Project Specification Report

For FestivalMap: www.festivalmap.net

Introduction Aims & Objectives Description Research Risk Assessment Justification Budget Project Plan References Appendix Glossary

A. Introduction

Despite Britain’s current buoyant consumer economy, the entertainment sector of live music has seen no dramatic signs of slowing down. The demand for live music and music festivals in particular has remained remarkably ‘inelastic’; and although admission prices are rising every year at inflation-busting rates, venues are continually selling out to maximum capacity.

The UK live music industry alone is worth nearly £2 billion , and over summer 2008, three million UK residents traveled to a music festival. The potential for an economic platform that only looks set to expand makes the music festival industry an interesting proposition to utilise when attempting to relay this potential into a New Media based solution.

Music is a primary currency in the world of online social networking. The viral capability of online networks and the ability for users to upload their own content, whether it be for personal gain or accolade; or to help inform other people is an exciting proposition. The creation of a web site tailored to festival-goers needs is both an economically prosperous and sustainable product opportunity.

The desire to travel the world, and forget memories of repeatedly muddy summers, combined with a love for music, has seen a surge in people traveling to more exotic locations, to explore a better climate and a different cultural outlook.

As the British music festival scene bulges and threatens to burst at the seams with phenomenal demand and a lack of tickets to fulfill this, Britain’s are starting to investigate the numerous amounts of European festivals that are put on every summer. However, a high number of people are uneducated on the majority of what Europe and the rest of the world has to offer, especially more ‘niche’ festivals that are not publicised as much.

This report will objectify in detail, the proposed plans for an information retrieval web site; which at its core, will provide user-generated content on music festivals situated across the world.


B. Project Aims & Objectives

The web site aims, using Web 2.0 principles, such as user interaction, to allow visitors to the site to register and publish their own user-generated content. The site will contain web pages on a large majority of festivals around the world. On each page will be information on these festivals, such as: reviews, photographs, and important advice, such as the festivals location, travel guides, rules and safety information.

The core aims of the web site are to inform, educate and provide information on music festivals both in the UK and across the world. The promotion of both mainstream and niche festivals, especially in the region of Europe will also be a main focus of the site. The web site also aims to create awareness and inspire people to visit festivals that are viable alternatives to UK based festivals.

Web 2.0 technologies are making the online booking experience richer and more informative than ever before. As well as providing the mechanism of ticket acquisition, the online platform enables concert-goers to plan more fully.

Incorporating the capabilities of Web 2.0 principles is vital to the success of the project, as it allows for user interaction and the potential scope for social networking within the site. Content generation allows users to contribute to the site, by publishing their own content. This brings the benefit of repeated traffic and the tools for the web site to expand and become an informative source of information for festival-goers.

Web site Objectives:

Tick Graphic Display web pages for each individual festival; on the page would be information on the festival, reviews, comments discussion, photographs and video content

Tick Graphic Display a news feed system with news stories that relate to music festivals

Tick Graphic Allow users to register to the site so they can contribute and generate user-content

Tick Graphic When a user is registered they can access and edit their own user profile. From this they can complete tasks like changing their contact details or password, as well as being able to message other registered users

Tick Graphic Registered users can make comments on news stories as well as on individual festivals; they can discuss issues such as line-ups and ticket prices, as well as providing advice to other festival-goers

Tick Graphic Using ‘blogging’ style fundamentals, registered users can publish their own stories and festival experiences or memories that they can share with their friends

Tick Graphic Registered users can publish their own reviews on individual music festivals to help inform other users with critique of the festivals they have experienced

Tick Graphic Registered users can upload and display their own festival photographs and videos

Tick Graphic Visitors to the site find the relevant content they are after quickly without having to register, using a complex searching facility integrated into the web site

Tick Graphic A back-end section of the web site allows for editors and administrators to login to this facility

Tick Graphic From the back-end, they can add, modify or delete content, as well as moderating user-generated content and uploading files such as images and videos

FestivalMap Visualisation Objectives

Integrated into the web site, will be an embedded visualisation, tentatively known as FestivalMap. Designed in Adobe Flash, and using complex coding languages to read the relevant data from a database, the aim of FestivalMap is to provide a unique and refreshing interface for users to be able to browse and explore music festivals across the world.

