Website Project Review

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Project Review

In the production of our website for the business department we set each member of the group their own roles within the group such as “Team Leader”, “Implementer “and “designer”. Each member of the group was given tasks which would link to the website. For example the designer produced the PNG Banner & Buttons which were given to me to implement on the site. This process worked very well in the initial stages of the site but as the deadline draw closer I created the buttons myself in order to speed up the development of the site.

Our team leader did manage our time really well in the initial stages of production but a sudden drop in attendance reduced the work output significantly which caused us to become behind on our milestone schedule. I thought the way in which we produced he project scope was really well done as each of us had to complete 4 of the numbered tasked on the project scope which wasn't that difficult for me as all the section I wrote about were relevant to my role in the group.

When the documentation was complete I then worked on three initial templates which all had relevant features which we implemented into our final design. The group tested out each of my templates and extracted elements which they thought were good and what were bad. These templates were also relevant to the specification of the client and enabled me to see what elements of her specification were feasible or not.

I produced a site map on the project scope which I kept refereeing to when creating the final website design. The group compiled our thoughts and ideas for what we thought would look good for our main theme and our main theme was a black metallic theme which we thought looked professional.

Over the half term break it was my job to make sure the site had all of the pages working correctly and implement all of the external hyper-links which were stated on the “Site Map” I completed this task to the est of my ability and when we resumed lessons when we came back we only had a couple of days to gather some photos and video for the website which sadly we weren’t able to complete in time which resulted in us not keeping to our deadline. The additional week to complete the assignment enabled use the gather some photos and videos and implement them on the site.

When making the video for our website we initialy created a storyboard which we would go by hen shotting out video content. The idea was to shoot various parts of the college using various shots in an attempt to promote the college in a positive way. We compiled the video in "Priemere Pro" and published the video in .FLV format so that it can be easily implemented on the site.

So overall I think the project went well but the lack of communications outside of lessons resulted in us not keeping to deadlines and significantly hindered the final result.

E-Zine Article

E-Zine Article

Introduction

In this article I will be writing about how interactive media has changed the society we live in today. From the introduction of the World wide web which is one of greatest inventions of the 20^th century it acts as one the best platforms of communication in the world. There a loads of ways in which the media industry uses the world wide web for example commercial advertising is greatly used on the world wide web as 30% of the world population is online so for that reason alone it acts as a perfect platform to advertise products.

Internet World Stats. (2011). INTERNET USAGE STATISTICS. Available: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm. Last accessed 5th Nov 2011.

Some of the most used sites on the web have some form of advertising for example a video on youtube which has large quantity of views would likely include a commercial ad before your chosen video plays. This technique of advertising had only been implemented recently as people in the media industry are looking for different ways in which to target younger people as more and more young people are not watching tv or newspapers which in previous generations were the main medium for advertising.

One of main factors which have caused younger people not to watch TV as much as previous generations is the introduction of user created content on the web. As nearly every new gadget such as phones and portable devices on the market now include cameras and mobile connection to social networking sites it is very easy to produce video content and put it on the web in seconds. A popular user generated site called “Youtube” enables anyone to upload any video they want free of charge and today Youtube contains millions of user generated videos. With the shear choice of videos on Youtube the current generation are going on sites like youtube and watching videos they want instead of watching network TV on their televisions.

Online Shopping

In the current generation more and more people are doing their every day shopping online from buying your weekly groceries to doing your Xmas shopping. The reasons why people shop online is because in many ways it's more convenient for example if your do your online shopping you can choose what time you want it to be delivered which would be convenient for people who may work throughout the day and want their shopping delivered in the evening this service has been introduced to pretty much all the major supermarkets. Popular online shopping sites such as Ebay and Amazon offer the customer a far larger range of products that if a customer went to a shop. Ebay is the world‟s largest online marketplace, accounting for $60bn sales worldwide in 2008, while Amazon also offers small businesses an opportunity to use its platform to generate sales.

This has a serious affect on small businesses on the high-street because people are holding onto their cash more than ever which is a result of the global recession so people are comparing prices and searching for the best deal. In many cases these online small businesses have the best prices resulting in the high-street businesses losing significant sales. A good example of businesses which have become bankrupt as a result of online shopping is “Travel Agents” it is common practice these days to book a holiday online as it's a lot easier and offers a great deal more customization to your holiday and also in most cases is a lot cheaper. Many businesses which offer a service similar to travel agents are likely to become obsolete in the the recent future.

Graham Charlton. (2010). Selling on eBay and Amazon: pros and cons for SMEs. Available: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/5918-selling-on-ebay-pros-and-cons-for-smes. Last accessed 5th Nov 2011.

Something which falls into a similar category is downloading and streaming content.

