By Salaffina D’ore

Every magazine has to have some form of audience feedback to have a completed, successful magazine. Real products have people who check over the magazine to make sure everything is appealing and right. For my music magazine feedback, I designed a audience feedback questionnaire. I gave my questionnaire to my classmates & teacher and some students that are not in my class.

Having audience feedback can have a big impact on your product, it could go from good to great, because you are receiving the views and opinions of other people.

In my questionnaire I ask them questions such as why my magazine appeals to them and what I could have done to improve it. Using their feedback, i created graphs to made the information more clear.

The very first question I asked was what was their first thoughts when they looked at my magazine. I asked this question to see what their reaction would be.

Most of feedback was that the front cover of my magazine caught their eye because of the font, size and colour of the masthead, and it automatically draws them to attention. Another thing that was mostly mentioned was the colours, the majority of people said that they liked the way the colours of the background matched with the artist shirt and the colour of the text.However they also said that

the central image was a bit to small and the font of features looked to big for the image.

When I showed them my contents page, around 90% of the feedback was that they like the way the background was plain and simple, and it fits well because the front page was so busy and the contents page isn't it makes the magazine look more realist. However the other 10% said that it was too simple and looked like something was missing in the background, they also said that it could have had more colour to make it more attractive.

My double page spread was a success, the feedback I received was very positive. People said that they would think it was from a real magazine product, because it looked so realistic. They like the layout, especially the mirror image of the image. Another positive thing mentioned about my magazine was the colours in the article and the way it matches the artist clothes. They also said the title was bold and caught their eye straight away.

After I showed them my magazine I asked them, would they buy the magazine. The feedback was good, the majority of them said they would defiantly buy my magazine because it looks interesting, eye catching and the genre of the magazine (Urban/Grime) appeals to them as well as the features.

Personally, with the positive feedback I have received about my magazine I think my magazine was pretty good, considering I had problems and issues I experienced while making my magazine. Even though I received some negative feedback I also take it into consideration.

However some of the feedback was about the price of the magazine. Their answer to the question was ‘I don’t know’ because of the price of the magazine. But others thought that the price of the magazine was reasonable because of the features and free item that’s included within the magazine.

Throughout my magazine I tried to make the layout and colour palette as realistic and appealing as possible without it looking unreal. By asking this question it shows me how the audience would look at my magazine and what they think the strengths and weakness are within the layout and colour.

Most of the feedback I got for this question was very good. According to the feedback my strongest strength was the colours I used. They were typical colours that are used in hip-hop/urban magazines because the dominate. I used different shades of blue so that it doesn’t make my magazine male dominated with just dark blue.

Not a lot of people mentioned the background of the front cover, however a few people said they were attracted to the way the different shades of blue stand out on the grey background.

Another thing that was mentioned when I asked this question, was the effects I used. The outer glow I used on the masthead and on the text made a big difference to the appearance of the magazine.

The black outer glow.

The layout of the magazine was also a success. The responses I received was the layout looked professional and the text and images weren't overloaded and they were spaced nicely, which made the page look appealing and clear.

I asked this question to find out what my biggest strength was, an how my magazine effects them. The most common thing was the layout overall. Mostly focusing on the front page and double page spread, the feedback was that the were and how I placed things look very professional and the double page spread was very eye catching, as well as interesting.

Other people suggested that my strongest point was the way the colour, images, fonts, and layout linked to the magazine genre itself. They said because every element links to the genre it interests them more, and makes them want to read the magazine knowing everything in it would be based on Grime/Urban music and isn't mixed with other genres. Also mentioned was the article itself, and how it also linked to the genre, most people said that they could relate to the article and they like to related with the artist when reading a magazine, it persuades them to keep on buying the magazine.

Fewer people said that the features and how they were placed were very appealing and they think what's in the magazine is the strongest way to attract an audience and my magazine done that.

My magazine is aimed at 14-26 year olds, female and male. I asked this question to see if I portrayed my target audience correctly and if just looking at my magazine would you be able to tell. Even though the audience wouldn’t really bother about social class, I would like to know would you be able to tell.Surprisingly , 80% of the responses thought my magazine was aimed at 14-25 year olds, which is definitely what I was aiming for. I also asked them why they thought this. The most common response I received was about the central image. They said that because of the age of the artists within the magazine which were young adults, it appeals to both older teens and adults, form 14 to 25. another common response was about what's in the magazines (features and stories). A lot of people mentioned the double page article, and how personally they could related to it and how people within the age range could too because of the content of the interview.Some people also said that if they never see inside of the magazine, and because most grime magazines are male dominated, they would think that my product is for males, however when they read the features on the front it shows that the magazine is for both males and females.

The other 10% said that they wouldn’t know exactly what age range it would be for, but they would guess for adults, not so much young teens because of the conversation in the interview.

I left this question with no options, so they could answer freely what they thought in their own words. Nearly everyone said that having the star persona on the front cover and in the main article was a great idea, because it tells them that who ever the central image is, their the main story within the magazine. They also said that the artist clothing, the poses and the article all linked to the genre of the magazine which is grime/urban, especially because the article was a interview with questions about the artist music and his childhood. The aim of it was so the audience can relate to the story and encourage young people that have the same childhood as the artist that they can also achieve what he achieved as long as you determining. Hopefully the article will also persuade them to want to read more and hopefully buy the magazine again. The feedback on the images was very impressive. Most of the feedback was similar, firstly that the position of the images and the sizes were attracting and spaced out nicely with the text. This links to the layout of the magazine, and how it attracts the audience.

I Think overall your magazine was very good, and I would buy it if I saw it in a shop, however you

could have used a wider range of people, and outfits.

For this question I asked for them to write a sentence or two about what I could improve on, so I tried to pick out 6 different responses.

One thing to improve your

magazine is to more images.

The appearance of your magazine has no faults, but because your

magazine is also aimed at adults, you could have written a bit in

the article that would attract that age of your audience.

To improve your magazine, you could have made the contents page a little bit more appealing by using

more colours or a different background.

I would definitely

purchase your magazine and

don’t think there is much to

improve.

Personally I think it would attract its

audience more if you added a few elements of hip hop features in

there, as hip hop magazines have

grime/urban elements too.