Tick Graphic A visualisation of a world map would be presented to the user, with the aim being for the user to be able to search for and find information on festivals in an efficient manner

Tick Graphic Users can tailor FestivalMap to search for data relevant to their needs; whether these are related to distance, time or musical preferences

Tick Graphic After the user has inputted these variables, they are presented with the relevant data and information about festivals that may interest them

Tick Graphic A hyperlink is then produced which the user can click on to find out more detailed information on individual festivals, by visiting the relevant festival page on the FestivalMap web site

Tick Graphic The user is also given the opportunity to purchase tickets to the festival, via a hyperlink which tracks any commission-based leads, therefore earning revenue to pay for web site running costs


C. Project Description

The FestivalMap web site relies on a complex use of technological web applications and coding languages, to create a dynamic database driven web site, and a graphical visualisation interface, that fulfils the needs of the audience.

· XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Mark-up Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) web languages, used to design and present the front-end of the web site to spacer imagethe user

· JavaScript will be used to power scripts needed to display photographs in an attractive manner. XML will also be used to create RSS feeds for the news content spacer imageof the site

· ColdFusion scripting language will be used to power the dynamic element of the web site. Using server-side technologies, SQL statements will be used to read, spacer imagewrite and store data into a Microsoft Access database. Using queries, this data can then be relayed and published on the relevant front-end web pages. User
spacer imagelogs and statistics will also be created using ColdFusion

· ColdFusion will also be used to code a back-end so that administrators and editors can log into the system and delete, modify or add content using a Content spacer imageManagement System (CMS)

· A mixture of XML, Adobe Flash Actionscript 2.0 and ColdFusion will be used to aggregate data from the relevant database of music festivals, and display them spacer imagein a visual interface of a map, designed and displayed using the application Adobe Flash CS3

Structure of the web site:

Front-end

· Web pages displaying information on each individual music festival, including advice, reviews, photos, videos, comment discussion

· Web pages displaying information on music festival news, a news archiving system and a news RSS Channel

· Users can browse and retrieve relevant information using the search bar facility

· Registered users area and user profiles

· Allows for user-generated content, users can publish their own textual or visual content, as outlined in Section B. Project Aims & Objectives Back-end

· User registration system and user login facility

· Specially designed CMS system for administrators and editors to login to, with different permissions for each group. Within the CMS system, there is the ability spacer imageto edit both the web site design and content

· Ability to change the design of the web site by editing the stylesheet

· Ability to add edit or delete all textual content on the web site, including user-generated content

· Ability to add or delete all user-generated visual content, such as photos and videos, as well as the capability to upload files

· Statistics system to log hits (visits) to the web site as well as user session times and activities

Flash Visualisation (FestivalMap)

· Acts as a centralised hub of information on music festivals around the world

· Presents to the user, a unique interface experience; an alternative to browsing web pages

· Allows user input; variables can be changed, and the relevant data will be searched for

· Allows for the output of advertising links so users can purchase tickets for festivals, whilst generating lead-based commissions for the web site

Detailed Description of the FestivalMap Visualisation

FestivalMap is a flash-based visualisation of a world map that will display different music festivals that occur across the world. Some user profiling will help us to understand how the system will work:

User A is a female student in her early 20’s from Manchester, England. She leads an adventurous lifestyle and is therefore willing to visit festivals that are also in the Americas and Oceania, as well as across Europe. Because she is at university she has a lot of time off so can visit festivals that occur in spring as well as summer. Her favourite band is The Killers. She would then input her preferred genre of music, some of her favourite bands, the time she has available to visit a festival, and how far she is willing to travel.

Using SQL statements to search for this data from a database, FestivalMap would display the results of all the festivals happening in the date spans and desired locations that she chose, prioritisng festivals that were her preferred genre of music, or had some of her favourite bands on the line-up. Applicable festivals would then appear as icons within the FestivalMap visualisation. She could then browse these different festivals, clicking on the icons to display the most important information, such as ticket prices and headlining bands. If she wanted to find out more information, then a hyperlink would take her to the relevant festival page on the FestivalMap web site.

Web site Promotional Advertising

· To support and create awareness of the FestivalMap web site

· Digital banner ads will be created using Adobe Flash CS3

· Posters and other viral artefacts such as flyers and stickers displaying the web site URL and a description of the site, will be produced in Adobe Photoshop


D. Research & Market Analysis

Copyright Research


Textual information on the music festivals will be written originally, using the open-source information provided by official festival web sites as a guideline. All user-generated content uploaded must be original and copyright-free. If a user uploads work that is not their own or they do not hold the property rights, then the content will be removed from the web site.

