Evaluation
Part A
The Logo
I created an original logo for my lion shelter. The CAB requirements for the logo were that it was compulsory for it to be created by yourself, to use up to two colours and be saved in a format that can be used in your products. I had met all the requirements in order to achieve the best grade possible. I have chosen a lion wearing a crown to be the centre of the logo as it shows the importance of lions in the world we live in and to protect them from any harm that could be in their way and also to protect them from mass extinction. I decided to include the name of the shelter to illuminate our name and brand and to represent our good name. I decided to use the colour grey to portray the value of lions in our lives today which is pretty much nothing. The colour yellow crystallises the pride of our shelter and our willingness to help the lions who need our help.
The Web Banner
I created a web banner that invites people to visit my shelter’s website: ‘Lions Need U Now’. I decided to include a brief story of what happens to thousands of lions each and every single day in order to emphasise the harsh and critical time’s lion’s face. This would also encourage people to donate and perhaps volunteer for my shelter. Also I had met the CAB requirements which were to include the name and logo of the shelter also to include some animation and to use one of suggested standard sizes for the web banner, sizes included: 300 x 600 pixels, 720 x 300 pixels, 240 x 400 pixels and 728 x 90 pixels. I had chosen the standard size of 720 x 300 pixels. My animation included the killing of a lion which is used for food or luxury items this would make the audience feel sympathetic towards the lions and would force them to donate and volunteer as a worker or carer at ‘Lions Need U Now’s ’ shelter. In the mid development of my web banner I had asked my test feedback buddy some advice on how to improve it and to alter things which didn’t fit within the web banner. Feedback which I had received was very good except the fact that to make the time frame a bit longer, to engage with the audience a bit more and to have clip art images in order to achieve a higher grade. So with this feedback I had decided to include a short brief story about what perhaps lions feel about cruelty they face in which they feel they should be let out free to do anything they want hence I included an animation of a lion playing baseball and hitting a home run. I had found some clip art images and replaced the old images with the new clip art images. Also to engage with the audience I included facts about lions and how they can help to put a stop to lion cruelty by donating a couple of pounds a month.
The Survey
I conducted a survey to find out what people think about animal shelters. The CAB requirements were to include the following questions: Would you sponsor an animal? How much would you pay? Have you ever seen an advertisement for an animal shelter? Where did you see the advertisement? Would you consider volunteering at an animal shelter? I included all these question in order to meet the requirements given by CAB. I had also included additional questions in order to enhance the survey and to achieve a better understanding of people’s perspective about the establishment of a new lion shelter. I created a database to collect the survey outcome in Excel and saved it in the Activity 1 folder.
Part B
The Model
I created a model of the shelter's finances in its first year. The CAB requirements for the model was to include text such as the types of animals and job titles of staff, currency amounts such as the grant, the annual cost of feeding an animal, or an employee’s salary, numeric data such as the number of animals to be cared for. Also the CAB requirements are that the model should calculate the total amount of space used in metres squared, the overall cost of running the shelter for a year and the remaining space and money available. The overall aim was to provide the best care for as many animals as possible. The model had to also include ‘what-if’ questions such as: If I increase the number of animals, will I have to reduce the number of members of staff? If I reduce the quality of food, will I be able to care for more animals?
I enhanced my model to make it more useful and realistic by doing research which inspired me with ideas including: What are the different food options available for the animals? What staff costs, other than their salary, need to be taken into account? Can you insure against medical fees and how much will this cost? Are there any recommendations regarding the ratio of staff to animals? I decide to also include variables for types of food and their range of prices in my model. I also included the amount of staff and their salary, the amount of space they would need as their office. I included the medical fees for the animals and the costs for different types of animals. I also contained the ratio of staff to animals which to show how much staff could take care of an animal and to show I enough staff is recruited or the shelter.
The Report
I wrote a report which shows how the shelter could operate on the grant of £500,000. The overall aim was to provide the best care for as many animals as possible. The CAB requirements for the report was to include: the shelter name and logo, information from the model to support your recommendations, charts to illustrate the information, an explanation of how you have tried to achieve the overall aim. . I used different charts about different things to present how the money was used. For example, I used a graph about: the staff and their salary, the number of animals and the space they require, the total space given and how much space is left, the total money given and the money left after the purchases, the medical prices for the different types of monkeys and the price of the food for the monkeys. In the early stage of development I asked for feedback from my test buddy and teacher. I received information that I should extend my description about each graph and set everything out clearly so the examiner can easily know what I am taking about. As a result of the feedback, I extended the description of the charts as much as I could and I set out a report clearly for the examiner to read.