Movie rental companies such a “”LoveFilm” have introduced a service which enables customers to download or stream movies straight to their PCs which for the company saves significant postal costs and in some ways can be considered more “Green” because you are not mass producing the DVDs or physically transporting them. The only disadvantage I can think of from streaming media content would be if the customer has a slow broadband speed then video quality will suffer significantly. A downside to media content such music and movies on the web is that it can be easily copied and illegally distributed around the web and is almost impossible to avoid. The illegal distribution of music and films has had affect on the industries which for the music industry has resulted in music artists needing to do tours to sell their music.

BBC Author. (2010). Illegal music downloads are 'on the rise'. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12003499. Last accessed 5th November 2011.

Digital Video on the Web

The web is filled with video content as a result of sites like youtube which enable users so upload videos quickly and pretty much anonymously. With the almost constant introduction of new portable devices with the capacity to shoot video and still images. They also include very easy to use interfaces which pretty much enable you to upload content from your portable device to sites like Youtube in a couple of clicks. There is restrictions when it comes to file formats with youtube though for example it's able to play

• WebM files

• .MPEG4,3GPP MOV files
• .AVI
• .MPEGPS
• .WMV
• .FLV

but isn't able to play some common formats such as mp3. Many manufactures would very much consider these file formats when they design a something like a new phone so that phone's camera shoots media content in one of the file formats supported by Youtube which wouldn't require the user to convert the file manually. File formats shouldn't be much of problem when it comes to uploading to youtube because all of the main formats are compatible for example .AVI is very widely used when filming from a camera and MOV is used for the very popular portable device the iPhone.

Google. (2011). Supported Youtube Formats. Available: http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=55744. Last accessed 5th Nov 2011.

The web acts as a democratic platform in which almost every in the world can express their opinion but in some countries such as china the web is widely monitored and the Chinese people are filtered from content which way question their current government in a negative way. Here is a few of the popular sites which have been filtered Facebook, Twitter , Youtube and Wikileaks. The filtering of sites such as those is one of many techniques used by the Chinese government to prevent the exposure of content which they want to hide from their people.

There are ways in which you can bypass the filters which have been put in place by the government. The way in which this can be done is to connect to a external proxy server then browse the web once you have connected to that proxy.

Copying Prevention

One of the ways in which the music industries try and prevent the illegal copying of their content is to implement copy protection onto the CDs you buy in the shops. In the manufacturing process of making music CDs the distinctive feature they must include is that the Disk must be distinguishable from normal (unprotected CDs) and it's very important that the CD cannot be copied or relocated using typical hardware or software.

Some of the techniques they used to begin with was to on purpose build the CD so it had loads of bad sectors on the disk. Having bad sectors on the disk resulted in a typical Cd drive to skip the contents of that sector so that it cannot be copied. Other methods include encrypting the data using codes which cannot be bypassed using typical software. The same copy protection techniques can be found on DVDs and Blu-rays for video. 

Half Term Website Progress

Throughout the half term I've been working on the creating the website for my client. I have ensured that all pages correctly navigate to the required pages aswell as implementing external links to pages such as moodle & facebook. The tasks I still need to do obtain some video to put on the site aswell as a few more photos.

Project Scope 4: Flash Website Details

4: Flash Website Details

One of the key factors which the client stated during the initial interview was that the site must be completely unique so with this in mind, the design of the website would need to have it's own unique interface but still be able to have maximum functionality. Most of the pages in the website will include a number of images which have been collected for the website and have them smoothly transition to other images in regular intervals.

The initial home page will include buttons which link to the following pages; Course Information, Media Gallery, The Wall & useful sites. All of the transitions to the pages will look as professional as we can make it.

One of the initial ideas we had for the homepage was to have a scrolling website made up of a 360 degree image. Buttons to the other pages can be found in various objects in the image. The buttons will be easily detectable as they will either flash constantly or perform some dynamic movement to enable it to stand out. 

The course information page is the place where general course information can be found for the business students it will include information such as a news bulletin as well as external links to college resources such as the college website and Moodle.  News bulletins on course information page will have as minimal text as possible and once clicked on will open an additional page displaying the whole bulletin.

The Media Gallery page is the place for all of the media content for the site and will include links to a photo gallery and video gallery and recent and updated albums will be displayed on the page accompanied by a title and description. The video gallery will include videos such as interviews with students and the photo gallery will include photos relevant to the business department.  

The page titled “The Wall” is the page where students can communicate with each other. A student blog and links to the college's Business Department Facebook page can be found on this page. The link to the Facebook page will be in the form of a custom button which we have created.

The “Useful Sites” page is where links to external sites such popular websites & financial News can be found on this page as well as anything else which is deemed useful for the department.

The general navigation between different pages of the site will be done by single buttons or in the form of a drop down menu. The interface will look professional but also make the site look attractive for its target audience. The interface will remain similar throughout the various pages to prevent confusion. 