Photographs will aim to be sourced from royalty free sources, to save on expenditure. The web site http://sxc.hu will provide the majority of illustrative and photographic visual content, as this material is covered under the creative commons license. When user-generated content, whether it is textual or visual, is uploaded, the user will be made aware that their uploaded material can be used freely on the web site for any purposes seen fit.

Research Methodology


Project research initially began using academic references such as Managing Multimedia: Project Management for Web and Convergent Media (England, E. & Finney, A: 2002). Research on the current trends and the demographics that visit music festivals was also carried out, and is covered in the Target Audience research.

Competitor research was carried out to analyse and critique existing web sites that are in the music festival market. The purpose of this was to see what features these sites had, and to witness any mistakes or errors, relating to both design and content that FestivalMap can avoid or improve on.

A digital questionnaire was created to be filled in by the target audience. The timescale for submissions was a one week period, with the purpose being to gather important data and information that would be beneficial to analyse and incorporate advice for the production of the web site. It also helped establish the levels of interest users had on suggested web site features, as well as their spending and traveling habits, which helped to prioritise content and advertising options that the web site has.

It was decided that there was no need for formal interviews, as the objectives of the web site are entirely consumer based, so no organisations or owners of music festivals needed to be contacted, as there is no need for relationships with these companies at this stage of development.

Once prototypes have been developed for the web site, the second phase of research will begin. Another questionnaire will be the primary source of user opinion, and will include questions relating to the sites aesthetics; such as colour scheme, logo design and structure.

The questionnaire will also help establish technical considerations, such as the users preferred web browser, and their monitor screen resolution. When production begins and initial prototype designs are released, these will be tested in a more formal environment, using focus group testers. They will navigate and browse the web site and express their initial thoughts and feedback on the web site.

Competitor & Technical Research


eFestivals / www.efestivals.co.uk (UK only)

eFestivals is the market leader for UK music festival web sites. The reason for its large amount of traffic is due to two factors: a lively and dynamic community based discussion forum, and insider knowledge within the industry which provides accurate predictions and rumours in relation to the different festivals.

The largest negatives surrounding the site are aesthetic and accessibility based issues. For example, when trying to validate the homepage using W3C, 125 validation errors are found. The aesthetic of the site is very bland and dated and the large numbers of advertisements are overwhelming and contribute to an already poor visual content hierarchy. The site suffers from a garish colour scheme and a confusing DHTML navigation bar. The web site also only covers UK festivals, whilst FestivalMap will be covering music festivals on a global stage.

Virtual Festivals / http://www.virtualfestivals.com (UK focus, but incorporates Worldwide)

Like eFestivals, Virtual Festival does allow for some user-generated content, but this is done in a similar fashion through a forum making it impossible for guests to browse the content. FestivalMap will allow for user-registration within the web site and the ability to browse user-generated content without having to sign up to a separate discussion forum. The main negative of this site is that the homepage is far too busy: the user would easily be overwhelmed by the large amount of content link options. The structure and visual hierarchy of the FestivalMap web site will be a high priority. Focus group testing in the second research phase will help establish how the site is navigated and how people browse the web site.

We Love Festivals / http://www.welovefestivals.com (UK focus, but incorporates Worldwide)

We Love Festivals is a relatively new site that has incorporated a lot of Web 2.0 fundamentals; such as the use of blogs, tags and user groups (known as ‘tribes’ on the site). However, there are major accessibility issues that plague the web site. For example, a user cannot change the text size on the page as the text sizing is coded to be fixed in pixels, rather than as a percentage. FestivalMap aims to be completely accessible to all, and correctly validated. Although the site contains information on festivals, there is no ‘news’ channel which FestivalMap will be incorporating. This is important as it gives registered users the ability to comment on festival news issues, as they occur in a real-time environment.

