LO2: Planning a multi-page website

Small Machines - promotional website for the "Small Machines" range of wooden toy kits.
Below is the specification from Giles, stating what he wants his website to do:

What does the website need?

Currently the website is  a Wix.com template which has too much white space and very little content. The website you design will need to include:

• High quality images and video
• Links to SM’s social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube) and content feeding in from those pages.
• Pages for:
• The original range
• The Royal Armories range (with links to their shop/website)
• A Shop
• A lifestyle page  outlining the information regarding the environmental and locally produced elements of the brand. 
• The Website should be updateable from Giles’ iPhone quickly and without the need for long drawn out authoring sessions. 

a) purpose
The purpose is to promote the Small Machines wooden toy kits to young children. It should appeal to those children and make them want the product in order to sell units. It could do this by writing persuasive passages of text and showing images and videos of the product. The site should be clear, easy-to-read and visually appealing for children. It should also appeal to the parent/grandparent by being clear and simple, responsible, sensible, environmentally friendly and not overpriced.

b) target audience
-Both male and female
-Children, ages 6+, and perhaps collectors of any age as they might make good-looking ornaments.
-If parents were buying for their children, they would be environmentally conscious and educated. They would be loyal to the brands they buy and value locality, so most would be from around the South Yorkshire area and likely to make repeat purchases.
-People in the UK - the machines can fit into Royal Mail large envelopes.
-interest in construction, building, or maybe no interest at all, great present for most children. Entertaining.
-Any ethnicity.

RESOURCES NEEDED:
-Laptop for most tasks involving creating the website and making the logo.
-Internet access to create and maintain the website.
-Paper and pencil for sketching ideas for the website.
-Adobe Photoshop to help create my Small Machines logo.

LEGAL AND ETHICAL / COPYRIGHT
-I will have to reference where / who any photographs are from.
-I will have to reference where / who the promotional video is from, if I make one.
-I will have to get the owners of the photos / videos to sign permission forms if this is needed, as well as getting permissions for any copyrighted music that could be in the video.

LAUNCH DATE: 18th March 2016
BUDGET: Since I made my website in Wix, I would be using one of Wix's Premium Plans for getting my website online. The best plan for Small Machines would be Wix's "eCommerce" plan, which they state is best for small businesses. It costs £15.56 per month on monthly payments (therefore costing £186.72 for a year) and comes with a free .com or .co.uk domain (I would use www.smallmachines.co.uk). In addition, you get 10GB of bandwidth and the option of accepting payments in an online store section of the site. There is also a yearly payments option for the same "eCommerce" plan which costs £121.20 per year, a saving of 35%.
POTENTIAL REVENUE: I will place advertisements on the home page of my website, and smaller ones on the sub-pages. I will also have a page sponsor who can pay me to advertise their company on my website. Obviously, I will be selling Small Machines from the website which will generate revenue and will be the main source of it for the site.

I will not need access to the toys to take photographs, because I will use the existing images on the current Small Machines website.

LO1: Social Networking site - Twitter

a) The purpose of Twitter is communication. As a social network, people can send and receive short messages from one another, as well as “retweet” and “favourite” tweets. In addition, the search function allows users to search for a specific term and get the latest news and opinions on topics. The main user-base is teenagers and young adults.

b) Twitter is a social network, so the primary need for a visitor will be to compose a tweet. This can be done using the "what's happening?" box. A user will also need to read tweets, which can be done simply by scrolling through the news feed. If a visitor wants to search for news on a certain topic, this can be done using the search bar, and there is also a section of the homepage for viewing current "trends". A visitor can quickly and easily be informed.

c) The "what's happening?" box can be located centrally near the top of the page, for composing tweets. The news feed can be found directly underneath this, showing all tweets from users you follow. To the left of the homepage is basic information about your profile and a list of the topics that are currently "trending", while to the right of it is a recommendation of "who to follow". The search bar can be found in the top right of the homepage, and there are tabs in the top left entitled "home", "notifications", and "messages". Unlike many other websites, Twitter usually doesn't contain an advertisement.

d) The main features of Twitter would be the ability to search and the view search results page, the ability to create your own personal account, the ability to send a tweet you have composed using your account, and the ability to tag another user, for example one of your friends, in a tweet.

e) The benefits of the website for Twitter would be "promoted tweets". These are Twitter's version of adverts, as a "promoted tweet" from a company shows up on timelines everywhere, and when it is clicked, a share of the profit goes to Twitter. The benefit for the users of the website is socialising and being able to keep in contact with friends and family.

f)

LO1: Entertainment site - YouTube

a) The purpose of YouTube is to provide entertainment for everyone. Since all content is user-created, anyone can upload videos and anyone can watch them, so it is a community of all genres. The ability to comment and rate videos using the "like" and "dislike" functions means people can receive feedback and improve their content. The target audience is all ages as there are videos of anything you can think of.

b) A visitor of YouTube would need to be able to, first of all, find a video to watch. This is catered for by the search bar or the "recommended videos" section. A visitor would also want to comment on a video to share their opinion, which can be done using the comments section, or rate a video, which can be done using the "like" and "dislike" functions. If a visitor had a channel and needed to manage an aspect of it, they could do that using a section of the homepage.

