My Target Audience

I know that in this project the content of our site doesn't really matter but the content determines my target audience. I've already discovered after looking into the bands/musicians that I want include within my event that their individual target audiences (and therefore my target audience) is incredibly wide. Events like Glastonbury and Reading also have wide and eclectic audiences so I'm not to perturbed by this but in order to manage my audience I'm going to break my event down into segments.

Because there are different audiences for the different musicians I have opted to take a leaf out of Glastonbury's book and have decided to separate my acts out depending on time of day which will also be reflected in the layout of my site.

Lorde has a younger and female oriented target audience placed between ages16 and 25 so giving her the afternoon slot seems more appropriate since It's more family friendly (I know this doesn't really matter in terms of design but its going to be reflected in the navigation and the information hierarchy of the site).

Day One:

Afternoon

Support Act: Daughter

Main Act: Lorde


Evening

Support Act: Sound of the Crowd

Main Act: Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode is more popular with an older audience (swaying more towards males) between the ages 30 and 45.  They are a much bigger act which is why they have taken the evening headline evening slot- again this is something I will capitalise on in terms of my sites overall layout.

I have also tried to keep what I would class as similar music genres together on the same day in order to keep everything more organised and thematic (Lorde and Depeche Mode are more pop orientated hence why they share the same day).


Day 2

Afternoon

Support Act: Bat For Lashes

Main Act: Paloma Faith

Again Paloma Faith has a younger and female orientated target audience 25 to 40 year olds (although this is is similar to Modes I think that Faith's music genre appeals to a wider array of people).


Evening:

Support act: Arcade Fire

Main act: Nick Cave

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds has an older, male orientated target audience, again I think he's a bigger act hence the evening slot but I do think he has a more specified audience and a darker music genre which is why he's better suited for the evening. 

I know that this really doesn't matter in terms of content, but it does help to divide up and manage my various audiences and gives me a clear idea of how to present my information on my site.

User Testing

Although I am nowhere near at the stage to start user testing- I wanted to look at into it now - before I build my site so I know what I need to consider when I build.

The article below best displays the various elements I need to consider:

At this stage (pre design/build) I need to remember the following:

Essentially my target audience is a crucial factor to the overall design and is an element I should consider throughout the entirety of the design process (this was already a very clear aspect for me but I feel like its good to emphasise this).  

The navigation is inherently important along with my sites overall framework and layout- it needs to be clear and familiar in order to ensure usability (again I have been considering both these elements throughout my research but again I feel like it's good to clarify).

Source: http://www.sitepoint.com/usability-testing-vital-success/ 

Butters, K. (2013). Why Usability Testing Is Vital To Success. Available: http://www.sitepoint.com/usability-testing-vital-success/. Last accessed October 2014

Usability/User Experience

Before I begin designing/building my site I think its crucial that I look into usability so I can get an idea of what I can do to ensure that my site is usable. I stumbled upon the Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests By Jeffrey Rubin, Dana Chisnell which offered a lot of clarification on the subject and how it can be achieved.

The first chapter begins by exploring what usability actually means and has been defined as the following:

"when a product or service is truly usable, the user can do what he or she wants to do the way that he or she expects to be able to do it, without hindrance, hesitation or questions [...] to be useable a product or service should be useful, efficient, effective, satisfying, learnable and accessible" (Rubin and Chisnell, 2008, p. 4)



Essentially I need to consider the following before and whilst building my site:

It's Usefulness- As an events page I think my website is inherently useful anyway - making an event/festival page manages the whole event and makes it easier for the target audience to determine the times/acts/venues etc.

It's Efficiency- My event site should be organised so that my content is easy to find.

User Satisfaction-  It's overall user experience. This was previously established by Rubin and Chisnell "the user can do what he or she wants to do in a way that she or she expects to do it" (2008, p. 4).

The User Experience- As I understand it the user experience refers mostly to the user's emotions (it directly relates to the satisfaction category). If my site is successful then user's should feel happy and satisfied after looking at my website. My site should fulfil its purpose and should hopefully ensure user happiness.

This is best exemplified by Peter Merholz (a user experience expert at the company Adaptive Path) who iterates that "the experience IS the product and the only thing users care about" (2008, p2)

It's Learnability- How well/quickly users understand functions/aspects of my site

It's Accessibility - I must consider all type of users (although I guess I'll mostly be aiming my site at my specific target audience).

