The overall concept of my website was to write a brief and honest review on movies that are out in cinema or have recently just been shown in cinemas. The target audience for Vmovies can range from people with a deep interest in the film industry or anyone who is looking for an honest movie review about a film they are considering seeing. The website offers various unique tools making the website easy to use. It includes brand new movie reviews and a score out of 5, movies that are coming soon to cinema with a release date, detailed description of the movies rating, cast, director, length and category. Another feature incorporated is another page of classic movie favorites, this will give audiences recommendations for older movies they may have not seen.
For my website design I wanted to create a simple yet effective appeal. The visual elements are the most important aspect for my website and I wanted to make them the main focus, as visuals are the first thing audiences see when they are viewing my website , This is important as the content can influence audiences behavior, tempers , reactions, and informs decisions.[1] My homepage is made up of images from movies I have reviewed, were audiences can decide what movie review they want to choose. Instead of using movie posters I used snippets from scenes in the particular movie, as a different way to showcase the movie. I used a dark red for the background colour to add warmth and make the images stand out without taking focus away from them. The writing style on my website is also simple, for my heading I wanted it to stand out on the homepage; this was created using a large font. I chose white for my text colour, so it could be visible with a dark background. I decided to go for a common layout for my design structure; to make it easier for users to navigate were they want to go. I choose the name Vmovies, incorporating my initial as well as adding in ‘movies’ to match the website theme of movie reviews.
In the process of forming ideas for my websites layout, many different design concepts were considered on what will be the most effective layout that will best work for audiences. First I had to consider the goal of my website and who will be interested in using my website. I came up with a design that would meet my goal, the design and content should best reflect the needs of the audience. The aesthetics also had to match my idea of the websites simplicity. [1]From coming up with the idea of a film review website, I took inspiration from similar websites like IMBD and Rotten Tomatoes. I also wanted to create a simple and easy to use, and took into consideration on some features to execute my idea. From researching other websites I found many do not include images, or images were a smaller aspect of their website, I included images as the main aspect and made them in order from newest to oldest and categorised. I included a search bar so audiences can easily navigate the movie they are searching for[2]. To add more to my website other than just reviews of the newest movies I included features like coming soon and movie favourites. The viewers can also communicate through the website by commenting on a particular movie review and add their own review and rating on the film. Overall I wanted to create a layout that was most effective so that audiences can use with ease[3].
Social media plays a major part when it comes to marketing. Social Networking Sites have millions of active users every day, making marketing for brands a tool for brands to extend their audiences, “consumers discuss, contribute, collaborate and share with brands and with each other”.[1] I created an Instagram and twitter account for my brand and to connect with my audience. Instagram and twitter were both an effective marketing tool when doing this. They both allow you to engage and communicate with people around the world that have an interest in the film industry. I found with twitter it was a better marketing tool for the film industry. As twitter allows you communicate more effectively through writing tweets, retweeting and hashtags. Although Instagram is still an effective marketing tool and includes all those features, I found twitter better for my subject and easier to build a platform and a bigger audience. Although Instagram is the more popular app, I found that users have a deeper interest in film than majority of Instagram users.
Although my website met with my expectations, there are
still things that could have been completed differently to have improved my
overall website. When planning for my website, there were many ideas that did
not end up in my final website. I originally intended on adding a logo in which
I had created to add more visual elements, however when creating my website I
felt it did not match my website. there
were also many ideas that I had planned to include but did not work during the
process of creating my website, as I did not know how to use the program well
there were things that I did not include, ultimately I could have studied the
program more and learnt how to use it, this could have improved on my websites
design and complexity. I also failed to use my social media sites effectively; I
could have used it more frequently and kept it up to date. This would have
helped me build a much bigger audience.
[1] Solomon, M. and Tuten, T. (2017). Social Media Marketing. 1st ed. British Libary, p.32.
[1] Lawrence, D. and Tavakol, S. (2006). Balanced Website Design: Optimising Aesthetics, Usability and Purpose. 1st ed. London: Springer-verlag London, p.7.
[2] Kinzie, M., Cohn, W., Julian, M. and Knaus, W. (2002). A User-centered Model for Web Site Design: Needs Assessment, User Interface Design, and Rapid Prototyping. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, [online] 9(4), p.324. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/jamia/article/9/4/320/694643#12210671 [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019].
[3] Stebbings, A. (2010). UA Sign-On. [online] Web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au. Available at: http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=aef7a271-3a77-459e-9301-ff92f3195c5e%40sdc-v-sessmgr01 [Accessed 6 Jun. 2019].
[1] Langton, D. and Campbell, A. (2011). Table Of Content Section Visual Marketing : 99 Proven Ways for Small Businesses to Market with Images and Design. 1st ed.
[ebook]
John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, p.17. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/adelaide/reader.action?docID=693671 [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019].
VMOVIES. 