The Video Advert
The video advert is to encourage donations and volunteering as the animal shelter would require funding and help in the future. It also persuades people to sponsor a lion at my animal shelter. The CAB requirements were that the advert should: include the shelter name and logo, include a voice-over that you have written, last between 45 and 60 seconds and persuade the audience to sponsor an animal. Also the advert must include a soundtrack. So, I made sure that I included the shelter name and logo in the advert, I ensured that the advert lasted between 45 and 60 seconds, that a voice over was used in the advert and that the advert included a soundtrack which I made myself through a website on the internet. It said that you could ask someone else to do the voice over for you, so my friend kindly accepted my proposal to do the voice over for me. In the early stages of development I asked my test buddy and teacher for feedback. I received feedback that nothing should overlap and that the writing should be clear so that it was legible and clear for the audience.
The Website
The animal shelter required a website to persuade individuals to volunteer, donate and sponsor to the shelter. I designed and made my very own website on a software called Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. The CAB requirement were that I must include: a homepage that contains information on the animals the shelter cares for, a giving page that contains information about donating, with a link to your video advert, a volunteer page providing information on volunteering, with a link to your digital poster. Also it stated that each page must link directly to each other and that I could include extra pages if I had wished to. So I created a homepage which includes information about the animals, I designed a page about the donations with a link to the video advert and I decided to have a volunteer page with a link to my digital poster. Each page links to each other and I made an extra page about the types of lions my shelter cares for and how endangered they are.
I planned the way my pages for the website would link and the different titles of the pages. Also a storyboard was made to plan out how the different pages would look like and so that I had a template to follow when making my website. The storyboard plans the text font and size, the background colour, description of assets (text or images) and the links to other pages. I asked for feedback from my teacher and my test buddy and they had said to plan as much as I could so it would be easier for me when creating the final model or template of the website.
Once the website was built I showed every page to my teacher and my test buddy to look for errors which they could help me improve on. The feedback which I had received was that I should include more information and make the text size smaller. As a result of the feedback I decided to respond and make my corrections accordingly.
Self Evaluation
I managed my time in lessons in order to meet the deadlines on time which was given by my teacher on every piece of work that I had done involving the animal shelter project. We had to finish the work on time otherwise the rest of the class would go ahead leaving you behind. I found that my typing skills came in handy when doing most of my IT work as most of the work included writing. My typing skills especially came in handy when doing evaluations of different activities. I encountered many difficulties especially with the advert. I overcame this by trying and trying again and asking help from different individuals or the teacher. They helped me overcome my difficulties and get back on track. If I was to make my work more successful I would have taken some of my own pictures for things like the web banner or the video advert to make my work a 100% original and unique as well as it all being from a primary source. As I had received feedback from my test buddy and teacher, I reacted immediately and made corrections where they were necessary. As a test buddy I think others found me to be fairly helpful with helping and giving helpful and understanding feedback to them and hence can act upon their error and improve on it. I spoke clearly and addressed my point as quick as possible to give them as much time to correct their mistake. I could have been a better test buddy if I had not made flaws myself so I could tell people not to do the same. The feedback which I had given was quite helpful to the others as they could make their work near to perfect. Also I think I gave good clear feedback and address the point quickly in order to allow the person as much time as possible to amend their mistake. I was happy with the feedback I received as it allowed me to make amendments to my work. The feedback from others also helped me see my mistakes and prevent those same mistakes from happening again in the future in any other work I am asked to produce. The feedback from my teacher also helped as I got expert advice with someone in the working field of IT. Overall I think I have done a good job of completing the animal shelter project as I have made all pieces of work close to perfect and put in much as effort I could to do my potential best in this particular project in IT so far.
In order to promote my shelter even more I decided to create a digital poster which would be displayed in the reception area of my shelter. This would aim to persuade people to volunteer at my shelter, which would be a great experience and helping a great cause (helping save endangered lions around the world). The CAB requirements for this task was to include: the shelter name and logo, persuasive text that encourages people to volunteer and suitable images. One of the other CAB requirements were it to run without the use of user interaction. I decided to put parameters on my digital poster so I could meet the CAB requirements. Since I had a volunteer page on my website I had decided to attach my digital poster on that page so it would be targeted at the right audience. Since I had no pictures of my own I couldn’t use images from a primary source so I decided to use clip art images in order to achieve the highest grade possible.