Responsibilities:

Louis & Co. are responsible for the following elements of completing the flash site pages

ñ  Ensure that all pages provide a suitable amount of content before site launch

ñ  Collect all of the media content.

ñ  Completed  all of the feasible requirements specified by the client

ñ  Design the site according to the department & target age group

ñ  Make the site as interactive as possible without hindering overall functionality

The Client is responsible for the following elements of completing the flash site pages.

• Ensure that Louis & Co. are contacted if requirements are changed.

Metal Gear Solid 4 Review

Game Description:

Metal Gear is the 4th instalment in the Metal gear series after it's initial release on the PlayStation. The Metal gear series is iconic for is cinematic sequences and redefining the stealth action genre. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of the Patriots is set 6 years after the events in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty and you discover the world has become consumed by war as war has become an industry in which governments now follow to sustain their countries. The Private Military Companies benefit massively from the constant battle and rival PMCs engage in spontaneous battles which leave the world in ruins. The Villain in the series is "Ocelot" who has become the leader of 5 largest PMCs in the world and it's the job of your character "Solid Snake" to assassinate him.

Gameplay

The gameplay in MGS4 has remained very much the same as it has in the previous instalments in the series but has implemented some new features such as the introduction of a stress bar which is located beneath you characters health. The stress bar has various effects on your character such as if the stress bar is full you character becomes a lot more accurate when aiming in first person view and your health will restore a lot faster. The bar also has an influence on how concealed you are when trying to remain hidden from enemies. The stress bar will rapidly increase when in fire fights and will decrease when out of combat or listening to the in game “”I-Pod”. In MGS4 there are various ways in which you can play the game for example although the game is primarily a stealth action game you very easily play the game in constant fire fights. You also have the choice to play the whole game in 1^st person view while previously you were restricted to 3^rd person. The boss battles are fun and dynamic and require their own unique strategy to beat them. Players are rewarded for not killing bosses which can be done by using tranquilizer ammunition rather than live ammo. The rewards include camouflage and weapons and you will be rewarded a better rank when completing the game.  

9/10

Graphics

The visuals in MGS4 are unmatched in quality as the in game locations and characters are textured in great detail. The in game cinematic sequences are visually stunning and the action sequences are better than most movies. The game does suffer from random drops in the frame rate but only for a very short duration but personally I believe it holds up pretty well considering the scale of some scenarios and the graphics still look amazing considering it was released back in 2008. The interface you use is unique to the Metal gear series such as the use of holding down the L2 and R2 buttons to activate a dropdown box which you use to equip items and weapons.   10/10

Story

The story in MGS4 doesn’t disappoint the previous instalments in the series and the story which is tied together by the amazing cinematic sequences which never become boring. You do sometimes feel the game is more like movie than a game as some cinematic sequences can be as long as 15 mins long. The games story smartly influences the increase in difficulty as you can dispatched to more dangerous location around the world. Every action in the game feels like is has a consequence on how the game will end and the cinematic sequences can vary depending on if you decided to play the game stealthy or “All Guns blazing “.

10/10

Lifespan

The introduction to a PVP multiplayer to the metal gear series substantially increases it’s lifespan as it implements a character progression system where you can improve various skills of you character as well as your characters appearance which causes players to play it again and again. The Campaign mode enables players who have completed the game to redo the campaign with special equipment which enable you to play the game differently then you initially did.

8/10

Overall

10/10

Website Project Client Notes

The following requirements were set by out client:

The website would have links to all the major newspaper websites

The Website must include financial news

The website must have a unique appearance

Include a gadget which updates automatically to the current FTSE stats

"The News at 10" play as audio in the background

Implement a Student blog

No interactive tour

Must include lots oh photos

Simple to navigate the site

Client will provide quotes from past students and is able to contact a student for video interview

Scrolling Website is preffered

Game Scripting

Today I learnt about the role of a game scripter. The role of a game scripter is to produce a script for the game which basically outlines what happens at different stages of the game. A programmer will initially create a program which has a easier interface in which the scripter can produce levels in the game. In the video which we watched an employee explained that you would likely start off creating basic levels for a game and once you have expressed your imagination & skills you will be promoted to having more critical roles in the design process.  One of the key attributes you require to be successful in this role is being able to communicate effectively to your team so that you can express your ideas effectively to your team so that they share your Enthusiasm. When creating my level for mario using the editor I learnt the importance of saving in certain formats and file sizes. I also learnt how to edit existing images so that I can edit them to what I want. I did encouter a number of errors which were caused by coding the level incorrectly. I was able to link levels together which progessively increased in difficulty. I did in a few cases need to edit my created level so that it can be completed as in a few cases my level was impossible to complete. Regular testing is an important process which needs to be conducted in regualr intervals to ensure it works correctly.