Airbnb Inspiration

I wanted to take a look at some airbnb videos that could give us a little inspiration into their brand and what kind of company they are. In the video below they've basically answered their own brief which they set for D&AD. The company gave 1 million dollars to make everyone feel part of a community. I'm not sure if it got more people to use or look into airbnb but they defiantly have got a lot of recognition from it. 

Video Inspiration

This is an american commercial advertising beats headphones, This advert gave me inspiration because of the way they're made to look as if they're holding their phones and filming themselves, it links in to our idea and I think it goes with the idea of belonging / staying connected.

In this advert you can see how the person is holding the phone, they've clearly used a software like adobe mocha something similar to what we would do. 

we probably won't do anything like this but it was really cool to watch an get some creative inspiration.

this had some good camera angles that I think we should refur back to when filming.

The Idea

The idea is to create a video app that airbnb guests will be able to easily download from the app store and create video stories. Uploading short story videos will enable people to become part of a community, this is because when a guest uploads a story of their time spent away, they're sharing and this means other people can then view your video, comment, like and even reshare it. This app will allow airbnb customers to get a better insight into where they could go/stay.

The app will work a lot like Vine in the respect that the it's a video based app and the user will only be able to recored for a certain amount of time.

Past Winners / Successful Videos

.....

Research On The Company

Total Guests 25,000,000+Cities 34,000+Castles 600+Countries: 190+550,000 homes are shared by hosts in cities all over the world82% share the home in which they live. hosting helps them make ends meet. - 47% say that hosting helped them stay in their homes. to date hosts have welcomed 11 million traveler who wanted to experience cities not as tourists but as locals. 

Planning

Today Andrew and myself hashed out a plan of what responsibilities we have and what we're expected to have done by the time we get back from christmas break.

Andrew came up with the idea of doing this on google drive this way we can both go on and edit this when needed.

We came up with the idea that I would film the app in use because i do a lot of filming/vlogging outside of university and i enjoy doing this. Then Andrew would take care of the after effects because we're not actually creating a real app we will be making a mock up design and then place this on the video, Andrew has done this in the past with a previous project which turned out really well which is why after effects is his responsibility, having said this I'm sure we will both have an input/ helping hand when doing this.

We figured we should both do our fair share of research, etc.. which you can see below.


Screen Shot:

AirBnb Brief.

I have highlighted in pink some main things that stood out to me. I think this brief gives a lot of room for creativity and I'm excited to start working on it. 

The Briefs I am Interested In

There are a total of 14 briefs that are supplied with D&AD.

here are the ones I am interested in:

the challenge 

Inspire a new generation to understand that we all have an impact on our planet and an effect on its health. Take the Living Planet Report findings and make them relevant and accessible to the ‘always on’ generation. Find a way to communicate that our relationship with the planet is reciprocal: we need the planet and the planet needs us. All the evidence is there. So how do you make people engage with it and then change their behaviour? 

WWF interested me because I already have a love for animals and wild life, I believe it's important to have a connection with a project before starting it because then it's guaranteed to interest you and keep you interested with it. 

The challenge

The BBC want ideas to better engage with this target group. Why do those who grow up as avid BBC viewers drift off in their teens to other platforms? How are other content providers engaging more effectively? What types of interactions do this group have with their devices throughout the day? How can the BBC better tailor content delivery to fit within and enhance their life? Develop an innovative user experience (UX) to engage the ‘always on’ youth of today with the BBC’s multi-channel content. 

This one interested me because I like the idea of bringing the 'always on' generation back to tv, in their brief they mentioned how their viewers drift off when they get to their mid teens onto other platforms such as youtube. 

The challenge
Reinvent the packaging that John Lewis uses to deliver online purchases. Create an engaging, aspirational home delivery experience fit for the modern age of connected, tech-savvy, digital native shoppers. Give online shoppers the same level of excitement and engagement that they’d feel if they’d gone to a John Lewis store. Don’t just address UK customers, think globally – the physical touchpoint of packaging can connect John Lewis to people worldwide. 

The challenge
Create a 10 to 15 second interpretation of the spirit of VICE’s Rule Britannia series in the form of a motion graphics ident. 

creating an ident for a youtube channel appealed to me a lot out of most the briefs because i have a youtube channel of my own and i have created one for myself i thought i would be able to create a cool one for vice, though when i looked at the website i didn't quite relate to vice, though I'm in the target audience i don't relate to their audience, also there is someone in my class who watches there videos so i feel like they would create something good and i wouldn't be able to compete.