c) At the very top, and in the centre, of the YouTube homepage is the search bar, which is essential. Below this is usually a large advertisement. Located centrally further below this are the sections "recommended videos" and "trending". All of these tools help to find a video to watch. In a section to the left of the homepage are tools to manage your channel, such as "my channel" and "subscriptions". In the top right is an "upload" button for you to get your content on YouTube. While scrolling through videos after a search, they are presented centrally in a list format.Once you have located a video, the comment section is located centrally below it, while the ratings section is just under the video to the right.

d) Some of the features of YouTube are the ability to create a personal account, the ability to upload your own videos to this account, the ability to search and view search results, and the ability to comment on and rate other videos.

e) The benefit of the website for YouTube is the adverts generate revenue for them. Almost every video has some form of advert on it nowadays, and whenever they are clicked by anyone, YouTube makes money. The benefit of the site for YouTube's audience is enjoyment and entertainment from the huge variety of videos available.

f)

LO1: Advertising site - imdb

a) imdb’s purpose is to provide reviews and ratings of the latest films to come out, as well as advertising upcoming ones. You can also find showtimes for films in cinemas near you and the latest news about actors and the industry in general. The target audience for imdb would be all ages, as the site contains reviews and adverts for all films. It is probably young adults who would use it most though.

b) Users of the imdb website will need to be able to view the latest news about the film industry, and this can be done by viewing the clearly visible news feed on the homepage. They will also need to be able to search for a film that they want to find out about, which can be done using the search bar. There is also a review section for films where ratings can be viewed and left, for visitors wanting to do this. Visitors might also want to find showtimes for their local cinema, and they can do this using a  dedicated section of the website, accessible from the homepage.

c) At the centre of the homepage is the latest news about actors and films, which can be scrolled through. There is a large search bar towards the top of the website in the centre as this is key for visitors to search for the films they want to know about. It is situated underneath a large advertisement. In addition, to the right hand side of the homepage are sections for finding showtimes for your local cinemas and seeing what films are about to come out. Once you have selected a specific film to view, ratings can be left easily by clicking however many stars you want to give out of 10 under the film's title. A brief summary of what the film is about can be found just underneath this in a central position.

d) Some of the key features of the imdb site are the ability to create your own personal account, the ability to search and view results, the ability to rate and review films using your account, and the ability to view showtimes in cinemas near you.

e) The benefit of the site for imdb is imdbPRO, a different section of the website for media professionals. People can hire actors there and get industry info, but they have to pay for it. This is how imdb makes its money. For the regular imdb's audience, the benefit they get is information about films, so they can find out what to go and see and when.

f)

LO1: E-Commerce site - Amazon

a) Amazon’s purpose is to sell anything to anyone! People can search for whatever they want to buy and it will be available for a good price, usually better than in shops. You can buy either from Amazon or from third-party sellers so there is almost nothing that you can't buy. The target audience is everyone because it stocks products for all ages.

b) Since Amazon is a website which sells just about any product, visitors will need to be able to search for the item they want. They can do this by using the search bar or a drop-down menu to select the "department" they want to look in. Customers might also want to read a review of a product before buying, or leave their own review after buying. They are able to do this using the easy-to-use rate and review system.

c) The large search bar is placed centrally at the top of the homepage as an essential part of the website. Just to the left of this is the drop-down "department" menu, where you can select which area you want to shop in, for example "sports and outdoors". There is also a large advertisement placed underneath the search bar. Whilst browsing for a product, the products are shown in a list centrally and take up most of the screen. Finally, once you have selected a product, there is a clear yellow button labelled "add to basket" situated to the right of the product, and also a rating out of 5 stars shown under the product title. This can be clicked to read and write reviews.

d) The key features of Amazon are the ability to search and view search results, the ability to create your own personal account, the ability to rate and review products using the account, the shopping basket which you can use to place items for purchasing, and the "recommended items" section, which shows you items you might be interested in based on purchase history.

e) The benefit of the site for Amazon is that it gets a share of profit from sales of third-party sellers, and all of the profit from items it sells itself, which is the vast majority. This means it makes a huge amount of profit everyday. The benefit of the site for customers is that they can get any item they might want at an affordable price.

f)

LO1: Information site - BBC Bitesize

a) BBC Bitesize’s purpose is to help students from years 1 to 11 (GCSE) with their education, providing revision materials and interactive games to help with learning. It contains materials for all core subjects and detailed, concise notes. There are also quizzes and mini-tests to see how much you know. The target audience is young people from ages 5-16.

b) On BBC Bitesize, the user will need to be able to find information and interactive resources easily in order to improve their knowledge of a subject. The website caters for this in the way that there is a search bar for the user to search for their topic. Alternatively, there are user-friendly boxes to click on for each subject. Once they locate their specific topic, they will find a page of concise information and links to interactive resources such as quizzes and tests.

c) Information on the BBC Bitesize website is presented clearly. There is a bar at the top for you to select your Key Stage, and you can select your subject underneath from a range of clearly labelled boxes. Alternatively there is a search bar in the top right for you to go to a specific topic more quickly. After you have selected your topic, your information is in the centre of the page which can be scrolled through. Options for interactive resources are placed above the main body of text, while links to related areas are present to the right.

d) The key features of the BBC Bitesize website are the ability to search for the topic you want and being able to browse the information you searched for, the ability to create a "BBC ID", and the ability to play interactive games and quizzes.

e) The benefit of the site for the BBC is that it fulfils its purpose - to educate. Legally, the BBC has to inform, educate and entertain, and BBC Bitesize educates. The benefit for the users of the site - young people - is that they can get help with their schoolwork and improve their knowledge and grades.

f)