Feedback

Today I got feedback on my work (my main task, billboard and website) from my tutor and I was told that as it is she doesn't think there anything else that she can see that needs changing so now I am going to focus on my evaluation and making sure that I am totally happy with my product.

Website Pages

Home Page

Fashion Page

Beauty Page

The Magazine

Website Problem!

I went onto my website to make some more alterations and to check the look of it all together and my 'beauty' page was coming up as an error 404, despite trying closing, opening and re-logging-into Wix. In the end I've just had to redo the page which didn't take much time but was quite annoying. 

Today's Lesson

Today I am going to keep making alterations to my website as there are still some things my teacher suggested I alter that I haven't got around to doing yet. As well as this we are having feedback sessions with her so I will giver her the last alterations I did on y work to her for her to see if there are any other little changes that need to be done to my main task and billboard. 

Website Alterations

This lesson I received feedback on my website and I made some small alterations on my work based on the feedback that I got. I changed the format of the text on quite a few areas of my work, added in a subscription note and added in the prices and where to buy the products featured in my beauty page. As well as this I got some more seasonal pictures, having taken a couple of them from the photographer  that I know who has previously photographed my model for her own work and that I gained consent from to use her images. 

Today's Lesson

In today's lesson I want to get feedback on my website so I can get feedback on it to get the highest mark possible on it, I will also get my tutor to check the small alterations I have made to my main task and billboard. 

Time Management Update

Since my last time management post at the start of the month I have caught up with my original time scale somewhat. I am now nearing completion on my products, with only a few more alterations to be made to my website and then I can move onto my evaluation questions which I think will probably be started in late January/early February now.  

Comparing Changes - Double Page Spread

My double page spread required the least amount of alterations. On my third page all that I needed to do was move the clothing list slightly to the left as when you look at the fist image it is very close to the fourth page while there is a lot of empty space to the left of it. In the second image this has been changed and it seems much more centralised.
The fourth page as well only a slight alteration with the addition of a caption which I think helps break up the solid block of pictures. I think overall the feedback has led to a much stronger product and I will now use this as my final piece, after talking it through with my teacher to check there is no other areas that i could improve upon.

Comparing Changes - Second Page

In my feedback from my teacher on my second page it was noted that there appeared to be a lot of 'dead space' and so I filled this with a deal alert for the region I am focusing on. I also made the 'where to get' title larger and easier to see and highlighted the product names in a different colour from the rest of the text so it s easier to pick them out for the audience.

I think overall the feedback has led to a much stronger product and I will now use this as my final piece, after talking it through with my teacher to check there is no other areas that i could improve upon.

Comparing Changes - Billboard

It was mentioned in my chat with my teacher that my model's face was slightly blurry in the original piece of work which was quite distracting and made the work look a bit less professional. I took this criticism on board and used Smart Sharpen on Photoshop to sharpen the image (as you can see in the bottom picture). This has worked well to combat the blurry face and improves the overall look of the work. I also removed the 'Doll Up Magazine' logo at the bottom to give a more simplistic look. 

I think overall the feedback has led to a much stronger product and I will now use this as my final piece, after talking it through with my teacher to check there is no other areas that i could improve upon.

This Lesson

This lesson I have made a fair amount of progress in nearing my final products. I have made the alterations suggested to me by my teacher's feedback last week to three pages of my main product and by billboard ancillary task so I have achieved what I wanted to get done this lesson. Next week I plan on submitting these bits of work again for some final feedback, but I primarily want feedback on my website as this is the one area that I haven't had any on yet and I am feeling least confident about. 

Changes to my Billboard

It was mentioned to me by my teacher that my model's face was slightly blurry in the billboard I presented to her before so I have used Smart Sharpen on Photoshop to sharpen the image and I think this has worked well on sharpening her facial features slightly. 

My teacher also mentioned it may be worth removing the magazine name at the bottom to make it even more simplistic and I have done this and I think I may keep it this way as the website name tells us it is a magazine and if they don't get it from the term 'mag' in the url then the element of enigma may intrigue them to further research it. 

One last thing that was mentioned to me when I received feedback on my billboard was that it's not clear that the model is sitting on the horse, although I know this because I have seen the other pictures where she is in a similar position, and the full image this is from. She suggested that I might want to remove the horse, and I did consider this, however, a lot of billboards use enigma to intrigue the audience and I think that this could be one of the elements that acts as an enigma for my work. 

