LO4: Client and Focus group feedback

During early stages of editing, I sent out a SurveyMonkey questionnaire to classmates that were studying a similar genre for their magazine to help improve my early draft pages and gain feedback. I asked them what they think could be improved on each page.

Contents Page:

 This is the version of the contents page I sent in my survey for feedback.

Although my contents page was further progressed in production than my other pages at the time of creating the survey, the feedback is still useful as it helped to improve slight imperfections for the finalised version.

The first piece of feedback gained for the contents page isn't useful as I had already planned to fill the gap with my Masthead. They suggested I fill the gap with an image, however this wouldn't fit the design plan and would make the page look unbalanced.

The second bit of feedback I gained was to fill the gap in the top right of the page. This was helpful as it made me realise I can use a feature I created for my previous version of page design to fill the gap.

This is the next version of the Contents page I created with help from the feedback:

From the feedback I added the page number design to the top corner which helped to balance out the page and make it look/feel more complete. It helps to create a strong page structure that feels very formal, connoting the genre and helping to complete the finer details of the page.

Double Page Spread:

This is the version of the DPS I sent in my survey for feedback.

The feedback gained for this page was very valuable as it was at the earliest stages of production when I sent out the survey. The first comment mentioned that the body copy would be on the page crease when I add it as the image design doesn't take up half the DPS. This was beneficial as it helped me improve my design to one that would take up a larger space whilst still using the area effectively so that the body copy will be completely on the right page of the DPS so that its clear and easy to read.

The second feedback for the page was also useful as it helped me understand what issues I had with the page so that I could re-arrange my page to be in a more effective layout. However I didn't take their suggestion of how I could improve the blue area as I felt it was detrimental to the design and was going to be removed all together.

This is the next version of the DPS I created with help from the feedback:

From the feedback I moved the image design to take up half the DPS, this was effective as it created a more uniform design overall and conforms to magazine conventions, as the design was improved with the consideration that the page will be printed out and put in a magazine amongst many more pages. Based on the feedback, I also made the image of the model much smaller, this allowed me to make more space for the title and show off a more interesting design as the image wasn't taking up as much of the page as it was in the previous version.

Front cover:

This is the version of the front cover I sent in my survey for feedback.

The first piece of feedback wasn't very helpful as I had already planned on adding my masthead, I just hadn't gotten around to it as I wanted to improve other elements of my page first. 

The second piece of feedback however was useful as it helped me realise that the text itself is in an area of the page where it's too dark, making it too difficult to read. I took their suggestion of changing the colour of the text as it was too dark to fit in with the more brighter toned page, and was difficult to read as it was in one of the only darker areas of the image.

This is the version of the front cover I created with help from the feedback. 

The feedback helped me realise that I needed to move the text to a more easy to read location and change the colour to a brighter shade of the blue. It also allowed me to improve the layout of the main cover line to be more interesting/dynamic. This was because moving the text made it so that the main cover line was no longer limited by the line of text that introduced it, so I could layer the text on different levels. 

I sent the more developed pages (that I created from the questionnaire feedback) to my client to gain addition feedback and ensure that they were happy with the designs. I had also previously sent my client the drafts during early stages of production so that they could see the developments I was making and improve the more basic designs.

Below are the images of the feedback my client gave by literally annotating the pages. They gave positive feedback such as (to paraphrase) "like the incorporation of chamber blue into design" and "improved presentation". This was very useful as I was able to know about what features worked effectively so that I would know what not to change and what to incorporate more into my work. This is what I should have also asked about in the survey, as knowing the positive feedback from a focus group would have been just as effective and useful as knowing the constructive criticism. My client did also give constructive criticism which was also just as effective in helping me change what didn't work such as "dark shades seem out of place- find a way to make more prevalent". This was useful as it allowed me to fulfil the SPH brief much better in creating a magazine that can specifically target a genre of people that the client specialises in.

Here is the evidence that demonstrates my constant feedback from the client throughout production to help improve my magazine: