Final EvaluationAyo Adetoye

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt a fair amount of things about technologies from the process of constructing this product.

One thing I have learnt is different ways of presenting my work to the public. Instead of just using text and image through the use of a blog (in my case it was blogger.com); I can create presentations. Through the use of Slide Share I can upload presentations I have created using such resources as Microsoft PowerPoint which is another technology. Other technologies I have learnt complement technologies such as Blogger and Slide Share include Microsoft Word. This is mainly used to complement blogger. The use of Microsoft Word allows you to create your document and simply copy it onto blogger so you can post it on your blog easily. Microsoft Word offers you many options from designs to fonts which blogger may not offer you.

The newest part of technology I had learnt about was Prezi. Prezi is another type of presentation software, however unlike Slide Share, Prezi allows you to showcase your presentation as if it was a movie as it moves from slide to slide. This is more effective way of presenting your work as it is more interesting.

The construction of this magazine has been mainly through the use of the adobe products InDesign CS3 and Photoshop CS3. Having been familiar with the uses of Adobe Photoshop CS3 for many years I hadn’t learnt anything new about this piece of technology. However the first time I had used InDesign was when designing my preliminary task. InDesign allows you to create columns for text and other things easily and quickly. I had learnt that it is better to do the contents page and double page spread in InDesign for the fact of the way text can be arranged and used in InDesign.

However when constructing images and editing them, Photoshop is definitely the better option due to the effects and editing tools it offers.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My preliminary task was a student magazine. Since then there is a lot about media I have learnt which has helped me improve the way I constructed my music magazine.

Something I have learnt from my preliminary task is the importance of organisation on a magazine front cover, contents and double page spread. When creating my magazine for the preliminary task I had trouble finding the correct style of organisation and layout for it. This lead to the page looking messy and unplanned. I learnt it is important to create effective mock-ups of my products before starting production, and once these mock-ups are created I should ask for advice from others or gain opinions on how it looks to make sure that it is what I want and it is the most effective way I could design the magazine. Having done this for my music magazine I was able to produce work which I was a lot happier with.

Another thing I have learnt looking back at my preliminary task is the use of different technologies. When creating the blog for my preliminary task I had based the majority of my work in the features available in my blog solely. However since then I’ve learnt the use of slide-share, prezi and other technologies. This allows me to present my work in many different ways making it more interesting for any one who would be reading my blog and allows me to show my knowledge of technologies. I also learnt and became more familiar with the use of Adobe InDesign which enhanced the way I was able to construct my contents page and double page spread as I was more experienced with the use of the features that the program provides; for example the effects.

Furthermore, I have learnt that using representations is a large part of drawing in your target audience. In my preliminary task the use of props that represented my target audience was kept to a minimum which didn’t allow my work to progress as it should have. Using props allows my target audience to relate a lot more to the magazine as they are props heavily associated with their social group. It also makes the genre of the magazine a lot clearer. This could make for more revenue gained as sales would rise in comparison to a magazine that shows no representations that relate to their target audience.