The challenge
Explore how Airbnb can creatively empower their existing community to grow this idea of ‘belonging’ out to a new audience; translate this into a campaign. 

This is an open brief so you choose the platform. Consider multiple touch points: advertising in all its forms, social media, apps, PR, product, experience, and anything else that makes sense to you. Just make sure it’s something that works both digitally and in the real world, on and offline. 

before this project i have never heard of airbnb before but i like the open breif of creating an app and i think it could be a chance to get really creative. I will research more into this one. 

AirBnb - teaming up.

Sue thinks it's a good idea to team up with this project, we have never teamed up before so I think it would be a good chance too, in the real world of work most things are done within a team not just one person on their own.

Andrew (Student) expressed interest in teaming up with me as he was interested in doing AirBnb and thought i would be a good person to work with, at the time I hadn't thought much about this brief as I was in-between ideas and stuck with which one to choose. He went over his ideas for the brief with me I immediately loved the ideas, we agreed to team up.

My only initial worry about teaming up with Andrew was that I was unsure of how much I could bring to the table, I don't want to slack and leave him do everything but I was assured that we'd spilt the work fairly and there would be plenty for both of us, this is also good as we get marked separately.

D&AD New Blood Awards - The Brief

Thursday 11^th November – peer review proposal

Thurs 15^th January 2015 – planning deadline 

Crit Wed 11^th 2015 February 2pm

Thursday 26^th February 2015 - Deadline

Creatives the world over value the D&AD New Blood Awards above any other. Winning truly marks you out as one of the best. Real briefs, set by real clients, judged by top creatives. This is your chance to address a real life challenge for a top, international brand. You can work alone, or as part of a team. Your ideas will be seen and judged by the representatives of the brand, along with a panel of top creatives from around the world. 

A digital copy of all the briefs can be downloaded at: http://www.dandad.org/awards/new-blood/2014/

You must choose one of the following briefs set for the New Blood (D&AD) Awards. Bare in mind your strong points, your experience and, which projects might be appropriate for your personal learning and development. You can work in a team for this brief but you must present your case to the course leader and get the go ahead.

AirBnB

BBC

Pact

iD (this one must be agreed by the lead tutor & should be considered very carefully)

Monotype

Npower

Nationwide

Pantone

Talk Talk

Vice

Wetransfer

WPP

WWF

Evaluation

Throughout this project I have been excited, intrigued and frustrated. I've been excited to learn a new software, this was my first time using WordPress and some things were easier to do than others. I enjoyed adding the photos, videos, news elements and styling the website how I think best suited the original website. A lot of what I was doing was trail and error because I was guessing how to do most it but I enjoyed this because that's how I personally learn to do things, play around with it. 

Looking back to when I first started I probably should have spent more time choosing and researching themes. I was so focused on finding one that had in particular elements that would work well for my site take the embedded video player for example, it made me forget about other things such as plugins that are mentioned on the brief, I just assumed they would work with the site I had chosen.

This is where things became very frustrating for me, because I chose a one page site this then limited me to not having seperate pages which I was aware of but I wasn't aware that the majority of my plugins wouldn't work without pages, sadly once I had figured this out it was too late to change my theme instead I have had to find different ways/ loop holes around these problems. 

Loop holes

The brief said our websites require a shop, a shop plugin requires pages which I am limited to, having said this when I install the plugin it works and when I preview the shop it appears this was a good sign to me that the shop is existing somewhere, though when I try to view the shop page within my website as a normal user the link in the navigation bar is inactive nothing happens. I thought if my page is showing within a preview page I'll just copy the link from that and add it to the navigation and this seemed to do the trick. The shop works as it should, the check out section works with built in PayPal. 

The same thing happened when I tried to add a booking system so I did the exact same thing and used the preview URL and this now works too. The calendar is within the booking system.

I struggled and tried everything to get the map on the homepage or a page of it's own, The lightbox map does work but this only appeared on my shop page which made no sense, I made the decision to leave the map on the shop page because i've come to the conclusion that it is better than nothing.

