Artefact Four – Image Association Evaluation

In my first artefact questionnaire, 10% of participants considered images a factor in initial reaction. Through further testing and questioning, it was discovered that images are a significant factor.

20 random people aged 18+ participated. Participants looked at six different brand images, indicating favourite and memorable images. The results were not surprising as  participants’ image choice is individual. However, presenting controversial images impacted considerably on the results.

To the question, “Please indicate which brand images you found most interesting”, 60% thought Benetton. The results were surprising. Participants thought controversial images were more appealing than noncontroversial ones.

Participants were asked; “Companies such as Benetton use controversial images that do not relate to their products. Would controversial content influence you to click on the image?” 55% said ‘Yes’, 30% said ‘No’. The results confirm the previous question’s results.

To the question, “Should controversial images be used in advertising”, 60% said ‘Yes’, 30% said ‘Have no opinion’. Interestingly, as in the previous two questions, participants found controversial images more appealing in advertising.

Participants were asked, “Would controversial images used in advertising bias you against a brand?” 15% said ‘Yes’, 85% said ‘No’. The results were surprising, but confirmed the previous question’s results. Controversial images are more appealing whether they relate to a product or not.

To the question, “You have looked at brands, information and images. Would images influence you to click on an advert?”, 90% said ‘Yes’, 10% said ‘No’. This was surprising presenting images and information, a mixture of controversial and noncontroversial images for the participants to choose from, forced the participants to  consider images in advertising in more detail.

Conclusively, the results were disappointing. Only 20 participants completed the artefact. Apathy is indicated in my fourth artefact as a factor in initial reaction.

Artefact Four – Image Association Analysis

Why did I create this Artefact?

This artefact was created to test participants initial reaction to images in advertising. Participants would look at different brands, how brands use images to promote products and services. Participants will be asked to look at brands who also use controversial image content in advertising campaigns. In my first artefact questionnaire 10% of participants considered images as being a factor in initial reaction in clicking on a advertisement.

All my artefacts have been designed to test for initial reaction in advertising, I found in my research document, through research and evaluation the findings to be inconclusive, on why people click on advertisements on social networks.

Who is my target audience?

As many people as possible that use social networks. I distributed the Artefact link, through social networks direct e-mailing and placing block posts. I also sent emails to all three-year multimedia students.

This is my fourth artefact I’ve had fairly good results on average 50 participants, enough to evaluate. However, the window of opportunity is extremely small, 1½ days to 2 days maximum and timing is also important for maximum impact. Participants social networks update minute by minute, if you ask participants to early or too late to take part the window of opportunity will be lost.

Another factor is apathy, 80 multimedia students who all have to create six artefacts 480 in total is difficult. Coming up with really good ideas that will engage the audience is extremely difficult, as well as being able to receive adequate results.

Questionnaire Results

Analysis

I have targeted my artefacts at a specific audience, people who use social networks. Through further testing and questioning, has indicated apathy in my fourth artefact as being a factor in initial reaction. In general participants have seen enough artefacts and questionnaires to last them a lifetime.

20 random people aged 18+ participated in the artefact questionnaire. Participants were asked to look at six different brand images, indicate favourite and memorable. There were no surprises to these results as participants image choice is very much individual. However, presenting controversial images did impact considerably on the results.

To the question, “Please indicate which brand images you found most interesting”, 60% thought Benetton. The results were surprising participants thought controversial images were more appealing than noncontroversial.

Participants were asked the question; “Companies such as Benetton use controversial images that do not relate to their products. Would controversial content influence you to click on the image”, 55% said ‘yes’ and 30% said ‘no’. The results back up the previous question participants found controversial images more appealing.

To the question, “Should controversial images be used in advertising”, 60% said ‘yes’ and 30% said ‘Have no opinion’. As in the previous two question participants found controversial images more appealing in advertising.

Participants were asked the question; “Would controversial images used, in advertising bias you against a brand”, 15% said ‘yes’ and 85% said ‘no’. the results were surprising, but backed up the previous questions results controversial, images are more appealing whether they relate to a product or not.

To the question, “you have looked at brands, information and images. Would images influence you to click on an advert”, 90% said ‘yes’ and 10% said ‘no’. These results were surprising presenting images and information, a mixture of controversial and noncontroversial images for the participants to choose from. Forced the participants to think about images in advertising in more detail.

Through this artefact, I now believe my question has been answered, What factors have the most effect on initial reaction to an advertisement, where a factor is content, interactivity, colour or sound.

As indicated in my research document there is no clear and consistent way of why people click on advertisements. Colour, images, interactivity, sound and font style are personal to the user. what I like and enjoy and engages me is completely different to somebody else, that’s why targeting advertisements to individuals through social networks can be difficult to achieve.

