What have you learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing this product?

The Research StageI could have done without technology when gathering information from Google and official music Magazine websites like NME and Q. I could have gathered the same information, examples of covers and idea’s from going to the shop and looking at the magazine.

I gathered both primary and secondary information research using technical resources. The strengths for using technology in this stage is pretty obvious, as there is a wide range of information on internet all easily accessible. The internet allows us to easily copy images for us to analyse and the internet also allowed me to gather my own primary research a lot easier too.

I used Survey Monkey to carry out my own questionnaires to find out my target audiences preferences. I also used Facebook and Twitter to advertise and persuade people to quickly do my questionnaire to gather results easier and cheaper. However I could have done all of this research without using technology, but I found no weaknesses of using technology in this stage. I presented most my findings on Microsoft PowerPoint.

The Planning StageWithin the planning stage I think I used the most technology. However I think I could have done the planning process without using technology. I like to have my ideas set out in front of me so would have probably preferred to of had done my planning in a sketch book set out like a mood board. The writing for my article could also have been done using pen and paper.

However finding and choosing suitable fonts for my genre of magazine would have been hard if I did not have access to the internet. Using websites like 1001fonts and dafont, helped me do this. Also, as we were required to take our own photographs, it would have been impossible to have completed my magazine without a camera and image viewing software or to have planned my magazine without having images. That would be going strongly against the conventions of a magazine.

Another reason I would have preferred to design by hand is because I feel I would have been able to experiment with designs and ideas more freely as I felt quite restricted with what I could do on Word and PowerPoint. In this stage I found that I had started to have problems with space on my user area. Some of my work wasn’t saving and I was needing to do work more than once. I also started having problems with my Blogger which is where we were storing and presenting out work. It wasn’t allowing me to upload or view any work in certain places which was a big problem and pushes me more to the idea of a using a sketchbook instead of a blog.

The Production StageIn the production stage I used Adobe CS3 Photoshop. I have never l used Photoshop before and I really struggled getting to understand layers. However using Photoshop enabled me to make my magazine look professional with all the different effects I could do to it helped me keep to the conventions of a magazine.

Using Photoshop helped me sort out images that weren’t quite right for my magazine and to cut parts out using the polygon lasso tool. I was also able to change the saturation of images To make them more similar to the photo’s in which you see on my mood board and style sheet, helping it appeal to my audience. It took me a while to understand using Photoshop and this did lead to me being quite behind on my work. I would not have been able to complete the production process without using technology.

The Evaluation StageIn the evaluation stage I have used Blogger, Powerpoint, Slideshareand the internet to grab images when needed. Again I feel I could have done without as I could have printed all images needed and presented my work quite smartly, answering all questions on paper.

For the first time throughout my project I used Slideshare to present my work on the blog. At the beginning of the project I struggled using Slideshare and had errors.

A strength of using technology in this stage is being able to quickly grab information, print screens and images from my work from the last couple month easily. I was also able to create hyperlinks to my work and to the other websites that were relevant to my project.