EVALUATION- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When looking back at the preliminary task I feel like my final product has progressed and developed in quality and expectation comparison to the product of the preliminary. This is because since completing my preliminary task, I have conducted significant amounts of research into areas such as user targets, colours and fonts, and a range of other existing media products of the same type. With this it had given me a sense of direction as to which my final product should follow. This has taught me the necessities of what should be included into my magazine and what I need to consider such as conventions. For example the typical reader research taught the features that I must include in order for my product to effectively engage with my desired audience target. Also the analysis of existing products gave an idea of how other successful music magazines have been constructed, highlighting the similarities amongst those products which I can then in cooperate into my own.

I have also learnt the importance of planning in order to obtain a high quality final product. This is because unlike the preliminary task, before I went onto producing my final magazine, I ensured that I went through certain planning stages to allow the outcome of the production to be smooth. For example I made sure that I had a wide range of photographs to select from and had made mock up pages which gave me a visualisation of what my final product could like. I found this very helpful as it pointed out some errors in the way I had constructed my page allowing me to re-edit the layout and arrangement of my pages. Another aspect of the planning stage that I found extremely important was the user feedbacks. This is because I was able to learn what my potential audiences views are on my proposed designs and plans for my final product. Therefore looking back from the preliminary task right to the full product, I have learnt to use research and planning to advance and make my magazine better and improved.

I have also learnt how to use new technologies and more suitable software’s/programmes since the preliminary task. The use of these programmes such as Photoshop and InDesign has showed my progression in technological development and my ability to use them efficiently. Unlike my full product, my preliminary task uses basic images; fonts and text which makes it look amateur. I also constructed the preliminary task using Microsoft PowerPoint which is not design based software. This therefore means that editing tools and manipulation tools were not available, making it difficult to correct and alter and errors. Overall I feel like over the duration of the project I feel like I have learnt a lot from my preliminary task as my final product has been advanced exceedingly in comparison to it.