Evaluation Question Six

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Probably the most important technology I used throughout the making of my product was Adobe InDesign. Without this software my product wouldn't exist, it helped me create all my magazine pages with quality and sophistication that can be seen on the most professional of pages. It wasn't an easy experience, at first it was a very hard time, as I couldn't adapt to the software straightaway. However as soon as I did, I learnt how to make a magazine cover, contents and article page. I learnt that imitating a real magazine page and drafting it's structure is way more beneficial than just drafting your own structure, as it looks way more professional and sophisticated. The process of layering, was at first a very challenging part of the making of the magazine page. However once I had learnt it's process, I realised how important and beneficial the process of layering is to a page. Without it the page would be very one dimensional. The actual process of making a good looking double paged article was a big challenge, that significantly had eased by InDesign's marvellous software. InDesign has little touches on how to make sure everything is in line, equal in size, how to change the colouring/size. These "little touches" helped me dramatically as I arguably haven't been the most well equipped with the technology required to succeed in the task. Overall with InDesign I learnt how sophisticated modern day software is. I have learnt that the making of a single (never mind three) page(s) can be a lengthy experience, but the best thing to do is to not only stick to it, but be confident with what you see on the InDesign draft. One of the hardest things I did was say that the pages were done, I knew that I could have done better in some areas but I had to let go. Even though I knew they looked good on InDesign, I couldn't believe anyone would appreciate them in real life, so I had to learn to trust technology which took a while.


A crucial software in the recording of my product was/is Blogger. Blogger has given me the perfect platform to record all my magazine's drafts, pictures and evaluations, in a very accessible setting. Blogger is a very easy site to where I can blog, save and then edit posts, so all my posts are at the best quality they can be.  I have learnt that it is very easy to get noticed on the web, the number of page views I have from this blog alone proves this. I have also learnt the detail people have to put in to achieve an effective and intricate analysis/evaluation, is very, very high. This is something I have tried to replicate on my blog. I have also learnt that presenting blogs with pictures/videos is a much more preferred visually than just having a blog with masses of lines, because readers don't want to just move their head left, to right with no engaging features - again something I've attempted to incorporate into my blog.

Another crucial software in the making of my magazine pages is the software Photoshop. Without this software my magazine pictures wouldn't look as professional as they do. This software has enabled me to edit the pictures to the degree of cutting, pathing, and clipping the pictures. At first (like InDesign) it was hard to adjust to level of technology but after I did, it greatly benefitted the quality of pages. An example of how beneficial the software has been is in the picture to left. The picture is the very first draft of the picture on my front cover.
Below it, is one of the final drafts of the front cover, which has on it, the very final draft of the photo after editing it in Photoshop.

The obvious enhancements include the colouring and the cutting of the background. But this shows the degree of software Photoshop truly is. From editing my product on this software I have learnt that the editing process can be a very long and frustrating process as it is a very easy place to make mistakes and ruin the edit. I have also learnt that the editing sequence is essential part of the magazine making business. Without nicely edited photos pages on magazines would look bland and boring, whilst edited photos bring words, features and the photos themselves off the page and so, begin to look more eye-catching.

The software Prezi has been a very useful piece of software to present information in a more engaging way. It allows me to have presentations rather than normal blog posts and this keeps the reader more engaged. It allows me to experiment with the information I share to the reader, in a either more complicated or simpler format. The presentations can contain an awful lot of information which makes the job easier, however it can (in some cases) be more confusing to handle. The software of Prezi made me learn there are more engaging and exciting ways to present information, this is something Ive tried to show in my Prezis and work. Another thing I've learnt from using this technology is that it is easier and appealing to the reader to group a chunk of information and then present that, rather than talking heavily on the whole spectrum.

The Digital Camera was such a helpful piece of kit, interms of making my magazine, without the camera my pictures wouldn't exist and a magazine without pictures wouldn't exist. Yes, I could have used a phone or lesser quality camera to take my pictures, however the quality of my pictures would have dropped. This was something that I felt couldn't happen, as in real magazine pages - all the photos are of the highest quality. By using the Digital Camera I learnt that the picture and its details have to be so fine. The lighting, the positioning of the model (and camera), the background, the colour etc have to be perfect to get the right shot. This was something that in my first couple of pictures, I struggled with but I soon got the hang of it by taking a lot of the same photos with different lighting, background, colouring etc to experiment and realise what pictures were best versions .