Various Aspects of the Website the 2f2f - Case Study Example

Contents Introduction 3 Overview 3 Why 2f2f 3 Niche and Scope Statement 4 Scope of the site 4 This site is not 4 Goals and objectives 4 Target Audience 5 Market segmentation by gender 5 Market segmentation by age 6 Justification 6 Technical specifications 8 Wire frames 9 Mock UP 11 Visual hierarchy and Typography 11 Site map 14 Filing and naming convention 14 Graphics 14 Textual content 18 Home page 19 Technology page 19 V8 Engine 19 Ford Flat head V8 20 Jaguar AJ V8 20 Cars 21 Chevrolet Corvette 21 Future Trends 22 References Page 23 Bibliography 24 Introduction Overview The purpose of this document is to lay out the guidelines that will inform the development of the 2f2f website. 2f2f is short for too fast too furious. The website shall be about fast exotic cars most of them featured from the movie The Fast and The Furious. The site shall cover some cars in depth, features and specification, manufacturers and other related information about such high performance, high speed exotic cars. This document shall cover various aspects of the website, color scheme, textual content, images, logo and design, Navigation styles, target audience, use of white space and more aspects that will make the website a success or at least what the site owners envisioned the site would be. Why 2f2f The site as stated above is based on the movie The Fast and The Furious. The site will be more about exotic, high performance and high speed vehicles. This is a niche area of interest. We expect that the site will appeal to a small but borderline cult following. While there are other sites about vehicles and many of them about super cars this site is different in that it is inclined heavily towards the movie the fast and the furious. This creates a niche target audience. Lovers of the movie, super car, nas car and racing enthusiasts will also visit the website for information relevant to them. Niche and Scope Statement This site shall cover the areas below. The site developers should try not to go beyond the scope specified below. Scope of the site Information about the movie the movie franchise The Fast and The Furious Information about the cars in the movie Information about high performance vehicles and engines Information about the latest technology on super cars and race cars Information about top super car brands Ferrari, Bugatti, Audi, McLaren’s Mercedes and any other super car the web master deems fit. Information about the making of the movie the fast and the furious. This site is not A review of the movie the fast and the furious A manual on how engines work or how to fix them A forum for vehicle lovers to meet and share ideas An advertisement for super cars A page for Nascar, Safari Rally, formula one or any other motor sport Goals and objectives The aims of this website are: To be a website about super cars and race cars from the movie the fast and the furious To provide information about super cars and race cars that are in the same category as those in the movie the fast and the furious. Inform the audience about the newest trends in super cars. To provide speculative of future releases of the movie Feature driving techniques like drifting used in the movie fast and the furious Target Audience The target audience for this site as stated above is super car and race car enthusiasts and fans of the movie the fast and the furious. Market or audience segmentation shall be done by age and gender. The target audience segmentation is shown below. Market segmentation by gender The targeted market by gender is expected to be dominantly male. Figure 1 market segmentation by gender This is because motor sport and motors in general has for long been a preserve of men. As a hobby pass time or an area of interest it has always attracted men more than it has women. Although there is a small segment of women fans as seen by looking at forums on the internet that carter to the same target audience the larger chunk by gender is men. This site in design shall therefore have a slight masculine feel and bias. It shall however not completely ignore the female segment of the audience. Market segmentation by age The market shall also be demarcated based on age. The target distribution is summarized in the chart below. Figure 2. Market segmentation by age The target audience shall also be segmented by age. The age groups are classified into three categories. The first category is those in the late teens. This group shall cover those between the ages of seventeen and twenty. This category is mainly made of enthusiasts of super cars “super car geeks.” This category also has the movie enthusiasts that visit the site for a little extra information about the cars in the movie. This category of early teens is expected to be about forty percent of the audience. The second age group is designated Early twenties. This age group shall have people from the ages of twenty one to twenty three. In this segment there are more “super car geeks.” It is expected that this age group will be more interested in the super cars, the newest technologies and the trends of super cars and race cars. Justification The above market segments are targeted because of the type of content, aims and objectives of this site’s owner. The site will have some information that will apply to younger audiences (late teens). This information is mainly the information about cars and the movie the site is about. There will be information that is more technical, it’s about the race car technologies and origins, this will appeal to the more intermediate audience targeted in this segment (early twenties). Visitors from this market segment are expected to more into super cars and racing as a whole and less into movies. The last age group expected is mid-twenties. The people in their mid-twenties are expected to be more mature working