I decided to leave SEO and analytics until last because it makes sense to build the website first then focus on it. I did find learning about SEO very interesting because it's all about getting hits on your website and making sure your website link is appearing number 1-3 within search engines, I can take this information I have learnt about SEO and apply it to other website projects in the future. I already knew a lot about analytics through my own online work, this way i found it easy to link to google. 

Couldn't get working

the search bar is another frustrating plugin that I can't seem to get working on my home page, though I don't think my website necessarily  needs a search bar as everything is pretty self explanatory and easy to find also my user testing backs this. 

Colour Coordination

This is an appreciation post on the colour coordination of my website, everything is green and black and i think it works well. originally i was going to make it red to match youtube but then i thought it would be too dark. I made the opening video green to match the the rest of it and I'm pleased with how it has come out. 

Map

I really didn't want to but I had to add my map to the shop page i didn't personally choose this page it sets on this page automatically, I know it doesn't make sense to have it here but it's either on the shop page or no where. I would have much preferred it to be on the homepage but this didn't seem to be an option. I hope when it comes to grading i don't get down graded for this as it is beyond my control.

Home Page Header

Originally my home page was going to be an image slider with photos from past events, when the demo theme is shown it has a big heading with a little bit of writing under it, when it came to editing it by myself I couldn't figure out how to get this, I tried so many things which didn't work so instead i opted to have a video playing instead. I thought it would be a good idea to get clips of all the youtubers attending edit them together so they can explain the event themselves and also add footage of past events, I made this in just a few minutes and I think it works really well, I also have made it so it plays automatically when the user enters the site. 

example video: 

watch full video:

User Testing.

The feedback I got from the class mentioned "Event not immediately clear from the homepage" so i have included this in the questions with some other things that are worrying me such as the fact i don't have a search bar.

Questions:
How easy is it to find out what the Event is about?
What was your first impression of the website?
Find and Try to buy something from the shop, was this simple?
Try to find and navigate the news section, was this easy?
Is there anything you would consider changing to make it easier?
Does it bother you that there is no search bar?

user one: age 21
How easy is it to find out what the Event is about?
"I watched the video which played automatically and to find out more information simply I clicked on the about link which explained the event in more detail."

What was your first impression of the website?
"One word comes to mind 'fun' I kept scrolling and it seems there is always something happening, The opening video, checking out the news, watching youtubers videos"

Find and Try to buy something from the shop?
"Yes, this was a simple task I didn't have to stop and think about how to get to the shop as it was on the navigation, then buying something was straight forward too"

Try to find and navigate the news section, was this easy?
"This was easy though when I clicked on one of the news boxes I didn't think anything was going to happen as it took a a couple seconds to sort itself out but when it did i thought it was really cool"

Is there anything you would consider changing to make it easier?
"If I could change anything I would move the 'register and login' from off the navigation because it takes up a lot of room. Also I would make the tour dates section smaller."

Does it bother you that there is no search bar?
"I didn't even notice there wasn't a search bar, i don't think this website needs one, everything was so easy to find on my own."

Titles and sections

For a while I hadn't been able to figure out how to change title sections from the original theme ones. I have figured out how to change this by going into the  settings. In the Image below you can see that i have changed 'Gallery' to 'Line Up'.

I have added an 'About' section as the brief says the website requires one, I have put this right at the top of the website under the header, this way if a user comes to the website and isn't sure what it's for, then it would take a couple of seconds to find the about page by either scrolling down once or clicking the about tab.

Social Media Feed

My theme has a built in social media feed for twitter but it doesn't work as twitter needs to authorise it or send me some codes which would take too long so i have imported one tweet which digi tour has done and this seems to work for the time being.

Crit

This is the feedback I received from Crit.

Since this feedback I have changed my shop it works well now and I am very pleased with it. Though I haven't changed my homepage because I personally think it's fine and I believe when I do user testing it will support my theory.

line up

I have created a line up section to the site, by doing this I have changed the name of the gallery to line up and added photos of the talent attending. After I linked YouTube videos to the photos so when the user hovers over the image a video link will appear. 

analytics

I added an analytics system because the brief said one was needed but I think it's useful having an analytics system because I can see what people are navigating through the website and what they're clicking on most. 

https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/

with google analytics I am able to go onto their site and look at the overview of the website, it tells you all different things to do with the site and i think it's very useful.

