Chosen Meduim & Research

By Jordan Harrison
Published on 11:21 at
My chosen medium for this project is websites. I will be producing a website for a TV channel based around HD and next generation media such as 3D etc.

A Brief history of 3D and HD TV/Movies

3D Film -

A 3-D (three-dimensional) film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception. Derived from stereoscopic photography, a special motion picture camera system is used to record the images as seen from two perspectives or computer-generated imagery generates the two perspectives, and special projection hardware and/or eyewear are used to provide the illusion of depth when viewing the film.

3-D films are not limited to feature film theatrical releases, television broadcasts and direct-to-video films have also incorporated similar methods, primarily for marketing purposes.
3-D films have existed in some form since the 1950s, but had been largely relegated to a niche in the motion picture industry because of the costly hardware and processes required to produce and display a 3-D film, and the lack of a standardized format for all segments of the entertainment business. Nonetheless, 3-D films were prominently featured in the 1950s in American cinema, and later experienced a worldwide resurgence in the 1980s and '90s driven by IMAX high-end theatres and Disney themed-venues. 3-D films became more and more successful throughout 2000–10, culminating in the unprecedented success of 3-D presentations of Avatar in December 2009 and January 2010.

3D TV -

A 3D television (3D-TV) is a television set that employs techniques of 3D presentation, such as stereoscopic capture, multi-view capture, or 2D plus depth, and a 3D display—a special viewing device to project a television program into a realistic three-dimensional field.

HD Film -

Film as a medium has inherent limitations, such as difficulty of viewing footage whilst recording, and suffers other problems, caused by poor film development/processing, or poor monitoring systems. Given that there is increasing use of computer-generated or computer-altered imagery in movies, and that editing picture sequences is often done digitally, some directors have shot their movies using the HD format via high-end digital video cameras. Whilst the quality of HD video is very high compared to SD video, and offers improved signal/noise ratios against comparable sensitivity film, film remains able to resolve more image detail than current HD video formats. In addition some films have a wider dynamic range (ability to resolve extremes of dark and light areas in a scene) than even the best HD cameras. Thus the most persuasive arguments for the use of HD are currently cost savings on film stock and the ease of transfer to editing systems for special effects.

HD TV -

High-definition television (or HDTV, or just HD) refers to video having resolution substantially higher than traditional television systems (standard-definition TV, or SDTV, or SD). HD has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD. Early HDTV broadcasting used analog techniques, but today HDTV is digitally broadcast using video compression.

Polls

By Jordan Harrison
Published on 11:14 at
On my blog, I have now created a series of blogs to find out general information about my audience.

I have also posted a few ideas for TV Channel names, and I'm hoping to find out which people like the most.

When the polls show a strong enough correlation of results towards one title, I'll look into buying a domain to host the website under.

Audience

By Jordan Harrison
Published on 08:49 at
An Audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literation, theatre, music or academics in any medium. Audiences within media are studied by academics in Media Audience Studies.

Studies of the audience can be extremely beneficial to a company or brand as it gives an insight into audiences in general, this insights create a greater knowledge of how audiences respond to different forms of media.

To find out who my audience is, and what they want I have created a small Poll on my Blog to gain an insight to my audience.

Right now, I'm not sure who I will be aiming this website toward, the film industry reaches out all ages, genders and races with different Genres. By creating this Poll, I'm hoping to find out my demographic so i can begin to construct the foundations of the website around them.

First Ideas

By Jordan Harrison
Published on 06:19 at
Following the brief, I will be producing a website for a TV Channel.

For my website, I will be producing it based around a Movie/Film TV Channel. While looking around other Movie Channel websites, the genre across most of these, aswell as other TV Channel websites is a Content Site.

The genre of my website will also be Content, but seeing as the site progresses, I may add aspects of Social Networking. I believe this could possibly bring a wider audience and more interest to the website and the company itself.

Additional Must Haves

By Jordan Harrison
Published on 03:51 at
While researching web pages, I found a clear link between them, and started to develop new knowledge of well build web pages.

Here, are 5 Things a successful web page should have:

Clear navigation
The navigation on your website tells user how to find the information they need. You should make sure your navigation is easy to find and very clear. Try writing it in the terms that link back to why someone is visiting your site.

Visually appealing and simple home page
When designing your homepage, don't try to say everything about your business on your home page and clutter it, Keep it simple and easy to read so the visitor comes away with a good basic understanding of your business and what they can find on your site, but keep it brief , you can go into much more detail in your subsequent web pages.

Prominent Contact Information
Even in this online world, sometimes customers will want to reach out to a real person so make your contact information easy to find – and if possible – include a phone number as well as an email address.

FAQ’s
Especially since my website relates to my "product" or the TV Channel and programs, it is smart to include an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section to help customers easily find answer to questions about your services. For smaller businesses this may also help cut down on phone calls or tech support emails, saving time and money for the business owner.

Instructive
Make sure it is clear to visitors what you want them to do when they get to your site. If your intention is to drive sales with your site, be sure you include special pricing, promotions or offers and make it easy for customers to buy. If your intention is to educate visitors about your business, make sure information about your company is prominently displayed and easy to find and easy to navigate around.

Again, I will be taking all of these into consideration while designing my website. I think that my website MUST have a simple navigation, as a TV Channel is viewed by millions of viewers, some older, some young, some who find it hard to use the Internet, and some who are fluent. My web page needs to be easily accessible for any customer to view, to create a wide audience.

Shneiderman's Rules

By Jordan Harrison
Published on 03:42 at

Shneiderman's: Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design

1 Strive for consistency. Consistent sequences of actions should be required in similar situations; identical terminology should be used in prompts, menus, and help screens; and consistent commands should be employed throughout.

2 Enable frequent users to use shortcuts. As the frequency of use increases, so do the user's desires to reduce the number of interactions and to increase the pace of interaction. Abbreviations, function keys, hidden commands, and macro facilities are very helpful to an expert user.

3 Offer informative feedback. For every operator action, there should be some system feedback. For frequent and minor actions, the response can be modest, while for infrequent and major actions, the response should be more substantial.

4 Design dialog to yield closure. Sequences of actions should be organized into groups with a beginning, middle, and end. The informative feedback at the completion of a group of actions gives the operators the satisfaction of accomplishment, a sense of relief, the signal to drop contingency plans and options from their minds, and an indication that the way is clear to prepare for the next group of actions.

5 Offer simple error handling. As much as possible, design the system so the user cannot make a serious error. If an error is made, the system should be able to detect the error and offer simple, comprehensible mechanisms for handling the error.

6 Permit easy reversal of actions. This feature relieves anxiety, since the user knows that errors can be undone; it thus encourages exploration of unfamiliar options. The units of reversibility may be a single action, a data entry, or a complete group of actions.

7 Support internal locus of control. Experienced operators strongly desire the sense that they are in charge of the system and that the system responds to their actions. Design the system to make users the initiators of actions rather than the responders.

8 Reduce short-term memory load. The limitation of human information processing in short-term memory requires that displays be kept simple, multiple page displays be consolidated, window-motion frequency be reduced, and sufficient training time be allotted for codes, mnemonics, and sequences of actions.

These "Rules" where written by Ben Shneiderman, He proposed this collection of principles that are derived heuristically from experience and applicable in most interactive systems after being properly refined, extended, and interpreted.

[Shneiderman's Goldern Rule's taken from - "Designing the User Interface"]

While designing my webpages for my new TV Channel, I will be using these rules to create a well made and productive website thats flows and does not create confusion for the user.