Knights Pharmacy Website development: Update

The client has now looked at the test page in more detail; refinements to the design were requested, the text to be made larger on the phone and e-mail icons.

Further pages were added; after the client had seen the pages the client requested amendments on the contact page. Heading, telephone icon and text and email context to be placed under each other. I explained to the client that the continuity of this page would look different. However, the client thought text and icons looked better with this configuration.

Contact information has been added as well as a contact form to be filled in by customers. The client requested a contact form because they wanted a simple form of contact for ease of access; they believe it is much easier for the customers to fill in a contact form rather than their default email program loading, which they may have never used. The contact form loads automatically when the contact button is clicked. Jquery was used to improve the design of the page; the client preferred this design element rather than have information boxes already on the page to be filled in.

However, there is the option to click on the email address, the default email program will load. This gives the customer the choice of which form of contact they prefer. Further amendments to the contact page need to be completed, text content and images.

Location page has also been completed after further reflection and analysis the client rejected the second Google map, which would have allowed the customer to use the Street view facility. This is because the street view map does not show the pharmacy’s premises clearly enough and would be confusing. However, the pharmacy has opted for a downloadable PDF with information about opening times, location maps and bus information, as the pharmacy is situated on a major bus route.

Services pages have also been added with text content, further amendments need to be made to these pages. I inform the client there does not seem to be very much text content, the pages look empty. However, when images are added the pages will look a lot better. Personally, I think some more text will make the pages look a lot better or if there is still only a limited text the information should be combined, on to one page.

Artefact Four: Image Association

Hi,

I would like to thank all those who have taken part in my research. I appreciate your help and support and thank you for your valuable contribution.

I am continuing my research, on what factors have the most effect on initial reaction to an advertisement. I would be grateful if you would take a few minutes to take part.

Artefact Link: www.sjcwebsitedesign.com/prp

I appreciate your help and support with this research and thank you for your valuable contribution.

Many thanks

Steven

Artefact Three – Text Font Styles Evaluation

I wanted to explore text font styles in initial reaction to  targeted advertisements. 47 random people aged 18+ participated in the artefact questionnaire.

In my original questionnaire, participants did not consider text font styles as being a factor in initial reaction. I thought that text font styles would have a larger influence on initial reaction than indicated. From further testing and questioning, it was discovered, however, that in fact text font styles was a significant factor in initial reaction.

I found it fairly difficult to come up with an artefact that would test participants’ initial reactions to text font styles. After some time, I developed the option where participants could change text font styles in three targeted advertisements from Facebook. The participants could change the following: background colour, font colour, style or size, by selecting the pull-down menus. This enabled participants to consider a number of changeable factors.

Participants were asked the question, “How important do you consider text font styles when clicking on an advert?”. 91% considered how easy the text is to read and 36% thought text as being a considerable factor in initial reaction. The results were surprising, as in my original questionnaire participants did not consider text font styles as a factor in initial reaction.

To the question, “You have looked at text font styles. Would text font styles influence you to click on an advert?”, 60% said “Yes”, 32% said “No” and 6% said “Text font styles would not influence me”. The results were  therefore surprising. Originally in the first questionnaire, participants had said text font styles did not influence them in initial reaction.

In conclusion, by giving the participants an option to change text font styles and asking specific questions, the participants  were forced to make  conscious decisions.

Knights Pharmacy Website development

Earlier this week I contacted the pharmacy with a link to the website development page. This is where the pharmacy will be able to see, the developments of the website.

Even before the website layouts had been approved I have shown the client, developments of different aspects of the website for example text resizing. The client required text resizing to allow greater accessibility, but didn’t know how they wanted this to look on the website. By showing the client different ways of using text resizing, through different test websites, this enabled the client to be able to see how it would work and understand the accessibility element. The client opted for a text-resizing icon that would increase or decrease the text font size. Click on “Change Text Size” a box would appear “small text” or “large text”. The client thought this icon looked a lot better than three A’s, or small medium or large text icons.

Because the text can now be increased or decreased in theory to any size, this design element has created some of its own problems. Content on each page has its own box, for alignment I’ve put height and width on the content boxers. This is because if anything is out of alignment it doesn’t look right on the page. However if I put height on the text content box, when the text is resized the text moves out of the box. By leaving the text box on the left-hand side, with no width, means the page is out of alignment because the text content is determining the height.

I have shown the client, when you change the text size this happens, the client did not want to compromise the design when the text was resized. Compromise: the text content has been moved to the bottom of the homepage, this means when the text is resized, the text will move correctly with the content box because there is no height set.

I also developed test websites to show the client how rounded corners would work. As some browsers do not allow rounded corners to work correctly using CSS for example Internet Explorer, the client rejected this design feature opting for content boxes without rounded corners.