Changes to my Fourth Page

The feedback from my teacher mentioned that this page looked a little bare, especially as it has the focus image of my dole page spread on it. To fix this she suggested that I add in some sort of caption to my work, and that's what I have done here. As well as adding the caption in I have also added a small piece of text in the top left hand corner which tells the audience who the photographer and model were for these photos. 

Model Tag

 

It was suggested to me that I add in a tag line of the model's name and maybe a reference to the fact this is a beauty page, however, I wasn't sure whether it really added anything to the page. Here you can see a comparison between with and without this tagline.

Personally I prefer it without the tagline as I think it makes it look cleaner and more professional, however, I do think it would be best and the most professional if I credited the model so I'm going try out a few ways which I could do this and see what I like the most and what I think looks the best with my page. 

Today's Lesson

In today's lesson I am going to continue making changes to my work based on the feedback I have received from my teacher in order to gain the highest grade possible. 

Changes to my Second Page

It was suggested to my by my teacher that I change the layout of the product list to look more like a currently existing one which she found on the internet, this existing one aligned the text to the left and has the product names highlighted in a different color to make it easier for the audience to identify them. I thought this was a good idea and so I have added it into my work. It was also mentioned that the title of the "where to get" section was quite small which I agree with so I have made that larger and I will edit the font when I am on my edition of Photoshop to a desired font, as I have some that aren't available on the college version, to make it stand out more than it does at the moment. 

It was also suggested to me by my teacher that I might add a tag box to indicate who my model is, maybe with a little caption. I have done this as you can see here but I'm not sure that I like the effect it has and I think it makes it look a little messy and cluttered in that area of the page so I'm not sure that I'm going to keep this alteration.

The last thing that was mentioned to me about my work was that there seems to be a lot of 'dead space' just under the picture but before the product list, and I agree with this. One thought I have had about this but not done yet is to move up the products and at the bottom of the page have a small list of regional offers on some of the products in the list and or other products I think my readers will be interested in. 

This Lesson

This lesson I received feedback on my altered work, where my teacher made a few comments on little bits that I could change from each page, as well as my billboard. I didn't get feedback on my website but I intend to in next Thursday's lesson after I have made a couple of extra changes to it because I wasn't happy with it the way it was today. A couple of the changes she suggested she didn't know if I'd want to do for definite but I will try them out to see if I think they improve the overall aesthetic of my work.

Visual Record of Updates to My Work

Here I have kept a visual diary of changes that I have made to my work, these include picking and altering my website, changes that I have made to my main task and billboard, along with blogposts I have made on time management and feedback that led to the changes that I have made. 

Billboard alterations

I received feedback on my final decision of my billboard from friends and all of them mentioned that the white writing on a light green background was quite hard to see on a computer scene (how my final product will be presented) and so I took this on board and added an outline to the writing that had been placed on top of colors that made it hard to read. When printed this change is very obvious and I think it would be easy enough to read without the outline if it were a real billboard, however, on the computer the outline makes a huge difference and makes it much easier to read. 
In addition to adding an outline I have also changed the size of the small name tag in the corner as I thought it being so big was quite distracting. 

Aims For This Lesson

My aims for this lesson are to print off my main task and hand it in to the teacher for feedback and also make alterations to my billboard that need to be down and print that off and hand it in for feedback. I also want to sit with the teacher and get feedback on my website as I feel that I am about done with it. 

Getting Along With Wix

As part of my AS coursework last year one of my tasks was to create a website, much like this year. However, last year I was on a different exam board and they take all coursework in physical form and so I used Adobe Dream Weaver so as it was able to be transported to the examiner on a disk. This year however, I am having to use Wix which works very differently and I was a bit worried about using a new program. 

However, I was surprised at how easy it is to use, Dream Weaver has required a lot of time and effort to create even the template for my work, whereas Wix has pre-made templates ready at my disposal. Although it was a little fiddly to begin with getting used to a new program it has been very easy to use and I think I have gotten on very well with it and hopefully have created a good piece of work with it. 

Time Management Update

I had aimed to have all of my main task and both ancillaries completed by the end of the christmas holidays, with some leeway on my ancillary tasks to be completed in the early part of the next term. I have so far kept up with this time line and have completed my main task and website ancillary I think but I just need to get some feedback from my tutor on it and I need to make a couple of minor alterations to my billboard that were suggested to me by friends.