliable
• Information presented easier 

Books

• GCSE history book - effective as the information wouldnt have to be simplified that much as the book is not aimed at people too much older than the target audience
• Reliable source - written by a repitable author / historian 

Examining someone elses work (includes a different example of internet)

 example of secondary research that would help when making a game about the British Monarchy would be the Internet because the internet has a range of different websites and sources that is all free to view. An example of a website that would tell them about the British Monarchy would be a national history website that can tell you all about different royalty figures throughout history which would give Games-Ed the right information (it is a reliable source) so they can have true facts about the British Monarchy. Games-Ed could also use a history website that ends in dot org, dot gov or dot edu as these are reliable sources. Using this easy source of information it gives Games-Ed to easily take that information and simplify it so children from the ages of 8-12 can easily understand the information that is given to them in the game.

Relate to brief

1 mark- Identify

Specific examples

1 mark- Explain

Links to the brief, shows an understanding of secondary research
Improvements

Audience Research- Find out who your audience is. Looking at the audiences stereotypes as well as habits and consumption trends and seeing why they consume these things. This means that we can advertise and market to them. The more that is known about the audience means that they can be effectively targeted. 

Market Research- Looking at competitors and seeing what makes them successfull. Looking for trends in a particular market. What a women buying VS men. Looking at other people/companies who are competiton in the same market.
NRS- National Readership Survey (Looking at magazines and newspapers. Looking at ABC1 by putting audiences into groups based on lifestyle and disposable income.)
RAJAR- Radio Joint Audience Research (get the public to fill in online diaries of their radio habits for a wkk/month and then feed back to the radio station to plan broadcasting)
BARB- Broadcasters Audience Research Board (TV consumption- look at channels 1 to 5 (terrestrial), VOD consumption, digital and subscription, Freeview. Look at viewing figures for TV and know whos viewing what based on age, gender, spending power and can feed back to organisations like BBC, ITV, Sky. Research based on viewerships. Piracy - watching things illegally, the amount of people watching televsion has decreased due to there being more than one way of watching television. Timeshifting - watching after the original broadcast of the program.Can watch thing at our convenience. Range of devices to watch television where and how you want. Technology like VOD makes it easier to timeshift) 

Product/Production Research- The production team have to carry out research into the product itseld. It is done by collecting source material which are things that are needed to create the product. This depeneds on the media product. The production team also have to research how viable the project is going to be and look at the probability of the success to see if it is worth making. They also have to find locations as part of product research. 

LO2: Target Audience Factors

Target Audience Factors

It is imnportant to know who the product is aimed at so that the product can be developed with that target audience in mind so that the product will appeal to them. Likes and dislikes of the client are needed to make sure that there are more profit so that more people will feel as if they NEED the rpoduct. Audience Pleasures are appealed to. It is crutial that we know who the target audience are so that the content is appropriate for that audience. Sterotyping is relyed upon to help to design the product.

Demographics are different catergories/groups that an audience can be classified as.

• Social class / Social economic (Socio-Economic)
• Age
• Gender
• Ethnic Groups
• Psychographics - mental wellbeing, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours
• Geographics
• Sexual Orientation
• Mainstream Vs Niche - Mainstream- popular, appeals to the masses, the majority, wide audience (BBC1 - Eastenders people from all different backgrounds and represents everyone- reflects a diverse range of peoples lives) Niche - aimed at a small audience (BBC 2- Educational, for a middle class, upmarket, male audience.)

It is beneficial to know about the different demographics that need to be met so that the product can be more specific and aimed at the people that it needs to be aimed at. This means that there is more effective targetting

LO2: Tools To Identify Client Requirements

When identify the requirements of the brief there are key ways and tools to do this. These include:

Mindmap 

Definition:

• a diagram in which information is displayed with a central idea placed in the middle and associated ideas arranged around it.
• Ideas 
• Key terms

Advantages:

• Organise ideas in a visual way - more structured
• Non-linear
• Ideas are interchangeable and can be added 
• Can branch off of ideas

Disadvantages:

• Crowded with text
• Difficult to understand

Moodboard

Definiton :

• an arrangement of images, materials, pieces of text, etc. intended to evoke or project a particular style or concept.
• Shows concept designs, font styles, colour pallette, photos
• Collage used to generate/reflect a theme or mood
• Used to help you create ideas
• Visually represent what you want to do

Advantages:

• Gives a sample of ideas through images so clients can visualise the product
• Good to represent connotations you want to create

Blue-sky thinking

Definition:

• creative ideas that are not limited by current thinking or beliefs. It is original or creative thinking, which isnt constricted by convention and not grounded in reality. It is thinking outside of the box to generate ideas basedon a new concept or brief. It is a type of lateral thinking which is where everyone comes up with ideas at once from the top of your head. 
• A group of people
• Everyone will read the brief - key words, phrases, colours, shapes get written down on a piece of paper
• Gets used to finalise ideas
• Disney uses this when thinking of new concepts for their film- try and incoperate everyones ideas at some stage

Advantages:

• Simple and easy to do
• Not expensive
• Creative
• Everyones ideas are equal 
• Everybody has to contribute
• Fun
• Each person gets a say
• Job roles dont matter
• Good starting point- wide range of ideas

Disadvantages:

• Arguments
• Large variety of ideas so hard to sort and narrow down ideas
• Difficult to produce a final idea
• Feasible
• Physically organising ideas
• Hard to make sure people have an equal say and whether everyones ideas get written down
• HARD TO ORGANISE AND MANAGE

SWOT analysis

Definition:

• a study undertaken by an organization to identify its internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as its external opportunities and threats.

Strengths- (internal- in the company) - Strengths have that enable to make the product

• Personnel- Staff available
• Product- Advantages of the product
• Target Audiences- Advantages of working with that target audience
• Resources- Strengths of having the resources to help to make the product

Weaknesses- (internal- in the company) -

• Personnel
• Product
• Target audience- Stumbling blocks as a company with the audience

Opportunities- (external- outside of the product/company)

• Production company- if good commisioned to do more work which means more money
• Development of the product- Made in a different media, developed to 

Threats- (external- outside of the product/company)

• Competitors
• Timescales- COEI (contraint)

Advantages:

• Thinking about wider issues and as a whole
• Good at evaluating the project

Use all four of the techniques to show initial ideas to a client. Can be use to advise the client of what should be made. Initial ideas should be shown to the client so that it deosnt delay the production if they do not like the ideas and then have to rethink.