Artefact Three – Text Font Styles Analysis

Why did I create this Artefact?

This artefact was created to test text font styles, as in my original questionnaire participants did not consider text font style as being  a factor in initial reactions to click on a targeted advert.

Participants were asked to look at three  targeted advertisements from Facebook where they were able to change the following: Background Colour, Font Colour, Font Style or Font Size, by selecting the pull-down menus. By changing the text font styles, if this would influence  participants to click on an advert.

Who is my target audience?

The target audience is the same as my questionnaire, as many people as possible that use social networks.

I distributed the Artefact link, through social networks direct e-mailing and placing block posts. I also sent emails to all three-year multimedia students.

Questionnaire Results

Analysis

I wanted to explore text font styles in initial reaction to  targeted adverts, in my original social network questionnaire participants did not consider text font styles as being a factor in initial reaction. The question was asked “what factors attracted you to click on the product or service that was advertised”, text font styles received no results. I thought that text font styles would have a larger influence on initial reactions than indicated. From further testing and questioning, it was discovered, however, that in fact text font styles was a significant factor in initial reaction.

I found it fairly difficult to come up with an artefact that would test participant’s initial reactions to text font styles. After some time I came up with the option that the participants could change text font styles in three targeted adverts from Facebook. The participants would be able to change the following: Background Colour, Font Colour, Font Style or Font Size, by selecting the pull-down menus. This enabled participants to look at a number of changeable factors to see if text font styles, would influence them in clicking on an advert.

Participants were asked after looking at text font styles in more detail to answer two questions. 47 random people aged 18+ participated in the artefact questionnaire.

Participants were asked the question “How important do you consider text font styles? When clicking on an advert?”, the participants were given the following options and asked to click all that apply, how easy the text is to read, size, colour, style, background colour and text font style is not important to me. 91% considered how easy the text is to read and 36% thought colour as being a considerable factor in initial reactions. The results were surprising, as in my original questionnaire participants did not consider text font styles as being a factor in initial reaction.

To the question, “you have looked at text font styles. Would text font styles influence you to click on an advert?”, 60% said “yes” 32% said “no” and 6% said “Font text styles would not influence me” The results were surprising,  I thought even though looking at text font styles in more detail would still indicate, font text styles as not being a factor in initial reaction to an advert.

In conclusion, by giving the participants an option to change text font styles and asking specific questions. Force the participants  to think about font text styles. Personally, I consider text style as being one of the most important factors, not just in advertising but in any readable text on a website. If a font text style is difficult to read by using the wrong colours or styles, users can be put off very easily and move on very quickly.

Client Meeting 5th of February 2011

My previous meeting with the client had to be cancelled owing to illness; the meeting was rescheduled for Saturday. I met with the client to go over the four website layouts and to clarify the feedback which had been received via email. As I had emailed the website layouts the previous week.

I also presented a final website design with the modifications made from the feedback received. This design has now been approved.

The client is really pleased with the work so far, they like the addition of the telephone and e-mail icons. They also thought the diary page looked a lot better than the noticeboard for the promotion button. They also liked how each area of the page had its own content box which they said gave some depth to the page and worked well with the background.

Artefact three- text Font Styles

Hi all,

I would like to thank all those who have taken part in my research. I appreciate your help and support with this research and thank you for your valuable contribution.

I am continuing the research, on what factors have the most effect on initial reaction to an advertisement. I would be grateful if you would take a few minutes to take part in the research.

Artefact Link: www.sjcwebsitedesign.com/prp

Thanks

Steven

Artefact Two- Colour Association Evaluation

It was interesting to explore the unexpected results regarding colour from my questionnaire. I thought that colour had a bigger role in initial reaction than first indicated. From further questioning, it was discovered, however, that in fact colour was a significant factor in initial reaction.

53 random people aged 18+ participated in the artefact. From being requested to select a colour, 30% of participants indicated red and 28% blue, the top colours chosen. There were no surprises to these results as  participants colour choice is very much individual.

From the question, “Did you look at all of the colours and information before making your choice?”,  81% said “yes” 19% said “no”. As participants were asked to look at all the different colours before making their choice, this means 19% of  participants did not read the initial information.

To the question, “Did the information influence you to choose a different colour?”, 63% said “no” and 37% said “yes”. The results were surprising. Thus by presenting participants with information, images and the option to see the information on a different coloured background, participants’ opinions can be influenced.

Finally, “Looking at the colours and information presented, would you be more likely to click on a advert?” was asked.  51% said “yes”, 23% said “no” and 26% said “colour would not influence them to click on an advert”, even though 77% of participants would not be influenced by colour. The results were surprising, as in my original questionnaire only 2% considered colour as a factor in initial reaction.

In conclusion, colour had a bigger influence in initial reaction than expected. The presentation of colours can be a significant factor.