Reflective post

Today is the third of December and the long-awaited end of the first term has come, so I decided to write a summary of the last few weeks of Digital Art. It was both an interesting and exhausting time in my life. The last 9 weeks were extremely intense, comparable only to the military course I took a few years ago in the Navy:) 

During these few weeks I gained many new skills, such as using graphic or video editing programs. I also learned how to write my own blog and create a portfolio website. This skills may be useful in the future, because both the blog and the site will be my showcase and may help me attract new customers. Furthermore, I was trying out new things at this time, like shooting and editing my own video. The experience I gained during this work will certainly help me improve my filmmaking skills in the future. And more importantly, I met many wonderful people with whom I not only have the pleasure of studying, but also of going to the pub or for dinner at the Food Village.

All these experiences helped me understand what my shortcomings are and what I need to change in the future. Now I know that I have to improve my time management and study skills, which will make further learning easier. Moreover, I have to spend more time to self-study and of course make better researches, which I will try to do next term. 

Overall, I rate this semester's activities positively and hope that the next terms will be similarly pleasant, though I would prefer them to be less intense.

Culture Shock: Final Film and reflections

 

In this post I would like to present the final result of my work on the 'Culture Shock' project. Below I present my film and my reflections about it and the process of its creation.

Reflections

The main idea of creating my film was to show the problems that international students face after coming to the UK. This topic is really close to me as I am also a student from another country. 

Initially, I intended to create a film containing interviews with three students, but over time I realised that such a format might be too boring and uninviting for my audience. After watching the movie 'Bowling for Columbine' by Michael Moore, I decided to change my design a bit. Like him, I added humorous elements, which helped my film become more entertaining. Moreover, instead of the typical interview that I planned to do at the beginning, my characters gave a short monologue about their experiences after moving to the UK, which makes the film easier to watch and more natural.

Overall, I am satisfied with the final effect of my work, but there are some shortcomings that I will try to improve in subsequent projects. 

First of all, in the future I will have to pay more attention to the quality of video and sound recordings, which unfortunately are not satisfactory for me this time. When recording outdoors, I will need to use better quality microphones and camera stands due to wind and other weather conditions.

Secondly, in the future, when recording interviews or monologues, I will use scripts for actors, because without them they have problems speaking and expressing their thoughts.

Finally, I am considering using another, more advanced video processing program that will allow me to better process the recordings and create smoother transitions between scenes.

Website Feedback and UX Testing

To evaluate my webpage I made a Google Form with inquiries about the functionality of my website. The form was then integrated into the navigation bar in tab Contact. After that, I launched my website. The class was given my address so they could test my website and respond to inquiries on my feedback form. I will evaluate the comments and describe my response in this post. I received thirteen answers to my questions; below are the comments and my answers to each.

Every respondent said my homepage was good or excellent. Overall, I'm happy with it, but I'm still thinking about changing the quote I posted.

Similarly to my homepage, all respondents said that the mobile view of my website was good or very good. Nevertheless, I will try to check all the details again and correct any errors if I find them.

Almost all of respondents think that the writing of my about page is good or very good. I'll have to think again if I can write it better. 

As you can see, my contact page received positive feedback, most then 75 percent respondents think that my contact page is excellent. But someone found this page fair and it still need improvement.

My portfolio website had a very good reception, all respondents said it was good or excellent.

All respondents rated that my social links work good or excellent.

All respondents said that my navigation works very well. After checking all connections between the pages, I am sure that everything works smoothly.

Most respondents think that the consistency of my website is good, but 3 of them have some reservations. I will have to re-examine this aspect and make corrections.

All comments regarding experiences after checking my website were positive, which makes me extremely happy because it proves that my website fulfills its function.

My last question was what you would change about my website. I received constructive feedback that helped me correct the things I did wrong. For example i have to add more information in my biography and replace the colorful lenses on social media, because there are out of the colour scheme.

In conclusion, feedback turned out to be very useful, thanks to it I know which elements of my website require improvement.