Theme I am Using.

The theme I have chosen to use is called Sonorama, This theme is a one page site, I want the website to stay one page but less cluttered like the original is. 

The main reasons why I have chosen this theme is because of the gallery area which I am going to use for a line up, in my wireframe I mentioned I wanted pictures then when you click on it an embedded video plays, the fact this theme does that makes it perfect for my audience. 

another reason why I like this theme is because i can add tour dates and a link to buy the tickets, there's social media links, twitter feed, header. 

it's also possible to create more sections of anything this way I can meet the brief with everything it requires. 

struggling with the shop snd pages.

I have come across a problem with my theme, this is the fact the pages do not work. I have tried several things to get the pages working at first I didn't think it was possible for my theme to allow pages until I found a check box which said they could be enabled. Once I checked the box I thought pages would start working but this wasn't the case, they still don't seem to exist.

In order to create the shop I have installed woocomerce and added all my products, though when I published the link in the navigation wouldn't open the page, in order to overcome this I have had to link the preview URL to the navigation, by doing this it opens up the page and the user is able to buy the products.

themes

I have been looking through a lot of themes mostly free ones but I have taken a look at some which are for a set price. The paid themes are a lot better than the free ones for a number of reasons the biggest reason being that the structure is already made and ready to use whereas the free ones take a bit longer to set up. The most frustrating thing with the themes is that when installed they don't show as previewed.

The themes below are the ones I have considered using, none of these worked out because the event I am creating the website for is video based and these are more for photography / portfolios.

I want a stream of content instead of different pages because I think its more efficient to have everything on one page and if used correctly more modern.

The reason why I considered using fifteen (which is the second image below) is because of the grid layout that is supplied, referring back to my wireframes I mentioned that I wanted a structure like this in part of my website for the line up of the event the problem was I want a grid that allows the user to be able to click on the image then an embedded video plays. This would be a good element to add to my page because the target audience would instantly relate as they're used to watching videos.

flow diagram / wireframes

Here I have drawn out some flow diagrams / wireframes to help me visualise what my website should look like when I am building it. I have based these wireframes on some of the themes I have been looking at this way it will be easier for me to see what is and isn't possible to do.

The logo / header will stay at the top of every page on the website along with the footer with contact details, social media and such at the bottom. 

For the shop page I will be using images of the already existing merchandise that the youtubers already have. 

I want a slider of some sort on the home page of the top 3 or 5 featured talent of the month this keeps the website updated and interesting, though I will have a separate 'Line Up' page with all of the talent attending to make it easy for users to get information fast. 

The line up page will look something like the image below, I want every youtuber attending to have their own image with their name underneath and/or their subscriber count. I want it to be possible to click their image and one of their videos plays, I have thought about a link redirecting to the selected youtube account opening in a new tab, or embedding the video on the site which would be easier for the user.

Plugins

I have been researching into plugins that would be useful to use for my website.

The brief said we have to have a calendar somewhere on the site but I think that would be weird as the event I am creating is only on for one day so as a replacement I thought of having a countdown timer. A lot of event websites I have been looking at are using countdown timers because the website owners know that people attending the event will be counting down the days and they're fun to look at. The image below is the plugin that I have been looking at to use for my website, i's eye catching and free.

Whilst looking for plug in's I stumbled across these social media icon's, I didn't realise there would be a plug in for this I assumed you would save out the icons yourself and upload but seeing as these ones are retina-ready icons It would save a lot of time if I used these instead. I wouldn't have to use all of them just the ones I need being: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+. The social networking would be placed in the Footer and maybe at the top somewhere of the page because it's important to get a following on social media. 

above is the screen shots of all the plugins i have installed and activated for the shop, booking system/calendar, analytics, google maps and seo.

Logo Inspriation

I have been thinking about logo's recently so I took to google to take a look at some logos for inspiration. I want something to do with a camera, interaction with audience or just a letter that represents the event name. I want the logo to be simple yet eye catching, something that's clever and has a meaning behind it. 

here are a few examples which has given me the most inspiration. 

I like the last two images the most with hands making a camera gesture. In the image below you can see how hand gestures have changed over the years when at concerts or events and the last one 2000's ending with people holding up a camera is very true but also very relevant to the youtube event. I Think when the target audience see it they will find it very relatable.