Status
Status |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
As stated in the requirements the main technical areas that we will be focusing on are:
Government (UK), Education (UK), Entertainment, and Technology.
The consortium has agreed that we will be delivering this information on the Internet through a structured web site. This will be a relatively large site, therefore we will also deliver details of what is currently available on-line and direct people to relevant sites of interest.
We are selecting the Internet as the medium on which we are producing this product. The consortium has agreed that this method will help the user with: -
We aim to produce a multi-modal system using a 'image map' based, virtual site. The site will attempt to use the various human sensory channels such as vision and hearing. The user will have an 'easy-to-follow' navigational tool to guide them through the array of information available. The site will be developed with concise text, images, pictures, sound and a 'virtual' map. This will make the interaction between the user and the screen more effective. It will keep the user enticed on what is going on as they navigate their way through the pages.
As we can see looking at the market research, it is safe to assume that the Year 2000 is an issue that many people are concerned with. Over the last few years we have seen an increase in the number of computers being used by the average person. As knowledge of the computers is growing, access to the Internet is also on the increase. We see that the WWW is used for many things, like education, advertisement, business and leisure.
With technology increasing the WWW is being used more and more. The market survey proves that on average many people are now using the Internet and are aware of what it offers.
Through the market survey we are able to identify our market. We are aiming our product at users between the ages of 16 - 45. We are not aiming our product at a certain group of people. There are two reasons for this, firstly the Internet is accessed by a variety of people so it is particularly hard to single out a certain group. Secondly our site will hold a variety of information which can be accessed by anyone. The idea of holding a large amount of information is to attract as many people as possible. This is the reason we do not want to single out any group.
The descent of the Year 2000 is causing many changes. If we look back into the past five years, many people did not know or care about what would happen at the turn of the century. Now as time grows closer, people are aware of the fact that changes will occur and not all of them will be good. In the questionnaire when we asked people if they are aware of other areas that will be effected by the year 2000, other than the Millennium Bug, out of the 49% that said yes they were aware, however many admitted that they did not know what those changes would be.
To determine the depth of information required, we asked our participants how much information they would like our site to cover. The preferred response was an intermediate level covering 2-5 years.
One of the questions we did ask people that we did not include in the questionnaire is whether they used or had access to the Internet. In total, between our group we actually asked 68 people out of which 53 people did use or have access to the internet, but all of them knew of it's existence and purpose. We can see that this figure shows, on average most people are aware of the WWW.
The market has more than enough room for another site holding information on the year 2000. The users are increasing and right now public's interest has piqued over this area. Entry into this market is not only good for our clients but will prove beneficial to the actual users as well.
In the additional comments section many of the participant made the following comments: -
This finalises our market survey as we have now defined our market, and shown that there is space in the market for our product.
This is an important section of our market analysis as it shows what the market trends are and what currently is available. This enables us to find a space in the market where our product can be introduced. We have identified our competitors to be other Internet sites, which provide a choice of information concerning the Year 2000. Although there are many sites, most provide information on the millennium bug and only a few selective sites actually provide the information service that we intend to develop.
The sites we have are identified are as follows:
SITE NAME:Year 2000 Information Centre
SITE URL:http://www.year2000.com
The content of this site is fairly concise in a way that it does actually contain a large amount of information. Most information is taken directly from various articles. This information is not clearly sub-divided under precise areas, but is more of a "mish-mash" of information.
The site does have a search engine incorporated, and is a good one, as it lets you fix various strings when searching. This gives for a more clearer and precise search.
The general outlay of the site is rather bland. It does use a consistent colour scheme throughout, but looks boring and is not at all eye-catching. There is also no use of multimedia in this site, making the site very boring.
SITE NAME:Info 2000 Home Page
SITE URL:http://www2.echo.lu/info2000/infohome.html
The content of this site is fairly in-depth in all subjects, but it focuses more strongly at the whole of Europe as opposed to just the United Kingdom. Its information is based around straight insertions of articles from various other people and sites.
The site also has a search engine, but is not very user-friendly, and it can be a little confusing to use at first.
The overall appearance of the site is dull, due to the colour scheme, even though a standard set is used throughout. There is no multimedia incorporated, and the information is conveyed in "book" format, which is very dull and can become tedious.
The site does however have a site map, which basically breaks down the whole web-site. This can make it easier for the user to search for a specific area or plot a path to look through in order to gain specific information.
SITE NAME:Y2K NEWS
SITE URL:http://www.y2knews.com
There are no set contents available on this site. There are mostly hyperlinked headlines from various articles, which range from government issues to the millennium bug.
Overall, the site is crammed with information, but is not portrayed in an easy to access manner. There is no search engine, which makes navigation a harder task. Most of the information is also just straight articles, which can be accessed via hyperlinks.
The design is plain and not very eye catching. There is a small links list on the left side of the screen, which allows for direct links to information archives, subscriptions and email addresses.
There is also no use of multimedia in this site, which for us shows that there was a complete lack of design strategy used.
Analysing our competitors allows us to discover what we need to incorporate in our project so that our end product differs from the ones currently available, and so that it can achieve market recognition of it's own.
Through analysing our competitors and doing a market survey we can confidently state that our product is feasible and a required system, with a long life. The market needs information on the year 2000 and as time goes by the interest will increase, which will in-turn raise demands for sites publishing such information.
Our advertising strategy is thus, we want to pique peoples interest in our site and the information we hold. We aim to do this in the following way.
Distribute leaflets and small booklets with a summary of information and an introduction to our site. Many people like to read leaflets and this will attract those people and in-turn advertise our site. Once the leaflets have caught someone's attention they will visit the website for more information. We propose to send these leaflet to educational establishments, businesses and public centres to maximise our market reach
We will advertise our site on other Internet sites. The sites that we have identified as the ones to best advertise on, would be the search engine home pages. Sites under consideration are Yahoo, Infoseek, Excite, Lycos and Metacrawler. We have also identified that the homepages for the topics that we are including in our project, are excellent areas to advertise. For instance the official Hollywood page, or the UK Government Home Page.
The prices of the advertising can be found in the Financial Analysis
This page was last updated Friday January 23rd 1999
2. Summary of Technical Proposal
3. Market Analysis
Competition
SITE CONTENTS
SITE OVERVIEW
SITE CONTENTS
SITE OVERVIEW
SITE CONTENTS
SITE OVERVIEW
Conclusion
Advertising
