Going from the Target Audience - Content of the website
Due to family issues I was absent for week 2 and 3 which isn't good but I knew in the lesson I would be able to catch up as I had the determination and drive. As a person, I don't like how people in groups don't agree and spend too much time making decisions on things which aren't very important, which is why me and Kate our in a group because we're both like this and are direct people.
After doing my research into target audiences and finding a result I wanted (kids/teens using smart phones). Me and Kate agreed together over a mind map that this was the best target audience for us to aim at as we want to have a cheesy theme to the website to make it fun and silly (both of us like to have fun and creating a professional business website just isn't us yet).
Now for the topic of the website. We both thought about this for a few seconds and we both had the same thought that it should be about internet safety on smartphones for kids as this is a very fresh and current issue going on in the western world as most teenagers have a smartphone but as it's so current for that age group to have smartphones there isn't much help out there, plus us millennials have the best knowledge on this as it is current for us.
Topics we want to cover on the website:
- E-safety
- Password Protection
- Fun/Games/Education
- Cyber Bullying
- Social Media
- Parent/Guardian Safety
Looking at E-safety websites for kids/teens we noticed that all of them had a banner on the website which is displayed on each and every page. That made us decide that we would need to have a banner on our website which will be on the left side of the page, this creates a uniform for the website which is needed.
Things which should be in the same place on every webpage:
- Logo
- Website name
- Banner
- Navigation bar
- Contact us at the bottom of the page
Back to the banner....
We both agreed that our banner should be a slogan esc type thing. The main thing about our website is Esafety on smartphones so we have decided on the word 'SAFETY' as its easy to remember and think of as well as stay on topic. We also thought it would be cool and fun for the target audience if we played on each letter of the word 'SAFETY'. Here is what we have decided our banner to appear like:
- S mart phones
- A dvice
- F reedom
- E xplore
- T een
- Y our control
This is what we want to show to the audience what we do in 6 simple points. I personally think this is really effective, informative and fun.
Me and kate being very direct people, we were on fire this week and were making decisions super quickly and then moving onto the next stage as we didn't want to waste our own personal times as we both work many hours in our jobs outside of uni.
Deciding on the content of each page and their page names:
Names of our pages:
- Home
- Teen Safety
- Cyber Bullying
- Parent/Guardian Safety
- Contact Us
These pages are very informative, you know what you're getting with each title and they're diverse to help specify what help the audience may need. We know our target audience is kids/teens but we have added a page for the parents/guardians because we know that parents now-a-days try their most to control their child's safety online and our target audience (kids/teens) can take their parents/guardians to this page to help with their safety on smartphones to give them independence as help the parent and child's communication.
Coming up with a website name was super super easy. We thought back and fourth with 3 or 4 names which made no sense but we knew we wanted the name 'TEEN' in the title. We ended up going with 'TEEN HOTLINE' because we were on google looking at words associated with phones and we made a joke about 'hotline bling', the song but music artist Drake. We heard the word hotline and both looked at each other and said ' Teen Hotline' which is memorable, easy to think of, on topic and a little cheesy (aim for our website due to the target audience).
Logo Design
Moving onto an initial logo design for our website. Experimenting with logo's and colours was crucial and needed for me and Kate to do so we both created these rough logos together so then we would be able to get a better focus and direction on what we want from a logo and what we can both agree on. Personally I think the creative aspect of a website Is where most people disagree on and wastes time to compromise with others to get an end result.
After getting a main logo we're both happy with, we played with colour to see where this would take our logo. In result to this we have both decided that I am quicker with logo design and working on illustrator, so I will start a new logo based on this design and colours used with my own twist and design.
Once I have done this I can meet up with Kate and discuss which aspects she likes and which she wants me to take back and manipulate more so I can get the perfect end logo.
So we started by creating a design on paper, which is great because neither of us are very experienced with illustrator or digital drawing, therefore paper is best at this moment in time. As you can see on the right we have all of our designs created on illustrator, I think we did a really good job here as this design on paper looks identical to the one we created in illustrator and it only took about 25 minuets to create our design and then another 10 to play around with colours.
During this logo design we have created, VJ told us that more successful logo's are created with 2 colours as logo's are simple but effective, if you over complicate it people wont be able to recognise it easily, understand it, memorise it or see it fully on a small devise. Me and Kate weren't too happy with this because we really like this design we have created and the colours experimented with. This means I will now go back to the drawing board and do proper research into our logo design.
On reflection of this starting logo design, I have gone onto Goggle and found an amazing website to help me focus on what makes a successful logo. The website I am now using as inspiration is:
http://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/pro-guide-logo-design-21221/3
This website has 25 top tips on how to create a successful logo, using examples from the top/most recognised logos in the world. From here I have initially learned that simplicity is best and the key to a successful logo. VJ informed me and Kate that using a wide range of colours in the logo will not work due to a company logo being viewed on mobile devices and using too many colours can impact people actually seeing the logo fully. At first I didn't believe him as I love design 6 the most in our initial designs but I now know that I will have to use a more simple colour pallet, maximum of 3.
What's Next?
I feel like I have some good independent research done for creating the logo and I am confident enough to start a new logo which I will create in Adobe Illustrator. From my research I have realised the initial logo designs me and Kate have created wouldn't suit a logo but it would suit a website image on one of our pages. So I will develop the initial design but not as a logo, therefore making two things at the same time which is needed and will be created quickly.
For the logo itself, I like the idea of having a smartphone as our website is about smartphones at is incredibly relevant to have a phone within the logo. I personally don't think wording should be used within the logo as it might be viewed on small devices which may not be readable. I want to use neutral colours (monochrome colours) as every successful logo is usually black/white/grey. I guess I have to have another play around in Illustrator as I can do all the research and designs I want but that will not allow me to be creative within Illustrator and let my personal creativity spark.