Festival Planet / http://www.festivalplanet.com (UK focus, but incorporates Worldwide)

Festival Planet is also a new site, but has many negative issues surrounding it. The amount of content within the site is scarce; for example, there are less than 30 music festivals within its database. FestivalMap plans to have upwards of 50 festival information pages, so users gain an awareness of the wide variety of festival opportunities. The web pages also have serious aesthetic issues in that the content does not align properly when tested in Internet Explorer. To allow users to find out when different festivals are on, there is a ‘calendar’ option to browse by different months. However, this is a slow process, which is neither unique nor visually exciting. FestivalMap’s key feature will be a Flash-based ‘map-styled’ visualisation that allows users to find out information in a quick and exciting manner.

Festivals.com / www.festivals.com (USA focus, but incorporates Worldwide)

Festivals.com is an established web site, but it does not receive a lot of traffic outside of Europe. The site has a very large database of information on festivals around the world. However, the content for the UK and Europe is very poor. For example the site only lists four festivals within the UK. The content it does have, is very niche, and will not appeal to a large target audience. The most relevant feature of this web site is that it allows the user to browse the content using a graphical visualisation of a world map. However, this is done via image link mapping, rather than the Flash built interface that FestivalMap will have. The main benefit of the FestivalMap is unlike the map graphics of Festivals.com, the user can navigate the interface easily, without having to travel through numerous web pages and sub categories.

The majority of competitor sites use the programming language PHP to build their sites, as this works flawlessly using SQL to read from a database; is the industry ‘standard’, and .php web pages can also be hosted cheaply online.

However, FestivalMap will be designed and built using ColdFusion (a programming language licensed to Adobe Inc.). The reasons behind choosing ColdFusion is that is more accessible to learn than PHP and free-hosting and technical expertise are also provided at the University of Leeds.

Preliminary Target Audience Research


Mintel reports on the music festival market were helpful in establishing the age demographic of festival visitors, and how these were forecasted to change in the future.

It was found that growth will be predominantly experienced in the 20-24 and over-55 age ranges, with most other categories either declining or showing minimal increases.

· The former is a strong demographic for festivals as this young adult group are likely to be in full-time employment with high levels of PDI. Therefore they are able to take advantage of the wide range of festival opportunities across the world.

· Given this trend the industry may therefore increasingly need to appeal to the grey market; for example, day festivals that offer a more ‘comfortable’ experience (improved catering and facilities) and that feature more refined genres of music, such as classical and jazz.

The second point established the need for the FestivalMap web site to also appeal to an older generation. This will be achieved by covering a wide range of music festivals that would be of interest to people searching for traditionally older genres of music – those that have no interest in attending pop or rock festivals.

Research Questionnaire


The questionnaire was submitted digitally, and published online using Google Docs. This was so it would be easier to fill in, and the viral capabilities of the Internet allowed for a larger amount of responses, when compared to traditional distribution.

Links to the online questionnaire were posted on numerous web sites to gain a suitable sample size from a large age demographic, with representation from both genders.

The audience needed to be familiar and have expertise on the issues surrounding music and music festivals, therefore the questionnaires link was publicised on:

UKMusic (http://ukmusic.com/forum), Reading Festival Online (http://forum.readingfestivalonline.co.uk) and Drowned in Sound (http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music)

To reach a primarily younger audience, the link was publicised in the music sub-forum category on:

The Student Room (http://thestudentroom.co.uk), and N-Europe (http://n-europe.com/forum)

Reaching an older audience proved to be more difficult, so the link was publicised in the music entertainment sub-forum category on forums that had a higher age demographic such as DigitalSpy (http://digitalspy.com/forums)

The questionnaires existence was also advertised on Facebook (http://facebook.co.uk) and on the ICS Forum at the University of Leeds (http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/Intranet/forum/mymamm03.cfm)

There were a total of 81 responses to the online questionnaire, with findings and analysis available in the next section.

The complete questionnaire and graphical results are available in Section J. Appendix.

Audience Questionnaire Research Findings


The analysis will be grouped into four different sections; ‘Target Audience’, ‘Advertising/Commercial’, ‘Site Content’, and ‘Feedback’.

Target Audience


Q1. Are you male or female?
Male: 68%
Female: 32%

Results were more divided than anticipated. The web site will have to avoid being too masculine in design, otherwise the smaller user group of female visitors may dislike browsing the site.

Q2. How old are you?
15 or under: 2%
16-18: 22%
19-21: 54%
22-25: 9%
26-29: 2%
30-39: 6%
40-49: 2%
50 or over: 1%

The questionnaire results shows that people above 25 have little interest in online music festival orientated web sites. The web site will therefore be primarily branded in a youth orientated fashion to suit the needs of the primary target audience.

