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

By looking back on my ‘journey’ from my preliminary task to my final product, I have realised I’ve learnt a great deal. During the process, I have had to use many new tools and software to create my products, which I have never come across. Also, I feel as if I’ve gained an added sense of importance of planning and research, even before I started designing my product.

"MyJourney"

Software such as Dreamweaver MX was fairly new to me, whilst designing my preliminary product I was only using the basic tools in creating a web page such as, creating layers and adding content and text. In my final product I maximise the use of the software tools, there is a lot more colour, content, flash use, scroll down menus and hyperlinks. If you look back on my preliminary and compare it to my final product, there are sharp contrasts. My final product looks like a well-rounded finished website, whereas my preliminary actually does look like a first attempt.

^^Preliminary home page^^

Also, whilst designing my preliminary task I was fortunate enough to be able to refer back to the school website (www.parliamenthill.camden.sch.uk) and use it to structure my own. However, when designing my final product everything had to be my own original work and I couldn’t really refer back to anything. I’ve learnt how to create original, appropriate material for a web page without sampling from an existent product already.

^^Preliminary media page^^

Before I began working on my preliminary, I had to research into other schools and their websites. Luckily, I already knew what my product was going to be (a new school website for Parliament Hill) and knew what specific things to look for. This research helped me incorporate new things into my preliminary, such as a calendar and map.

However, when researching and planning my final product it was a lot different, I had to choose my own charity, audience and how I was going to structure it. I was able to use the skills I picked up from researching the preliminary and use them in my final products research. These skills helped me choose a cause for my charity, research similar charity websites and pin-point specific conventions I needed to use in my website. Therefore, this gave me a greater sense of importance of research and planning.

^^ Example of my research ^^