Developing and Completing Ostracised's Website

The prospect of creating a website was initially daunting because I had never made one before; however after attending all John's informative classes and watching many tutorials online, I began to enjoy designing and bringing my website to life.

I decided to add a useful links page to give viewers of my website the opportunity to visit charity websites if they either wanted more information about the effects of discrimination and bullying or if they were dealing with it themselves and needed someone to talk to. I chose a variety of charities, some which could give support to anybody dealing with a very wide variety of issues (The Samaritans and Victim Support) and some dealing more specifically with the problems of hate crimes (Stop Hate UK and National Bullying Helpline). I included a brief description of the charities together with contact details to make them easily accessible to people looking for help.

I decided to give each page a banner and position the menu bar at the top to maintain a consistent layout for a professional look. I placed a behind the scenes image into each banner space to constantly keep the viewer of the website intrigued by the production of my film. I ensured  my website was easy to navigate, as I find it frustrating when I visit websites and have to unnecessarily search for what I am looking for. I did this by not only keeping the menu bar at the top on each page, but also by having images identifying each page on the home page. I also made sure that whenever the viewer's mouse is hovering over a link, that link is visible with an effect, for example fading or changing colour.

The film is easy to find and takes you to a separate page where it is enlarged fully on the browser, to ensure the whole image is visible and that the viewer does not have to scroll up and down and therefore miss some of the footage. I had hoped that when the viewer clicked on my film it would be able to expand and cover the whole desktop; however John said this was not possible on Adobe Muse so I would have to think of an alternative (as explained above).

Below are more screenshots from www.ostracised.co.uk:

It is very exciting and satisfying to be able to search Ostracised and for it come up on my own website that I created from scratch! I am very pleased with my finished home page, with the silent short edit of my film playing automatically in the background. This is effective because it gives the viewer a taster of what the film will include, with only a sample of the styling, no sound and no final conclusion, encouraging them to want to know more. I am particularly proud of the link I have established with The Sophie Lancaster Foundation. Their slogan Stamp Out Prejudice, Hatred and Intolerance Everywhere quoted under my film title really emphasises the underlying purpose of my project and gives it a real sense of credibility and I feel honoured to be associated with an organisation fighting for such a worthwhile cause.