Q3. What is your occupation?

A large amount of responses were from students, but the occupations listed were varied and included; Administration, Hospitality, Education, Customer Service, Science, Management, Web editing/design, and Engineering.

Advertising/Commercial


Q4. How do you purchase your music?
There were 28 responses for e-retailers and 19 responses said they downloaded from online music stores

A large amount of the people questioned, purchase music from e-retailers such as Amazon, so the site may benefit from having graphical advertisements from these companies for related products such as music CDs. Online downloads are now a default mode for many listeners, and the likes of iTunes are leveraging the brand to create music portfolios around major concert events. Therefore, the promotion of the iTunes music store will also be an advertising option.

Q6. What methods have you used to purchase tickets for a music festival?
An overwhelming 69 out of the 81 responses (85%) purchased tickets online. Therefore it is critical that the web site acquires lead/sale-generated commission from e-ticket retailers via their affiliate programmes.

Q7. If you have purchased music festival tickets online, please tick below if you have used the following web sites:
Seetickets.com and ticketmaster.co.uk were the most common responses with 48 responses each. This means affiliate programmes for these two e-retailers primarily will be joined when the site has launched.

Site Content


Q5. How many music festivals have you been to in your life?
0: 6%
1-3: 41%
4-7: 28%
8-10: 10%
11-15: 5%
16-20: 0%
21+: 10%

The fact that almost 41% of replies were from people who have visited a maximum of three festivals was a surprising revelation. This means the web site will put more emphasis on promoting unique and niche festivals that the public may not have been aware of.

Q8: If you have purchased music festival tickets online from a web site that wasn't listed above, please state the web site address below:

Some sites mentioned were: www.scarletmist.com, www.wegottickets.com, and www.ebay.co.uk

A large amount of responses were from people saying they had purchased tickets from ticket-resellers, that make a business out of selling festival and other gig tickets at inflated prices, with a demand always being there because a large number of events sell out. As outlined in the project aims, FestivalMap aims to provide information on alternative festivals for those who have not been able to purchase festival tickets for the event they were initially looking for. FestivalMap also aims to find solutions to the current crisis of ticket touting, primarily within the UK, and therefore supports web sites such as Scarlet Mist where users can only sell tickets for their original cost.

Q9. Please list all the countries that you have visited music festivals in (if you have visited none, please type n/a):
UK: England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales
Europe: Bulgaria, Hungary, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Russia, Finland,
Global: North America, Canada, Russia, Thailand, Japan, Antigua, Australia

A wide selection of destinations is evidence that a large majority of users of the web site are willing to travel to countries in Europe and further a field with the desire to enjoy live music and added cultural benefits. Therefore, in addition to having information on European festivals, worldwide festivals will also be included on the site.

Q10. How much are you willing to spend on visiting a festival (including both travel and ticket costs?)
£200-249: 30%
£150-199: 28%
£300+: 12%

Only a relatively small percentage of people were willing to spend £300+ on visiting a festival, which shows us that Europe is the most viable destination for a large majority of the audience, and therefore will be prioritised over worldwide festivals.

Q11. Have you ever not being able to attend a festival because it was sold out?
No: 67%
Yes: 33%

Some of the festivals mentioned were: Reading & Leeds Festival (06/07/08), Glastonbury Festival (03/05/06/07), Download Festival 2007, and V Festival (06/08). All these are UK based festivals which highlights capacity problems and the consumer demand for tickets to events that have already sold out.

Q12. Have you ever considered going to a music festival in these regions?

Western Europe was the overwhelming favourite with 62 people wanting to visit the region. There were 34 responses for North America and 28 for Eastern Europe. There was only a small amount of interest in traveling to the regions of Asia, Oceania and South America.

Suggested reasons for not wanting to travel: The main issues were that the festivals were too far away, and people weren’t willing to travel that far. Another issue was the cost of these festivals; however this highlights the point that many people are unaware that European festivals in particular are significantly cheaper than their UK counterparts. Another issue was that people were unaware of any music festivals that occur outside of the UK and what types of bands perform there – this plans to be solved by FestivalMap, as it will inform them of these matters.

