The benefits of online shopping

Since online shops have be created a spawn of online only retailers have arrived. Such as littlewoods direct which promote their clothing through adverts on t.v. internet adverts and catalogues. These shops benefit from not owning a physical shop(s). This means they wont have to pay fees on store hire allowing them to save money for hiring out the warehouse and thus earning extra profit. With the present ‘credit crunch’ companies have found it hard to stay in business on the high-street. Store which have suffered include Zavvi and Woolworth’s, two major businesses which fell due to the ‘credit crunch’. But hope is not lost, it has recently come to my attention that both companies are back, but as online retailers providing their products over the internet. This to me illustrates the key concept of how the internet allows businesses to carry on when the high-street does not work, but does this mean one day we will have no more high-street shops?

The other plus about internet shopping is how you get delivery to your door, this allows for convenience for the user as they may be busy and cannot get into town, while also helping people who live away from towns or disabled. Such pluses include Tesco delivery which saves time at the expense of 5 pounds. Companies save more money by not having to employ as many people as they don’t have any stores to cope with, therefore adding profit and stability to their business as they don’t need to worry about managing each cities chain shop or store.

In with the new. Out with the old

Who these days spends time listening to a radio? Who these days listens to records? The new digital age is ageing older products by showing how inconvenient they are to a modern audience. How can you carry a record player? Whats the use of a radio if you have a phone which has a radio in it? For this reason I think that through convergent media products in competition of less features are shunned from the spotlight. Since customer expectations of new media such as phones, computers, cameras and televisions has increased during the last few years. You will not see anything under the expectations of the customer, who these days would buy a black and white t.v.?

Making the website

After making a new website using DIV tags which I learnt in my workshop I decided to use a simple colour scheme. This way the user can easily understand what is going on, as well as make the writing easy to read. This helps with the accessibility guidelines which state that you should use bright  and contrasting colours to help with the eye impaired. As well as keep everything simple so people do not confused to what does what in the website. Descriptions are used to say what the slideshow does as well as what the pictures are for in the home page.

Problems with this website included the links in the home page. I found that they were too spaced out, and went underneath the slideshow header. For this reason I wasted alot of time resolving this. If I was to do this website again I would spend extra time outside class practising the software to make sure I knew the software completely so I would get the best results in a shorter amount of time. I think the hardest thing about practising was that I did not have Adobe Dreamweaver on my computer, and for this reason I would have to walk into uni to do the work. I feel if I had the software on my computer I would of been alot more willing to practise thus solving my menu link problems.

Making final slideshow

I decided to use a classic forwards and back slideshow where when the user pressed the forward button it took them straight to the next picture. I think this allowed me to easily implement my slideshow unlike my first attempt as it was simple. I have realised that sometimes being simple is better as it means I will get the job done better and quicker, and doing a more complicated style as in my first attempt.

Robotics

Advances in robotics are helping in human life to enhance productivity and errors in manufacture. For example car industries use robotics to help make their cars as it means they don’t need to pay many staff (only the maintenance people to look after them) as the robotic arms used to make the cars make fewer mistakes as they are primarily made to construct cars. This bring the question whether all primary jobs will be done by robotics and machines in the future to save time and money. This happened with the metal industry, which now employs very little staff meaning hundreds of people out of work. So is robotics really the way forward… or the way to less people in employment? I also think that when one job closes another job will open so as long as we have things which need tending to for example making sure the car robotic arms don’t over heat or malfunction. As well as stopping viruses on a computer we will always have a job needed.

images from http://www.ics.forth.gr/~gfloros/images/robotics.jpg ,   http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/technology/images_videos/iv_browse/Robotics_browse.jpg and wikipedia

Ubiquitous Computing

From this video in The Minority Report it displays how mediums such as advertising will communicate with us by how we are thinking, aswell as be shown in a 3D frame. This has already started with the beginning of 3D cinema and televisions, which help illustrate the next big thing for entertainment.

While Mark Weiser believed that technology should have a calming influence if it was to be of merit. It should basically make our lives easier, less stressful. Through these technologies it is evident that our lives will be made easier through not having to press any buttons. The emphasis on touch-screen in the last few years shows how consumers want something easy to use which will not take much effort.

Technology achieves user functionality by putting all the functions of several devices in one product. For example the iPhone can be used to browse the web, use as a sat nav, play games, listen to music, watch videos and as a camera. The fact that it is a phone is almost seen as ‘not a big deal’ as people’s expectations are becoming higher so we will as a community only see better products in the future.

Image pf iPhone imported from http://www.breakitdownblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/apple-iphone-keyboard.jpg

The Music Scene

The music scene is easily a big area for social interpretation. With forums, websites and polls spread around the internet alone discussing the latest CDs, gigs and festivals. For instance people can now buy tickets only conveniently without having to leave their house, I believe with this you can see how far a genre can rely on the internet through it’s convenience for distributing tickets to customers easily.
If you check on most music websites such as the Download festival site you will will find links to forums, tickets and photos etc. Showing how multimedia has changed the way we interact with things in real life due to how we no longer have to buy tickets at a ticket booth or read newspapers for the latest news.

Another good example is how newspapers are becoming obsolete through the internet. You can now read any article, watch the latest news report and even take part in news watchers polls on current events. Which makes me wonder if one day will paper be needed? will we need people to do simple jobs such as booths anymore? A good example of where jobs are depleting is in Tesco where they are starting to use electronic self service cashiers which do not need manual use.