EVALUATIONPRELIMINARY TASK

FRONT COVERGenerally, I think I created a successful front cover for my magazine. I used a simple colour palette for the text and graphics so that the magazine would not look cluttered. This appears to have been successful as several people commented that the colour scheme worked well. I also tried to use a variety of key conventions, such as pull-quotes, cover-lines, puffs and a masthead at the top of the page. Again, this was commented on by several people in the peer evaluation.

The front cover is still not without its flaws; several people commented that I had used too many fonts. When I added these, they were to differentiate between the cover-lines, but upon reflection, I do think that this is a valid criticism. Another criticism was that I could have used more graphics on the cover. Again, this was a design decision on my part so that the cover would not become too cluttered, but I do agree that I could have potentially used more to make the magazine stand out to students.

CONTENTS PAGEFor my contents page, I decided to use a white background with black/dark-red text to make the text clear and understandable. I also decided to split the page into two columns, with the folios and descriptions on one side of the page, and related images and a letter from the editor on the over side. I also used thin black lines to separate each folio, plus thicker lines to separate the sections of the page. These design choices appear to have been successful as several people commented that the page was clear and easy to look at.

Like with the front cover, the contents page isn’t perfect. In the peer evaluation, someone stated that I should have added more images to it. I only used two main images on the page so that it would not be cluttered and so the photos would be visible, but I do agree that I could have adjusted the sizes of several aspects of the page so that I could incorporate more images. Another criticism on the peer evaluation was that the page is slightly too cluttered. Whilst I do slightly disagree with this, I do agree that not everything on the page is necessary, such as the editor’s letter, which could be on another page, allowing more space for images.

QUESTIONNAIREI think my audience research questionnaire was mostly successful, however, there is definitely a lot of aspects that can be improved upon when it comes to the main task.I succeeded in asking a range of different questions that gave me a good insight on what my audience might be interested in seeing in the magazine. By using closed questions, I made it very simple to see exactly what the responses were, but I do think that I should try to include a few open questions in my questionnaire for my main task. This would allow me to gain a wider insight into what readers would want to see.In the main task, I should also try to include questions about the age/gender/sex of the people I survey. This would allow me to see exactly what kind of people would be interested in the magazine, and therefore would allow me to conduct further research into these demographics.