Audio Copyright

Music copyright it the legal protection given to the music creator. Copyright makes sure recording artists, composers and musicians have a chance to be recognised and paid for their work.

Creative commons is material that can be copied and used, without breaking any legal rules. It is a non-profit organisation that enables the sharing and use of creative works available for other to build upon legally.

Fair use is where content can be used under certain circumstances legally. For example, educational purposes and news reporting. It can mean that you can copy copyrighted material without needing permission from the owner.

Royalty free is where the content is available for the public to use and does not need the contact of the creator for a licence to use their work. However this does not necessarily mean that it is free to purchase.

Watch Craft Toy Poster

Here is the poster that I have designed on Adobe Illustrator for my construction toy idea:

I made sure it was very bright and colourful as this would attract a younger age range, which is the main target audience of this product.

I added a title and small areas of text, so that the audience want to read on, to find out more about the product and an explanation of what piece does what. I kept the text to minimum, as I think this would distract the audience from the image design on the poster. I also think the hierarchy on this poster is the larger images in the centre and this could intrigue the audience and make them want to gain knowledge on the product.

Adding Hover States

A hover state is when a user hovers the curser over a link on a web page. For example when you hover over a topic heading that is a link, it could change colour or become underlined. Here is some research images that I screenshot from other websites that have this hover feature:

Before

When hovered

Before

When hovered

On my desktop website design, I have added some hover states to make it easy for the user to see what they are about to click. Here are the screenshots from my website:

Hover state no.1:

Before

When hovered

Hover state no.2:

Before

When hovered

Hovers can be in a more general sense, for example when hovering over either links, icons, images, windows or just objects on the page.

My Perfume Website Homepage

I have designed my website homepage for both desktop and mobile viewing, this is a screenshot of my desktop version:

I have made sure that all the type is within the guidelines and that everything has equal spacing between each segment of the website so far. I have kept the main layout quite simple because I think this works best for the product, as I want it to comes across high end and classy to my target audience. Whereas if this was more cluttered with lots of text and information, this can be quite over-whelming and therefore does not have a good user experience.

The CTA (call to action) on this website is the 'Buy now' button. I have put this near the top on the main product image, this is so the user can clearly see how and where to purchase the product, without scrolling or trying to find the link.

Here is a screenshot of my mobile version of the website homepage:

This was harder to design because I wanted to stick to the same layout as the desktop, however this would be appear too small and would be hard to navigate across the site for the user. I made sure to increase the sizes of all the important text, so it is clear and easy to read and click. On the other hand, this can take up a lot of space, and some major design layouts needed to be changed. For example the two middle images are next to each other on the desktop version and on the mobile version, they are placed vertically. This makes it easier to see the information without having to zoom.

I have the same CTA button on the mobile version so it is easily recognisable and understandable to the target audience. Again placed at the top, for quick and easy access for the user.

All the photos on the website I have taken myself, and all images appear on both the desktop and mobile version. I took quite a variety of photographs, however the ones on the website were the final photos. Here are the other images that I could have chose:

I picked the best quality and the more simplistic images, as this works best with the theme and style of my website.

On both platforms I made sure to organise all my layers on Adobe Photoshop, so I can clearly see whats what. Here is what the organisation looks like:

I colour coded and created folders according to which part of the website I was working on. As you can see above, I have separate groups for the header and the footer of the website homepage, so if it comes to having to move them, I can just click on the folder to move the whole segment.

Here is what it looks like within one of the folders:

This I found very helpful because before I would have to search through every layer to find what I wanted and would take a lot longer than just having it all there for you already.

I designed these website layouts from my wireframes that I created, here is a link to my website wireframes blogpost.

I have also completed a blog on website hover states.

Piano Recording Test

Today I decided to test out different recording methods of me playing the piano. Also it gave me an idea of which method will be best for when I record the final audio on my piano at home. This is just an experiment of sound, as the piano used is not the best of quality and therefore would sound quite different to mine at home. Although this helps me to figure out the best set up of equipment at home. As well as recording from different positions and angles, I used different recorders also, so I can develop a sense of how the music will sound.

The recorder that I used was the handheld zoom H4N and the microphones I used were the Rode NTG1 and Sure SM58 dynamic vocal. I also used the Rode mic with and without the wind shield.

Here is a link to a test recording I did, to experiment with the audio and to be made aware of the quality of each device used. Here is an example.

Communication Platforms

Today we looked at communication platforms. Radio as a communication tool is good because the audiences are focussed on one aspect of the platform, which is sound. There are different purposes of radio including, the latest news or music/talking for entertainment. For example Radio One's target audience would be fairly young ranging from 15-30, because of their contemporary music choices and comical speech. Whereas on the other hand the demographic for Radio 4 is much older, as the radio station tends to stick more to conversational content.

Next we looked at Ofcom. Ofcom is a regulating authority for communication industries in the Uk. They also deal with complaints and can offer advise for businesses. Ofcom regulate communication services including; phones, internet, TV, radio and post.

For example, if you were in a TV programme and/or weren't happy with the viewing experience, Ofcom can deal with your complaints. Also Ofcom have a claim to protect children from harmful or inappropriate material, as well as advising parents on guidance for protecting their children in the digital world.

I have picked this article on the Telegraphs website:

Changes to Responsive Online Shops

A lot of company's that have online shops, tend to have a website that is clear and user friednly on both desktop and mobile. The screen should shrink smaller when on a mobile, however it should aslo adapt so the text and images are clear and easy to press/read.

For example the Amazon website adapts to different sizes depending on how big or small the desktop or mobile you are using. Here is a screenshot of Amazon's website on both desktop and mobile platforms.