1. Unit 65 – Evaluation
I believe my product fits its purpose successfully as it is a fully working website which offers and
promotes a range of economical accommodation to backpackers throughout Australia. I have
presented information regarding various different hostels throughout Australia, tips on travelling in
Australia and information on popular tourist sites that they may encounter on their journey.
Technically my site works successfully with easy use navigational buttons which link to each page and
the interactive map that allows the user to seek information on the area that they are visiting. I have
stuck with four main pages to prevent any confusion with the user and so that they don’t get lost
around the site, however these pages still provide all the information they require. I believe the
Aesthetics of my site are quite good due to the use of bright colors that fit the purpose of the site
appropriately with Australia being quite a bright, sunny country. Using bright colors also sets a nice
positive mood to the website which is always an important factor as it will make the audience feel
comfortable and positive. It would be completely irrelevant to use a dark color scheme for such a
warm/sunny country.
The content of my site is mostly text information regarding the different accommodation options for
the backpackers, as this is the most important thing so that the user has all the information they need
to know. This is what I originally planned as I knew I needed to present detailed information in order
for the user to gain all of the information they need to know, as they aren’t just taking a local trip,
they’re going to be in a whole other country visiting places they may have never been to before. I
have also used images to illustrate and show examples of what I have mentioned in the text as the
user will obviously want to see an image of where they’re going otherwise they will have no idea what
the place looks like, using images will reassure the audience with the place they are staying in or
backpacking around. Also images may persuade the user to visit somewhere they didn’t intend to in
the first place. I have various interactive buttons on my site that allow the user to navigate to and
from different pages. The main interactive element of the site is the map of Australia that is
separated into sections of the different areas (e.g. Northern Territories, Western Australia, etc.) the
users can then click on the certain area they are visiting to access information regarding different
accommodation which is available there and the contact details in order for them to book anything.
Before creating the website I obviously went through different measures of planning, preparation and
management which is obviously a really important stage of the production as if I randomly started
creating the website making it up as I go along it would become a little random and extremely
unprofessional. The first stages of the planning involved various research into many different
websites that contain animated and interactive features, I also looked into the different types of
animation which were available for me to use on my website. This gave me a lot of inspiration and
informed me the certain features existing websites possess and what is expected from a successful
website. Whilst researching into these websites I analyzed in detail the different factors on the
websites such as color palettes, visual styles, etc.
After research me and my team members gathered together in order to create a proposal for the
client in order to inform them on the certain areas we are looking into and identifying, in order to
keep it professional we included different bits of information regarding the target audience, copyright
issues, publishing format, etc. After this I created different draft sketches on storyboards of what my
pages are going to look like, I also added annotations of the different images and fonts I used, this
was an essential stage of planning as I wouldn’t know what I am going to do when it came to creating
the site if it wasn’t for the storyboards.
Before actually creating my site I first created my own development log using Microsoft Project. I did
this in order to keep track of all of the work I had in front of me, also it allowed me to set myself
deadlines in order to keep my progress in order and so that I don’t fall behind deadlines. This helped
me so much when it came to my time management as I knew what needed to be done and when it
Kyle Mckendrick

2. had to be done for, this allowed me to stay strict to the work that needed to be complete and
ensured that it got done on time.
The only stage which was left to complete after this was the actual creation of the website which was
carried out using Adobe Flash, after all the research and planning the creation was probably the
easiest part of the project because I knew exactly what I was doing and what each page will look like.
During the creation of the website I kept track of all of my progress in a word file, taking screen prints
and adding annotations as to the different tools and techniques that I used.
I believe my flow of work was quite successful as all of the tasks were made clear in the brief so I
knew what I had to do to complete the work, however during the start of creating the website in
Flash I was a little confused with the software which resulted in a little bit of a slow start but I soon
got the hang of the different tools.
Meeting the deadlines wasn’t much of a problem after creating my development log because I set my
self certain dates for each task so that I would meet the final deadline, this was a very helpful tool in
my project and it allowed me to keep up to date and not fall behind on different tasks.
Overall I believe my website meets the brief successfully as it provides information on a wide variety
of hostels around Australia and information regarding different tourist attractions which backpackers
can find out about and plan their journey ahead. My site contains different interactive features and
buttons that allow the user to navigate around the site; the main interactive feature is the map on the
accommodation page. The user can select a certain part of Australia whether that is Northern
Territories, Western Australia, etc. and they will be presented with a list of hostels in that area. This
involves the user a little more and makes searching for accommodation a little bit more easily and
exciting than using the search box.
Kyle Mckendrick