Q13. Before traveling to a festival, do you check the festivals official web site to find out information about the festival – camping info/safety info/traveling info etc?
Yes: 91%
No: 9%

This is important statistical information as it shows over 9 in 10 people visit official festival web sites to find out information; which translates into a very large target audience for FestivalMap to appeal to. Information on numerous festival issues will be written originally for different festivals on the FestivalMap web site, using the information on official web sites as guidelines.

Q15. Have you ever visited music festival online discussion forums?
Yes: 48%
No: 43%
Yes (I am a regular visitor/contributor): 9%

Almost half of the users questioned had visited a music festival discussion forum. However, less than 10% were regular visitors and contributors. This data shows that building a discussion forum for registered users of FestivalMap would be unadvisable, as there is a high chance that a community of posters will not form.

Q16. If you were to register an account at a festival web site, which features would you most like to be able to use? Please rate on a scale of 1-5, 1 being little interest and 5 being very high interest:

Ability to publish reviews on your own festival experiences:
4: 35%
5: 19%
2: 17%
3: 16%
1: 14%

Q16a. Ability to create comments/discuss various festival issues
4: 47%
5: 32%
3: 11%
2: 6%
1: 4%

Q16b. Ability to publish your own festival memories/stories
4: 37%
5: 23%
3: 16%
2: 14%
1: 10%

Q16c. Ability to upload your own festival photos
4: 38%
5: 26%
3: 14%
1/2: 11%

Q16d. Ability to upload your own festival videos
3: 25%
2/4: 21%
1: 17%
5: 16%

Q16e. Ability to message other users/make contact with other registered users of the site
4: 30%
3: 25%
5: 20%
2: 12%
1: 9%

The most popular feature was the ability to create comments on various festival issues. This means that on every festival information page and on every news story item, a form will be available to registered users to publish their own views. The least popular feature was the ability to upload videos, which was a surprising revelation, as streamable media, is becoming one of the fastest growing features of the Web 2.0 generation, and is the primary feature of popular sites such as YouTube and Revver. This could be because of privacy issues; maybe users do not wish to reveal publicly what occurs at the festivals they visit, whether it is for private or legal reasons. As there was no resounding lack of interest for any of the features, they will all be implemented into the FestivalMap web site.

Q17. If you were registered to a music festival web site, would you use your account to publish user-generated content? For example, would you upload your festival photos or write festival reviews or stories?
Probably, yes: 47%
Yes, I would most definitely use this feature: 22%
No: 17%
Undecided: 10%
Definitely not – I wouldn’t want to register at the site either: 4%

This is important data as it is crucial that the site incorporates user-generated content, so users can collaborate to the site and help expand it. The results show a positive outlook, with 69% of those questioned saying they would use the facility.

Q18. If you had a registered account, would you be interested in ‘social networking’ site capabilities in your User Profile, e.g. the ability to message other registered users?
Yes: 67%
Undecided: 19%
No: 15%

Quite a large amount of people, 1/3 of those questioned were unsure or did not want social networking capabilities within their user profile. There is a risk of the site borrowing too many ideas from other web sites and therefore losing its clarity and original objectives. In fact, a user did make an additional comment that ‘the web site shouldn’t worry about having social networking features, people will just use Facebook for that, play to your strengths’. However, because 67% of the people questioned requested these features, they will be implemented into the web site in a suitable manner.

Q19. Would you use a 'map' styled interface that showed visually festivals across the world? You would be able to input data such as how far you were willing to travel and your favourite bands, and the relevant festivals would be displayed to you. This saves you the hassle of having to visit each individual music festival web site, as all the relevant information is congregated into one place.

Yes: 84%
Undecided: 10%
No: 6%

Responses from those who didn’t want this feature: The only negative responses were from users who preferred to browse the various individual sites, instead of having all the information congregated into one place.

The idea of the FestivalMap visualisation was very warmly received, which cements its importance as the web sites main unique feature. Additional comments provided included ‘This would be a good idea and would save people time and hassle, searching through endless web sites, trying to get reliable answers.’ ‘The map idea is frankly a very good idea; create it and I’ll definitely use it!’

Feedback


Q14. Have you visited these music festival web sites before?
eFestivals was the most popular with 57 out of the 81 responses saying that they had visited the site before.

User feedback on eFestivals:

Positives included: Good source of knowledge for UK festivals, lively discussion forum.
Negatives included: Unappealing aesthetically, too text-heavy and confusing for first time users.