individuals. Taking this into consideration they have less time for online hobbies that their younger contemporaries have. They are therefore expected to visit the site more for technical information on super cars and race cars. Finally the gender bias in favour of a more male audience is based on the notion that Nascar, super cars and motor sport in general is a male dominated field. This will mean that most people visiting the site will be male. Audience Characteristic Impact on site Young tech savvy audience Navigation needs to be intuitive but not necessarily simplistic. Male dominated audience Site will have dull colour, the colours are not subdued and faded just dark to give a masculine feel. Textures used should leave a rugged impression. Audience seeks to be visually excited. Images will need to be large and flashy and give an impression of speed and power all at the same time. Most site visitors from urban areas The site does not need to be overly optimized for slow internet connections. Technical specifications The following technical requirements and specifications apply to this website • Website must contain at least 8 pages • Maximum 2MB size total including all files, content and graphics • Minimum 1,500 word count total, spread across all web pages • All web pages must include graphics • Graphics must not be electronic, must be original or scanned only • Website must function for 98% of users • Tables must not be used for layout, tables may be used for displaying data only • Simple text editor only must be utilized for writing all HTML, XHTML and CSS • No javascript, PHP, any other server side language or other pre-existing code allowed • HTML, XHTML and CSS must contain descriptive comments • Website must include both internal and external hyperlinks • File names must not have spaces • Text must be stylized with XHTML/CSS, not with graphics (except with approval) Wire frames There are two page lay outs and templates that will be used for this web site. The first is for the home page design and layout. It features a large banner image and a small content area. This lay out is shown below. Figure 3 wireframe for the home page The second template is for any page that is content heavy. This pages shall have a large content area and no main banner. Images shall be put inside the content area. Figure 4 wire frame for content pages Mock UP Figure 5 Page mock up Visual hierarchy and Typography The visual hierarchy of the site shall have the page title at the top. This shall be in one continuous bar, the color of the bar shall not stand out. It is just to hold the page title. The logo shall be to the extreme left. The logo shall be the first noticeable graphic on the site seated on the top left. The logo is on the same bar as the primary navigation bar. This will cause the eyes to run right just like if one was reading the book. Right below that bar is the main banner on the home page or on other pages the page content starts. The design is built so that the content is in sort of visual bands, the eyes move from left to right just as they would if one was reading a book. There is clear demarcation between the bands and it gives the eye and impression of moving from on agenda to the next. The page has basically one color as the main color, a deep yellow, hexadecimal value of #FFCC00. This creates a feeling of excitement and speed just like in the movie the fast and the furious. The other colors used shall be black and white which act as back drops for contrast and as font color. This decision was reached after looking at many websites and magazines about super cars. They used a subdued dull color as the background usually black, white, grey or silver and a warm color as the main color usually red, orange or deep yellow. All fonts on the site shall be san serif fonts, Arial is preferred. This is because the fonts are much easier to read without the serifs at the end. The also appear clearer on screens where fonts are often small and squeezed together. Although the standard font color is black to make it easy to read, the title and links shall be in a deep yellow. The site shall not have any back ground images. It shall have a black back ground color. This works as a good back drop so that the glossy images of fast powerful cars take precedence and grab the viewers’ attention before anything else. The inspiration for this site’s design came from Ferrari’s website at http://www.ferrari.com/English/Community/Pages/SFCCommunity.aspx and from McLaren’s website at http://www.ferrari.com/English/Community/Pages/SFCCommunity.aspx. Figure 6 Ferari's webpage that was the inspiration for this site. Figure 7 McLaren's website that served to inspire this site's design. Both of these websites and many like them have the same concept. The cars have prominence, the have bright colors and glossy pictures. The backgrounds are dark colors so that the cars stand out and grab the viewer’s attention first. Navigation menus are at the top and are as concise as possible. The sites are lightly worded and in most cases the words are few, in small sans serif fonts and short paragraphs. These theme and or concept shall inform and inspire this site. A dark back ground, large pictures, lightly worded where necessary and possible and bright colors, in this case deep yellow. Site map Filing and naming convention The filing convention shall be kept simple. The root folder shall contain all the html documents of the site. All eight html pages are shown above. There shall be two sub folders, the first for images and the second for css. The two folders shall be named images and css respectively. Graphics The graphics for this website have been selected so that they appeal to the target audience of this website. All images are of fast powerful cars, engines, they create a feeling of excitement and immersion in to the world of motor sport. The