Sources: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LyLSSg_a5kQC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Jeffrey Rubin, Dana Chisnell. (2008). What Makes Something Usable. In:  Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests. 2nd ed. USA: Wiley Publishing INC. 4-10.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=VgwSW2y29FEC&oi=fnd&pg=PP10&dq=Peter+Merholz,+Adaptive+Path&ots=rjJmbHTJTY&sig=utZGssQLCafm8pcD8oyFs9G8VDk#v=onepage&q=Peter%20Merholz%2C%20Adaptive%20Path&f=false
Merholz, P. Wilkins, T. Verba, D. Schauer,B (2008). Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World. Sebastopol: O'Reilly INC. 2.

SEO Yoast Plugin

Since I now have an understanding of what SEO is I've looked more into SEO plugins. The Yoast plugin was one that we were recommended in our Brighton Wordpress workshop, its reliable, easy to use and very popular.

Keyword Optimisation

Source:http://itecdigital.org.uk/ba/ba00017/wp-admin/post.php?post=8&action=edit

I had a bit of a play with the Yoast application on some of my dummy site pages just to see how easy it was to use. It actually seems fairly straightforward - and its easy to see when its best optimised and when it isn't. In the example above, I have really emphasised my keywords throughout the page which has ensured its optimisation. 

Content Optimisation

Because I haven't got relevant content it cannot be optimised fully (but on my actual event page I plan on trying to find relevant or similar content so this will be rectified).

Source:http://itecdigital.org.uk/ba/ba00017/wp-admin/post.php?post=8&action=edit

SEO

SEO (or search engine optimisation) is a process that helps to rank your site on search engines. Search engines rely on keywords to generate these rankings (in order to help users find relevant information). The higher the ranking in a search engine the more traffic a site will get because its easier for users to navigate to, most websites will want to be as high up on search engines such as google or yahoo for this reason.


The video below explains SEO and how to best optimise a site:




Ive explained the key points in the video below (just to provide additional clarification for myself).

KEYWORDS- Using repeated keywords throughout a page will make it easier for search engines to pick up on. So if someone were to search the term "music festival brighton" and these words were included within my site a search engine would see those words and my page would be classed as relevant and ranked accordingly.

TITLES- Search engines also use titles to determine relevance

LINKS- The more links a site has the more "respectable" it appears and is more likely to be ranked as important because of this.

This is best highlighted by Content Harmony (a company that specialise in marketing) who state that  "links (both from other websites as well as the links within your own site) are important to SEO because there is a direct correlation between quality/quantity of links to your site and how much search traffic your site receives" (2014).

Sources: http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF515-0Tduk#t=185

http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/how-search-engines-operate

http://www.contentharmony.com/qa/why-are-links-important-for-seo/

Other Wordpress Sites

In order to get a better idea of what is possible to create in Wordpress I decided to look into other peoples Wordpress sites to see how they have designed and styled theirs. I mostly just want to get an idea of what is possible to create. 

Home Page

I really like the styling of this website, whilst the overall navigation and layout seems pretty standard (logo in top left, navigation bar across the top of the screen- including a search bar on the right) the personalisation really makes it unique. The introduction of various hand drawn images helps to highlight certain sections and and helps to cement the overall brand. Using visual images (hand drawn or photographical) is a common element in many of the sites that I have looked into which makes  it visually more interesting but it also ensures overall usability because the navigation is further emphasised through these images.

Page 1

The actual pages have been split into columns which segments the content, additional side navigation further refines the content but the rest of the features evident on the home page remain in place as constant important informational elements.

Sources: http://www.thisisyourkingdom.co.uk/category/places-to-potter-and-shop/

http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/examples-wordpress-11121165

Home

The next site I looked into was created by a design company which explains why its so heavy on graphics. Its home page opens with one fill the page image (their logo). After scrolling down, the remaining content is divided into three segments featuring three column images and large across the pages spreaders. Very little of the content is text based - which I actually think helps keep the content interesting. It relies on its visuals to sell itself which keeps everything understandable and easy to use.

Scroll Page

Sources: http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/examples-wordpress-11121165

http://ishothim.com/

Home

Out of all of the Wordpress sites I have looked at this is probably my favourite. It's heavy on style but incredibly simple- content is kept visual or to a minimum which keeps it interesting. Theres a fun cartoon element incorporated in the branding which is reflected in the work that they do and I like how the softer blue colour schemes is broken up by bold block orange sections.

Gallery Page

Sources:http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/examples-wordpress-11121165

http://www.jessmarksphotography.com.au/gallery/portraits/

My Chosen Bands

During the summer I kept in practice by drawing some of my favourite bands/musicians and I'd very much like to include them within my event. Looking at their individual websites should help me to determine who my target audience is (it's going to be fairly wide) and help provide some inspiration for branding/logos/event identity. As well as this, as musicians they have their own news/tourdates/events and merchandise pages so it will also be useful for me to look at how these have been presented so I can think about how to present these pages for my own event.

