Evaluation

From my point of view, I think that my website would be effective if it was a finished product. I think this because I had copied aspects such as the colour scheme from the original eBay website that my client had made. However, there were some aspects of the software that I used to create the website that makes it difficult to evaluate my product fully. For example, I can preview my website in Adobe MUSE but each time I do, the buttons move around the screen and are not in the places I originally put them in. This means that I do not know if my website will look the same in preview when I upload it online. While making my website I learnt a lot about how websites are made to comply to a specific target audiences’ needs and also how to use the Adobe MUSE software – although, my knowledge of the software isn’t as expanse as I would have liked it to be, meaning that I was unable to do complicated and interesting interactive elements in my website design.

The reason I chose my specific idea was to help my sister’s fiancé was interested in making his company have an actual website. He told me about what his company was based around – printers/ printer supplies and I thought that it sounded interesting, as it is loosely similar to media.

I think that my idea was very successful and would have made an interesting and helpful final product if I had finished it. My idea would have been helpful for my client as they where using eBay originally – which meant that people had to find them through this online shopping site.  I am pleased with the website flow that I had sketched as it allowed me to put into perspective what assets and information I would need to get from my client which made it very easy to start making my website. However, I did run into some problems when I was planning how to make the banner look the way that the client wanted. As I progressed through the project I still didn’t know how to make it so I spoke to my client and they agreed that they would not mind having a plain black banner with the logo and buttons on.

My research into professional websites helped me plan the flow of my pages, when I researched the BBC News website, I was able to look at the flow from page to menus and how each paged linked to each other. The BBC website had the same background for most of its pages which is an aspect I stole to prevent the audience from being overwhelmed by the constant change of colour of picture. As well as this, I made sure the the main navigation buttons where at the top of the page and the sub menus where down the side like the BBC and Jessops websites. This was very helpful research as I was struggling on planning my website design due to the client's website being on eBay – the sub menus were not laid out very well as usually the user signs into eBay before they buy something. The Jessops website that I analysed where helpful as they allowed me to roughly plan what the sub menus and purchasing menus would look like.

My planning involved researching into the target audience for my website, from finding out how many males and females live in Thetford (this place specifically because this is where my client's warehouse is based) I was able to find out that 61% of people had a desk job which means that they are likely to be in an office with a printer (or some sort of photocopying machine) which means that people around Thetford are likely to visit my website to buy attachments and ink for their products. I feel that the target audience of men and women from the age 25 and upwards is the most accurate and appropriate for my clients business as these are the ages that are most likely to be needing documents printed in some way (at home or at a job).

Personally, I believe that my production was successful as I was able to complete a lot of my website in the space of about 2 weeks. This includes my assets and actually making my website an interactive product. When I got my peers to look at my finished product they told me that it looked like the “beginnings of a professional website” and that they would “consider using” my site if they where looking for printing supplies.

At the beginning of the project, I felt that I was unable to complete this website nor would I have started to make it look like an actual website. Although I did not finish the website, I believe that I have done an adequate job at making the website look legitimate which would satisfy my customers. Later in the project, I became concerned that I would not get anything done as I didn’t know anything about Adobe MUSE and it worried me that I would fall behind on work and complete nothing. However, after being taught small amounts about the software, I began to pick up the skills such as how to make buttons and hyperlink pages together and I no longer felt that I was falling behind. Finally, towards the end of the project I began to feel more confident that I would get all the paper work done and I feel that I have been successful in promoting the website and making it appeal to my target audience as well as follow the guidelines that my client wanted me to follow.

Overall, I think that the skills that I acquired in this project helped me create a suitable finishing product for my client. I think that I was successful at overcoming the problems that I faced when the project started as I did not know anything about Adobe MUSE and a lot of my production was trial and error, as I couldn’t make buttons or banners or hyperlinks.