first three images are my own drawings, they shall be used for the car of the future web page, they are my impressions of what the car of the future will look like. Figure 8,7,8 My impressions of the super car of the future Figure 9 Corvet Chevvy V8 engine chevvy.jpg Figure 10 Gt classic gt.jpg Figure 11 Lexus LFA lexus.jpg Figure 12 Lamborghini Aventador 700 aventador.jpg Figure 13 Toyota GT 86 Textual content The text content to be used in this website is as listed below. The actual content of the website shall be in green text so it is easy to distinguish it from notes to the developer. This site tries to minimize the use of text and use more graphics to communicate. This in mind the website just barely beats the fifteen hundred word count limit. Home page Thank you for visiting 2f2f. This is a website to provide information for lovers of the movie The fast and the furious. We shall also provide content on the latest trends in motor sport, super cars and exotic cars. Our aim is to build on the passion that was generated by the movie the fast and the furious. Lovers of the movie now have a place to build on their interests. Enjoy browsing our pages. This content is for the home page and it is supposed to be concise and to the point. Technology page The history of top performance super cars started during the world war II period. Men like Bugatti and Ferrari who wanted more than the ordinary out of their cars. These men went on not only to lend their names to behemoth brands that are today as identifiable as any country’s flag. These men just pushed the limits of physics and mechanical engineering a little further than what anyone else at the time had envisioned. This fore sight, determination, drive and zeal is what we have to thank for today’s technology. Everything from ABS, V6 and V8 engines, High octane fuel and anything else that keeps the modern super car so attractive. V8 Engine Most of this content came off the Wikipedia page for the V8 engine, I think it’s a genius idea and I am thus slightly biased to praise it maybe more than it deserves. The subtitles shall also appear in the site as subtitles. A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft. In its simplest form, it is basically two straight-4 engines sharing a common crankshaft. However, this simple configuration, with a single-plane crankshaft, has the same secondary dynamic imbalance problems as two straight-4s, resulting in vibrations in large engine displacements. As a result, since the 1920s most V8s have used the somewhat more complex crossplane crankshaft with heavy counterweights to eliminate the vibrations. This results in an engine which is smoother than a V6, while being considerably less expensive than a V12 engine. Most racing V8s continue to use the single plane crankshaft because it allows faster acceleration and more efficient exhaust system designs Some common applications of this technology in cars we all love is listed below. Ford Flat head V8 The Ford flathead V8 (often called simply the Ford flathead, flathead Ford, or simply flatty, when the context is implicit, such as in hot-rodding) was a flathead V8 engine designed by the Ford Motor Company and built by Ford and various licensees. During the engine's first decade of production, when overhead-valve engines were rare, it was usually known simply as the Ford V-8, and the first car model in which it was installed, the Model 18, was (and still is) often called simply the "Ford V-8", after its new engine. When the engine was introduced in 1932, it was a market first in several respects: in cars that were affordable to the emerging mass market consumer, it was the first 8-cylinder, the first V8, and the first V engine to become available. It was the first independently designed and built V8 engine produced by Ford for mass production, and it ranks as one of the company's most important developments.[1] A fascination with ever-more-powerful engines was perhaps the most salient aspect of the American car and truck market for a half century, from 1923 until 1973. The Ford flathead V8 was perfectly in tune with the cultural moment of its introduction, leading the way into a future of which the Ford company was a principal architect. Thus it became a phenomenal success. The engine design, with various changes but no major ones,[2] was installed in Ford passenger cars and trucks until 1953, making the engine's 21-year production run for the U.S. consumer market longer than the 19-year run of the Ford Model T engine[2] for that market. The engine was on Ward's list of the 10 best engines of the 20th century. It was a staple of hot rodders in the 1950s, and it remains famous in the classic car hobbies even today, despite the huge variety of other popular V8s that followed. Jaguar AJ V8 The Jaguar AJ-V8 is a compact DOHC V8 piston engine used in many Jaguar vehicles. It was the fourth new engine type in the history of the company. In 1997 it replaced both designs previously available on Jaguar cars: the straight-6 Jaguar AJ6 engine (or rather its AJ16 variant), and the Jaguar V12 engine. It remained the only engine type available on Jaguar until 1999 with the launch of the S-Type, when the Jaguar AJ-V6 engine was added to the list. The AJ-V8 is available in displacements ranging from 3.2 L to 5.0 L, and a supercharged version is also produced. Ford Motor Company used this small V8 in other products as well, including the Lincoln LS the 2002-2005 Ford Thunderbird as well as in several Land Rovers and the Aston Martin V8 Vantage. The AJ-V8 was designed to use Nikasil-coated cylinders rather than the more-common iron cylinder liners. However, like the BMW M60, high-sulphur fuel reacted with the Nikasil liners and caused engine failures. Jaguar replaced affected engines, and has used conventional cast-iron linings ever since. The engine uses a two-state Variable Valve Timing system