Nick Cave

Nick Cave is an Australian musician that started playing in the 80's, he lives in Brighton and is part of two other bands Grinderman and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. His genre of music (and its target audience) is hard to determine (especially since I am a fan myself). However looking at it objectively I think that his music falls into the alternative rock category - it's defiantly quirky which I think has been displayed in his sites styling. Strangely considering he's released many albums  he doesn't have an official logo but I like how the opening page really helps to cement him as is own brand by making it the central focal point. Again top bar navigation keeps everything organised whilst the black and white styling keeps everything sleek and classy. Colour is integrated into the background images when hovered over and I like how visually the home page has been divided into 4 main sections- it helps with the overall usability and navigation and simultaneously presents information with a sense of hierarchy.

News Page

Each of the pages are laid out in the same way as the news page below (excluding the shop). The use of tiles separates various categories of information the images flipping over when hovered upon. When clicked on it takes you to another page with further information on that specific category. Additional side navigation is introduced  to further separate the content (something to consider for my event to ensure ease of use). Specific colours on the main page headings help to define the sections and I like how the use of tiles combined with images keeps everything well organised and easy to navigate. 

Source:http://nickcave.com/news/2014/

Other than the opening home page the rest of Nick Cave's website is fairly nondescript, the black and white colour scheme has been continued throughout but other than that the site is actually fairly basic which matches the cool smoothness of Nick Cave's brand.

After looking at his site I'm going to say that his target audience is very wide but aimed more at males between the ages of 25-40.

Paloma Faith

Paloma Faith is a British singer who is incredibly quirky- she has a very retro/vintage style and I think this is very much reflected in her website. Her entire site has a great sense of narrative which really engages the user. The swirly logo/name really emphasises the retro elegance of her own branding and the whole sites design is reminiscent of old fashioned tarot cards; its dark, dramatic and vintage. The dark vintage theme links directly to Faith's music genre which I would arguably place within alternative pop. 

 First Scroll Page

The sense of story (explained through various lyric) is further continued on the first page (you enter the site through a basic home entrance page and then come to a second which is this long first page) as you scroll down various visuals (that are actually really well drawn and animated) and additional character information are supplied. The name/logo remains constantly at the top with navigation occupying the bottom line of the page (another constant). Whilst I like the idea of the whole narrative I think the site is almost too complicated- although you can navigate away at any time- these additional elements seem superfluous. Of course my events page would be more generalised anyway due to it's nature (as a festival site) but I can appreciate that Faith's site is aimed to entertain and engage her fans. 

News Page

Source:http://www.palomafaith.com/

Faith's news page is actually incredibly simple in comparison to the rest of her site, information has been segmented using block rectangles. The red, black and turquoise colour scheme has been continued throughout and though this specific page has a simplistic layout its kept in theme through the overall styling.

Again Faith's audience seems to be very eclectic (much like Cave's) but I would place her market as 25-40 year old females.

Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode is an electro pop band formed in the 80's. Out of all of the musicians I have looked into I think they are the most well known. There logo is very distinctive and has been placed within two areas on any of the site's pages, in the top left corner and the bottom left hand corner. It remains in both of these places as the user navigates through the site. This really elucidates the overall Depeche Mode brand which is further continued in the rest of the site. Its home page is broken into sections- triangle shapes that match the logo - contain various pieces of information. Much like Cave's site, these triangles navigate to corresponding pages. 

News Page

Source:http://www.depechemode.com/

Again like Nick Cave's site the Depeche Mode's news page (and its other pages) features additional side navigation which makes it easier to manage the content. The overall navigation remains locked on the bottom of the page (like Faith's and Lorde's). The bottom navigation bar balances the overall page layout and helps to frame the central content. Depeche Mode use a clean black and white colour scheme which matches there overall branding and 80's cool electro pop genre.

Because they come from the same era and because they are both alternative I would say that Nick Cave and Depeche mode share a similar target audience 30-45 year olds.

Lorde

Source:http://lorde.co.nz/

Lorde strangely doesn't have a website and out of all of the artists I have drawn she's probably the one that doesn't fit with the others. Whilst her genre of music can be classed as alternative (somewhat electronic) pop her target market is definitely a younger audience than the others 16- 25 year old's (swaying more towards females).  Lorde seems to have a very strong social network presence however which is where she posts her videos/tourpages/music/news.

I think that much like Glastonbury my event is going to have a very wide audience (I'm going to include at least 2 and possibly three more acts) in order to balance out the wide array of genres and audiences  of the bands I have drawn portraits for. Although I intend to stick to alternative pop in order to have a vaguely cohesive genre.