Evaluation - Question 6

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

During the construction of my music magazine, I came across six different pieces of software and technology that I have never used before. The first piece of technology that I had to use to be able to create my music magazine pages was Adobe InDesign.

Adobe InDesign was the main software that allowed me to create my front cover, contents page and double page spread professionally. Before creating my music magazine pages, I had some practice of using this software through the development of my preliminary task, which was to create a school magazine. I found it very difficult to get use to using this software when I firstly started my preliminary task seen as this piece of technology has many different tools that I have never used before. After developing my preliminary task I felt more confident when using this software, the preliminary task allowed me to believe that by the time that I came to developing my music magazine I would be able to use this software correctly and proficiently. Eventually I felt that this software was easy to use and therefore was very useful during the time that I spent creating my music magazine. I believe that my music magazine wouldn't have been as good if I had not got to grips with this piece of technology.

Before starting my preliminary task I had also never used Blogger. Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows you to track your work step by step, I tried to blog regularly about what decisions or changes I had made during the development of my preliminary task but mostly during the time that I spent creating my music magazine. I found that blogger was very easy to use, it allowed me to present my work in a sophisticated way. On my blogger account I uploaded drawn drafts of my magazine pages, drafts of my developed pages by saving them as a JPEG on my memory stick, image options, primary and secondary research on music magazines and information about my target audience.

I used a digital camera to capture my images for my magazine pages, instead of using another type of camera, so that I was able to produce images that had better quality which made my images look more professional. Also I felt that using a digital camera was beneficial as it provides a flash, which I used when taking some images inside where there wasn't much natural lighting. This piece of technology was an exception as I had already used a digital camera before my magazine pages.

 Photoshop is an image-editing software that allows you to alter a digital photographic image. During the development of my magazine pages I didn't use this software much, I only used Photoshop for my main image of the band 'Rage City' on the front cover of my music magazine, by removing the background of this image. I removed the background of this image by using the background eraser tool. Even though I only used one function of this software, which was the eraser tool, I still found Photoshop quite easy to use. It didn't take me too long to get used to how it worked it was pretty straight forward, although it did take quite a long time to use as removing the background was time consuming.

PowerPoint is a software package that is designed to create electronic presentations which consists of a series of separate pages or slides. PowerPoint was also a software that I had already used before, just like the use of the digital camera.  During the development of my magazine pages I used this software a few times to be able to present my progress in PowerPoint form on my blog, I did this by uploading my PowerPoint through my slide share account. I used PowerPoint specifically to present my target audience questionnaire, my target audience focus group results which related to my masthead options, my music magazines contents page draft and whilst answering question five in my evaluation. I believe that PowerPoint presentation is very useful as it allows my blog to look more appealing as it is a different way of posting my updated progress other than just using plain tradition blog posts.

Prezi is an online application, just like slide share. Prezi is another way of showing your work instead of using traditional blog posts, it allows you to make your blog look more appealing. It has a similar purpose to PowerPoint seen as it is an alternative way of creating a presentation. During the development of my preliminary task, I was firstly introduced to this online application. I found Prezi quick and easy to use, it wasn't hard to understand. Prezi's creative template designs allow my blog to look more attractive as it allows my written content to be displayed in a more appealing visual format.


During the development of my magazine pages, the internet has helped me dramatically with my work. Similarly to Adobe InDesign, the internet has been the main foundation of  my music magazine progress. I wouldn't have been able to carry out a lot of the tasks without the internet because I wouldn't have been able to access blogger, prezi, and slideshare. Also the internet has provided me with beneficial secondary music magazine research which helped me during my decision making process.