to switch the intake cam timing by 30°. Newer engines use a more sophisticated system which can vary intake timing incrementally up to 48°. The Lincoln version was made in the United States. Other engine features include fracture-split forged powder metal connecting rods, a special one-piece cast camshaft, and reinforced plastic intake manifold. The AJ-V8 was on the Ward's 10 Best Engines list for 2000. Cars This page tries to explain what a super car is: A supercar is a high-end sports car that often costs more than $100,000 US Dollars (USD). As such, usually only the very rich can afford such vehicles, which are considered more status symbols than practical modes of transportation. Supercars are known for their power, speed and ability to attract the attention of nearly everyone on the highway. However, they also are subject to some criticism. The supercar designation could apply to any number of automobiles. The definition between an ordinary sports car and supercar is somewhat blurred. Ordinarily, a supercar reach that benchmark of $100,000 USD. However, some cars that are just below that threshold may also be considered supercars. Generally, a supercar will have an engine that is capable of producing several hundred horsepower. This enables the car to go very fast and accelerate very quickly. Though most of the speeds the supercar is capable of reaching are beyond the reaches of the laws of most countries, there will be places where they could be driven at higher speeds legally. In some cases, supercars may be used as race cars. However, generally this is not going to be the case. A supercar is a specialized instrument built for speed, but not necessarily built for racing. The supercar often does not have the safety features needed for a truly safe racing experience. Chevrolet Corvette The last several months of lead-up to the unveiling of the seventh-generation Chevrolet Corvette, all new for the 2014 model year, have been filled with equal measures of hype and hope: can the new Corvette live up to its legend? The wait, at least, is now over. The 2014 Chevy Corvette is here, unveiled at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show as the Corvette Stingray. Yes, Chevy has revived a classic nameplate not seen in several decades for this seventh-generation Corvette or C7 as it’s known to fans. Combined with an edgy new design that's still instantly recognizable as a Corvette, a new engine line, and the promise of even better handling and performance thanks to weight reduction, improvements to the chassis, and more, it seems like it's got the right stuff for sports car fans all around the world. At the heart of the 2014 Corvette Stingray is a new LT1 V-8 engine. While it displaces the same 6.2 liters as the previous base Corvette’s LS3, the LT1 is lighter, more powerful, and more fuel efficient. Rated at 450 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque, the 2014 Corvette Stingray is about 5 percent more potent than the last car--but it's lighter, too. In fact, when fitted with an available Z51 Performance Package, which adds a host of upgrades, Chevy boasts its latest 'Vette will accelerate from 0-60 in less than four seconds and achieve more than 1 g in cornering grip. For comparison, that’s almost quick as the previous C6’s Z06 trim. Future Trends The 'Car of the Future' will officially be unveiled at the Sydney Telstra 500 ahead of its 2013 racing debut. AARON NOONAN gives you the layman's guide to COTF… FOR well over 12 months, talk of V8 Supercars' 'Car of the Future' (COTF) has been buzzing around the V8 Supercars Championship paddock. There's been plenty written and said by media and fans — some of it inaccurate — about what COTF is, why it's being undertaken and what it all means. Some don't understand it, while others have simply over- analysed it. So, what does it all mean? Put simply, the 'DNA' of V8 Supercar racing will not change from 2013 when this new generation of cars takes over from the Falcons and Commodores that currently make up the grid. The cars will still feature V8 engines, rear-wheel drive and four doors. They'll also continue to make the same roar and be just as fast, if not actually faster. Currently, the chassis beneath the skin of the Falcon and Commodore are all extremely similar, with the next step being a control chassis — it's cheaper and is also aimed at making it easier for other potential manufacturers to build a V8 Supercar. A Commodore will still have the DNA of a Commodore, ditto for a Falcon or any other type of car that joins in. The doors will still open and close, the panels are the same shape and style of the road car, and the badges are real, too! References Page These are web pages with related content that you may find interesting, they also helped build the content on this site. http://www.ferrari.com/English/Community/Pages/SFCCommunity.aspx site inspiration right here. http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/lamborghini Lamborghini http://www.pakwheels.com/forums/wheels-fan-clubs/26805-bugatti-fan-club Bugatti n what not to do http://carfanaticsforum.com/thread-15470.html#.UUAzfDfivQw http://www.bugatti.com/en/home.html nice nav on the side http://supercars.ws/ http://www.nascar.com/en_us/sprint-cup-series.html http://www.mclaren.com/ http://www.chevrolet.com/corvette-sports-cars.html Bibliography BBC, Top Gear: Monthly Magazine, February 2013, London Octane Magazine, Ferrari: The man the car and the legend, March 2013, London Ferari Website, 2013, http://www.ferrari.com/English/Community/Pages/SFCCommunity.aspx Car fanatic forum, 2013, viewed on 1st March 2013, http://carfanaticsforum.com/thread-15470.html#.UUAzfDfivQw Super Cars USA, viewed on 6th March 2013 http://supercars.ws/ http://www.nascar.com/en_us/sprint-cup-series.html http://www.mclaren.com/ http://www.chevrolet.com/corvette-sports-cars.html Read More