2. Research and planning
Task:
to produce part of an interactive e - magazine called Your Times, Your Life or a
website to promote the e-magazine, it should be at least a front cover and 2
linked pages. Your website should include an interactive home page and
linked content.
The e-magazine or website must be appropriate to the target audience of young
people (12-18 years) and the theme of youth culture. The e-magazine could
contain interviews, reports, investigations, dramatisations or any other relevant
content.
3. Research and planning checklist
1. Market research
2. Brainstorm
3. Research into chosen target
audience
4. Production
5. Pitch
6. Production timetable
4. 1. Market Research
I used Pinterest (a social media site) to map out websites that I know for a fact, teen agers like my
self go on. I particularly looked at my competitors - Live Mag UK and SQ magazine as they’re
websites strictly promote their youth culture e-magazines. I soon realised these two competitors
are a perfect example of how not to make a website so I then switched to the more successful
websites for inspiration e.g. Vice which has aspects of youth culture to it.
http://gb.pinterest.com/noahgee/teen-life-uk-magazine/
9. Mood board
Again I used Pinterest, this time to make a mood board to get a idea of how I want my website to feel when people
click onto it. (http://gb.pinterest.com/noahgee/mood-board-teen-life/)
10. 3. Target audience
• Predominantly boys aged 12 – 18
In order to find out more information about my target audience as
a whole I shared an online survey on my Facebook; asking
predominately 12 – 18 year old boys to fill it out. In addition to
this, I conducted a focus group where by I had a Skype call with
a few of my brother’s friends all between the ages of 13 and 14.
Although I didn’t get a much of a geographic spread from my
results I did get a variety of ages. In total I managed to get 25
responses.
Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7RMD5MD
14. 4. Out of these topics which are the ones you
would be most interested in reading?
15. 5. what other topics would you like to see on
the website?
• gamer stuff
• Music
• Summary of top European music Festivals Tips and views from
university students on the courses they are taking
• Music of Today (Machine Gun Kelly and others)
• Lifestyle topics
• Technology like best phones cameras etc.
• Historical
• fashion pages, tips, websites to browse the newest trends. a website to
ask people what makes a trend etc.
• literature and science
• Religious news
• Info about jobs, apprenticeships ect
• More on international sports not just sports in the UK.
19. Focus Group
• I interviewed three year 9s (aged 13-14)
• I found out all of them used Facebook and YouTube frequently
• They were most interested in the entertainment category of my
website (i.e. film & TV) this is the category I will use as one of
my two linked pages
20. 4. Production
For my website I plan to use serif web plus x2 at school,
as it’s free and it has most of the features I need to
deliver my final product. If I had the more money and
time I would have purchased adobe Dreamweaver.
22. Audience
•Age: 12 – 18
•Gender: Predominately male
•Socio-economic: Predominately
middle to lower class
•Problem! No one reads youth
culture magazines and 7/25
people are interested in books
23. Similar real world
products
URL Strengths Weaknesses
Competition
www.sqmagazine.co.uk Consistent branding –
yellow & black ID
Social media sharing not
well executed – in wrong
places
http://www.livemaguk.com/ Use of hashtags for topics
e.g. #sport
Poor navigation bar
http://www.factmag.com/ Good use of carousel Too many headings
http://chasseurmagazine.com
/
Ability to switch from list
to grid
Not enough options on
dropdown navigation bar
http://www.fusedmagazine.co
m/
Mailing list feature Poor design, lots of blank
space, inconsistent titling
24. Inspiration
URL Strengths Weaknesses
www.uniladmag.
com
• Simplistic Only 2 columns
www.vice.com Clear layout
user friendly
no wasted space
Not colourful enough
www.sbtv.co.uk Grid layout Overly complicated title of articles
www.theladbibl
e.com
Submit button
Labelling items by medium e.g.
video, picture
Content: Overly explicit/sexualised
http://www.xxl
mag.com/
Header Heading: ‘Most popular (24 hrs’
and ‘all time’)
www.highsnobie
ty.com
Stylish header
Navigation drop down menu
Large carousel
Social media toolbar
Images take up too much space
www.menshealt
h.co.uk
Navigation bar (similar to that of
the Guardian’s),
‘Competition and offers’
Not enough writing
38. 6. Production timetable
• Planning deadline: March 24th
• Production deadline: April 22nd
• Evaluation Deadline: April 28th
I will use all my media lessons as well as spending 2 - 3
hours a week outside of lessons to get this project
finished in time for the final deadline.
