Flash games

http://www.flashgames247.com/play/25.html

I started off by playing a simple flash game called Snakes. The aim of the game was very simple but it required a fair bit of time to 'level up'. Before I started playing the game I didn't think it would be very addictive as the game didn't require me to do much. Although I thought I would be getting bored of the game within a few minutes I found myself playing the game over and over again. I found playing the game very frustrating as it took so long to actually get anywhere without being sent back to the beginning again.

Unit 62

Unit 62 Criteria 1

With digital video technology becoming more technically advanced it is a good way for designers to use it to their advantage to enhance a user’s interactive experience in such mediums as web design, interactive T.V and short films. Online video advertising is one way in which designers and brands can connect to people. Online video advertising has been extremely successful in the way it can get information out to consumers without making television commercials which may not been anywhere near as successful. A company called IAB, researching the upcoming success of online marketing, learnt that this method of marketing engages a lot more with the consumer than T.V commercials do. According to the research which was carried out in 2006 a company’s advertising contributes to around 40% of brand engagement whereas T.V contributes to about 17.6%. (see: http://lbug.co.uk/research.html)

Every day more than one million video’s are being shared and streamed on YouTube (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWVlQTeNXIo) With YouTube being so accessible to everyone it means that advertising marketers can create a video which will help promote and sell their product. Marketers aim to create videos which are entertaining to watch in order for the audience to feel involved and for the audience to remember that product. One good example of a video which interacts with its users is from TipEx.  (see,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ba1BqJ4S2M0) This video has 43,852 subscribers and 41,127,588 views. (Information collected on 19^th January 2011) One of the reasons I like this video is because I can decide on the outcome of what happens in the advertisement which is different from most every day commercials. A typical advertisement wouldn’t let the user have that control.  As there are so many ads being shown everywhere, I think it is important for designers to create something different which will make their advert more rememberable.

Marketers who are advertising online make sure they target the youth culture they are well aware that popular videos are quite often the conversation topic at schools, colleges and universities. Christianet.com (link below) outlines the fact that the youth culture has grown up in a world of video-saturated technology and that the familiarity with certain popular video sites is undisputed. Music which is recognisable and popular with the younger generation is also included into the majority of videos as it is another way of getting a large amount of recognition for a brand or product. see: http://www.christianet.com/advertising/onlinevideoadvertising.htm) A survey which was conducted in 2007 by a company called IDC shows that a lot more time is spend on the internet than watching television. (see, http://www.impactlab.net/2008/02/22/people-spend-twice-as-much-time-online-as-watching-tv/)This indicates that marketers will continue to use video technology to advertise rather than putting a high budget into an advert which will be shown on the television.

YouTube allows videos to be shared by anyone for free. This makes it suitable for a much larger audience as you can not only post your own video up but you can view other peoples. Social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter help promote videos online. For example, posting a status with a link to the video you are watching may also be an interest to somebody on your contact list. Posting videos on social-networking sites also allows consumers to comment on the video, this is helpful to the person who created the video as they get instant feedback from the comments they receive. 

Viral marketing uses digital video technology to pass along messages in a different way than traditional ad campaigns do. Viral marketing relies heavily on individuals to help them improve brand recognition. This method spreads the messages a lot faster than what a third party ad campaign would do. Research done by Wisegeek.com concludes there are different ways that people use viral marketing but they all have the same outcome. “pass along messages encourage users to send them along to others) (see: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-viral-marketing.htm). Personally I think that one of the strongest viral campaigns would be the Gorilla Cadbury Advert. This was first advertised on television but didn’t take long before videos were being uploaded to be seen by others. By the end of 2007 the ad had been seen 6 million times online.) The marketing campaign which had carefully been put together proved successful with the increase in sales all around the world. (see: http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/viral-marketing-examples/) The information on IgniteSocialMedia shows some of the other viral marketing campaigns which have also proved massively successful. 

Creating a simple video is easy for anyone wanting to put their files online. Videos can be recorded on even the most basic mobile phones and transferred online using a usb cable. Some smart phones such as Blackberry and iPhone will allow you to transfer your video file from your phone and straight onto YouTube. As I have a Blackberry myself I know that it saves videos in an mp4 format. YouTube will be able to play videos in a variety of formats:

·         WebM files (Vp8 video codec and Vorbis Audio codec)

·         .MPEG4, 3GPP and MOV files - (typically supporting h264 and mpeg4 video codecs and AAC audio codec)

·         .AVI (Many cameras output this format - typically the video codec is MJPEG and audio is PCM)

·         .MPEGPS (Typically supporting MPEG2 video codec and MP2 audio)

·         .WMV

·         .FLV (Adobe - FLV1 video codec, MP3 audio)

3GP is mainly used on mobiles phones with 3G. 3GP works by saving media streams as a MPEG4 file and audio streams as AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AMR-WB+, AAC-LC, HE-AAC v1 or Enhanced aacPlus (HE-AAC v2). This allows the video taken on your phone to be played back on Youtube. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3GP_and_3G2)

Compressing files is a big factor in uploading videos, especially if the video has an interactive element as most video sharing websites have a limit on either the length of the video or the file size and sometimes both. There are many applications which can compress video files to make them suitable for uploading which can be found with online search engines. File compression works by reducing the amount of bits and bytes in a file in order for it to transmit on a connection with a reduced speed. The files on a computer tend to have identical information repeated which increases the file size, when the file is being compressed the information will only be listed once and not over and over again.  