User feedback on Virtual Festivals:

Positives included: Well designed professional layout, good structure and sitemap.
Negatives included: Homepage is too crowded, large adverts are distracting, some content is unreliable.

This question was important as it established user opinion on the positives and negatives of competitor sites. Deeper analysis into these two web sites and how FestivalMap aims to improve on them is available in Competitor & Technical Research.

Q.20 Do you have any other comments or suggestions?

Additional comments favoured the use of article-styled information on festivals, as opposed to a forum based discussion area. This was because the information could be searched for and accessed quicker.

Another idea was to have an "in the know" section of tips for first time festival visitors, written by knowledgeable festival goers, relating to issues such as camping and transport.


E. Risk Assessment

It is important to plan an informative Risk Assessment chart that shows a great depth of potential hazards surrounding the project, relating to pre-production and production phases, as well as other issues.

The chart on the next five pages will show the risk description, the action used to manage this risk, the implications the risk has on the project, and the details surrounding the risk solution.

The two key charts below show the level ratings for both the likelihood of the risk occurring, and the impact it would have on the project, if it were to occur.

Risk Assessment Tables

F. Project Justification

A dynamic, database driven web site will meet the needs and requirements of users, as it allows for content to be updated and added in real-time. This means that the web site content is continually fresh and expanding; and information can be quickly accessed and displayed from the database onto the front-end of the web site using queries and searching facilities. As well as the content-generation facilities available to the users of the site, where the project has a unique depth and quality is the realisation of the FestivalMap visualisation feature.

The FestivalMap feature would be a very useful tool for festival-goers. This is because they can input their own personal information, creating results that will be tailored to their needs. No more labourious trawling through each individual festivals official web site to find out the line-ups and dates of each festival. Just a single centralised hub of information, within an aesthetically pleasing visualisation, relaying the most useful data back to the user in a quick and smooth transition.

Using technologies such as ColdFusion and other scripting languages contributes to the development of the project, and allows the web site to become a feasible realisation of its initial plans. There is also a sustainable business model for the web site. As stated in Section A. Introduction, the market size for the music festivals sector is phenomenal and continually growing.

The web site would be supported both through targeted visual advertisements from related e-retailers on the festival web pages, as well as commission-based lead generation links from e-ticket retailers. Because a user is browsing the web site to find out information on a certain music festival; there is a natural flow of progression that they may become interested in purchasing tickets to that festival. FestivalMap brings to the user a wide array of festival options, increasing the likelihood that they purchase tickets through the affiliate programme linked to the web site. Having inbuilt site statistics will also help track the amount of visitors and usage patterns to the site. This will be important data as it will be needed as evidence of traffic to the web site and will be pivotal in persuading advertisers to let the site host advertisements.

High levels of traffic can be forecasted as the entertainment sector of music festivals is large and relies on information retrieval. Users would be given the incentive to register to the site, because it allows them to express both their creativity, through writing reviews and stories, as well as the site acting like a server, hosting their memories of festivals through the visual elements of photography and video. A high level of user sign-ups would also be increased by a competition on the web site, which would reward the user with the most visited user-content, tickets to a European festival of their choice.

Although there are numerous amounts of music festival web sites on the web, the needs of the target audience are not fully met or ignored entirely. Listed on the next two pages are problems the audience has, and solutions that the FestivalMap web site solves.

Problem: Mainstream music festivals are becoming so popular; the tickets available cannot meet demand – especially within the UK. For example, T in the Park festival in Scotland sold its 40,000 tickets, within only 40 minutes of them being on sale . Many people resort to paying inflated prices on ticket-reselling web sites and through auctions such as EBay.

Solution: The site offers viable alternatives to music festivals across the world that have similar lineups to UK ones and are in much better locations.

Problem: A lot of people look at festivals as being very expensive; true – within the UK they are. There are also climate issues with people becoming hesitant to attend UK festivals because of the weather. For example, in regard to Glastonbury Festival 2008 not selling out, organisers put this down to fans being unwilling to suffer a potential quagmire for a fourth consecutive year.

Solution: Within Europe in particular, festivals are much cheaper than their UK counterparts. For example, Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands is only £100 for three days including camping. Many of these festivals also benefit from having a pleasant climate. FestivalMap encourages visitors to combine going to a festival with going on a holiday, and aims to save people money.