Lossless compression is a different way of making files smaller without losing any data like you would if you compressed the files normally. Lossless packs files in order to make the file size smaller. This method of saving files has its advantages and disadvantages. The files which you compress will be decompressed to be exactly the same as the original file. A compression ratio is used as a term to describe how much data is being represented after it has been compressed.  To work out the compression ratio you will need to know the original size of the file and the size of the file after it has been compressed. For example: If you have a file that is 8MB which has been compressed to 2MB the compression ratio will be 2/8=0.25. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_compression_ratio ) Lossless compression is useful as it can free up hard disk space or transmission bandwidth

In order to view videos on your pc it is important to have a media player which is compatible with a range of different file formats. Windows media player is a good example of a media player which will play nearly all movie file format as well as allow users to burn MP3 files from an audio CD. Windows media player will allow users to have two separate libraries for movies and music, this makes it easy to organize files. The media player allows you to burn music and videos to a CD or DVD disc which is convenient for people who want to transfer their files to a different device or even share files with friends. Some of the advantages of using Windows Media Player are:

·         It’s extremely easy to use

·         Nothing needs to be installed to use the application

·         Windows Media player gets all the information from your CD and embeds the information in the MP3 files which means it will automatically insert the album cover and song titles.

·         The application will automatically rip your CD without you having to press any buttons, it will eject the CD when it has finished ripping.

Although the programme has many benefits it also has its disadvantages. The CD cover which Windows Media Player automatically downloads is fairly small. The average size of the album art is only 200x200pixels, the majority of other CD ripping programmes rip images of at least 300x300pixels. The programme also offers a very limited amount of sound quality choices.

Quick time is another media player. Just like Windows Media Player, the software is capable of handling a range of different file formats.  Although QuickTime is free, it only offers a limited service unless you purchase the full package from Apple, the developers of the software. Quick time is a popular choice of media player with one of the reasons being because it supports MOV file formats. Although QuickTime was previously made just to be run on the Apple operating system it now supports Windows. Despite being made specifically for their own operating systems both Windows media Player and QuickTime will run on other operating systems.

To conclude, I think that digital video technology will continue to get more successful. Interactive ads have proven they can create a huge amount of media attention. I believe interactivity will continue to be a rising trend as users are more engaged with the brand or product. Most popular videos online contain content which allows the audience to have an impact upon it, dictate it or control it. I think that the interactive element in videos keep consumers a lot more connected which creates useful links between marketers and consumers.

Photoshop Tutorial

Video Conferencing

Video conferencing is a good way of communicating as it allows you to reach people immediately. Many businesses have started using video conferencing to allow people to talk without having to travel long distances for meetings. Video conferencing can allow large groups of people to interact with one another at different locations all over the world. Most video conferring software will allow you to share power point presentations and other documents with each other.

Some video conferencing software can be pricey but if you are looking for some software with only a few features it will bring the price down a lot. However, this option will be a lot cheaper than continually flying clients around the world if you are part of a business. If you are a business situated in a remote area with a slow internet connection their may be issues with the quality of the audio/video. However, the majority of business’ looking to communicate through this protocol won’t have problems very few suffer from slow internet connections.

Broadband ADSL

Broadband ADSL –

ADSL broadband (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is the most popular type of broadband. ADSL broadband is supplied by BT and uses a standard phone line to connect people to the internet. Broadband works by converting your normal analogue phone line to a digital phone line which allows to you to transmit data at a faster speed that you would if you were using a dial-up connection.

If you are using an analogue modem you will get an approximate speed of 56kbps. ADSL broadband will allow you to get a speed of about 512kbps or even faster. ADSL can provide internet to 99% of homes and businesses in the UK.

Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard used for getting data from one person to another. Bluetooth technology only allows you to exchange data with people that are a short distance away from you. Short wavelength radio transmissions are sent from fixed and mobile devices. Bluetooth was created in 1994 and was used as an alternative to rs-232 data cables. Bluetooth has its advantages and disadvantages. It can be a good way of transferring images and audio to contacts without having to connect your device to a computer. It is also a good way of over-coming synchronization problems which is stopping you from putting files onto your device. Once you have your device with Bluetooth enabled it allows you to send data for free unlike if you were sending it via MMS. Personally, I use Bluetooth a fair bit when I want to receive music or photos from somebody.  I have received some problems using Bluetooth if I am not close enough to person I am sending/receiving files from. Bluetooth Special Interest Group is managing Bluetooth at the moment.

Evaluating Work

Today my brain seems on a different planet so thank god I have Sophie to help me out a bit! I asked everyone in the group to write some bullet point answers on what they think went well in our assignment and what they think could have been improved if we did the assignment again. I thought this would be easier than getting everyone to crowd around a computer to do an evaluation. I think everyone found it tough to give any negative feedback because the assignment went really well and we all worked as hard as we could to get the best grade possible. When we first got put into our groups to do the project I had my doubts that we would get much done because we hardly knew each other and we didn't know what each persons strengths and weaknesses were.  However, now that we are at the end of the project I think that it really paid off getting our groups decided for us because it meant that we got to know some other people in the group. I found it really easy to get on with everyone and I felt that I could ask the others for help if I was struggling with anything which was really reassuring. If we had to do a group assignment again I would love to work with the same people although I think it would be good to get to know some other people in the group a little bit better.