Problem: A lot of people are unaware of festivals that take place outside of the UK, and there is a lack of knowledge on ‘niche’ festivals that occur both internally within the UK and across the world.

Solution: The web site provides information retrieval facilities for those people, to find out about the numerous amounts of both mainstream and niche music festivals in Europe and globally.

Problem: People that are traveling to these foreign countries may feel uneasy or unsure about certain issues such as camping or travel, if they are new to the festival scene.

Solution: User-generated content allows people who are foreign festival veterans to post their tips and advice to help new festival-goers.

Problem: A lot of existing music festival orientated web sites concentrate on issues such as line-up rumours, and news stories about artists. They are forgetting what makes a festival isn’t necessarily all down to the music: it’s about the people and their interactions and memories.

Solution: The site offers a wide array of potential user-generated content. Users can upload their photographs and videos of their experiences; as well as publish their memories and stories – interesting and unique content that will inspire others to travel.

Problem: People are worried about spending a large amount of money to go to festivals across the globe, and are anxious if the festival experience will be worth it.

Solution: The site allows users to publish their own reviews or thoughts on various festivals so people can see the positives and negatives of each individual festival.

Problem: There are very capable official music festival web sites that provide information on their individual festival, but this information can be biased. As well as this, users can easily get infuriated at having to navigate numerous amounts of web sites, to find information on each separate festival.

Solution: FestivalMap acts as a centralised ‘hub’ of information. Using a large-scale database, information on a wide array of festivals will be presented to the user to navigate through. All relevant information and visual content will be congregated onto the site.

Problem: Users may find it laborious to navigate page-by-page information for each individual festival, there is no unique or interesting navigational alternative.

Solution: The FestivalMap visualisation allows users to search and explore music festival information, using a single interface; the current usage method of navigating each individual web site in search of content retrieval is replaced.


G. Estimation of Budget

Budget Table Part 1 Budget Table Part 1

8. Glossary

Access Keys – Allow the user to navigate a web page by using numbered keys on a keyboard

Adobe Flash – Software used to create animation, advertisements, and various web page components

Adobe .PDFs - A file format designed to enable printing and viewing of documents with all their formatting (typefaces, images, layout, etc.)

ALT Tags - The ‘alt’ attribute is used in image tags to provide alternate text for user agents (such as web browsers) that do not display images or have been set not to display them

Assistive technology - Hardware or software that helps a person use a computer program or website

Bandwidth - The amount of data that can be transmitted via a given communications channel. When you are browsing a webpage, and downloading content like images, you are consuming its allocated bandwidth

CSS - Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): A stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document such as a web page, written in a markup language

DDA - The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) aims to end discrimination towards disabled persons

Equality and Human Rights Commission - 2007 merger of: Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), Disability Rights Commission (DRC), and the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC)

HTML – A markup language used to design websites that combines information about the structure of a document and the structure of the data

Hyperlink - A hyperlink, more commonly referred to as a link allows a user to navigate between web pages on a web site

JavaScript - JavaScript is a cross-platform, object-based scripting language used for client and server applications. It is commonly used on web pages to add interactivity and dynamic content

Mozilla Firefox - A web browser descending from the Mozilla Application Suite

Queries - Questions that pull related data items together from a database

QuickTime – A multimedia application developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, media clips, sound and text

Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome - (also know as: Meares Irlen Syndrome) is a visual perceptual disorder affecting primarily reading and writing based activities

Screen reader - A screen reader is a software application that identifies and outputs audibly content on a computer monitor

Server-side – The scripting which is performed on the server, before a web page is delivered to the web browser

Stylesheet - See CSS

Tabbing – Name given to users browsing a website using the Tab key

Trackball mouse – A specialist input device that moves a pointer around the monitor screen by rotating a ball directly with the hand

User Registration – A process which allows a visitor to ‘sign up’ to a web site. Usually brings benefits like increased permissions

Viral – Viral marketing is the extremely powerful and unique ability of the internet to build self-propagating visitor streams, bringing about exponential growth to a web site

W3C – Stands for The World Wide Web Consortium. The main international standards organisation for the World Wide Web

WAI - A W3C initiative aimed at improving the accessibility of the Web by producing guidelines

WCAG 2.0 - A set of guidelines and checklists describing how to make a web site accessible

Web Browser – A software application which enables a user to view internet-based content, examples include Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox