ICT Communications coursework

AS and A Level Business Studies

Choice of problem

I have decided to look at the mobile phone market for my presentation. My presentation will show how over a relatively short period of time mobiles have become an important item in a lot of peoples lives. What makes the different phones so appealing, especially to teenagers. I will show the good things about owning one and also the disadvantages, this will also include the dangers of owning a mobile phone, such as “mugging”.

The reason for choosing this presentation is that most teenagers I know own a mobile phone. This will enable me to investigate what makes them so popular, how the mobile phone companies are encouraging their products to be bought and what new features the latest models have, the prices charged, different models and health risks.

My presentation will also include information about how the mobile phone companies are encouraging youngsters to buy by adding games, putting newer, smaller models onto the market and which are attractive to the target group & why.

I will also include a questionnaire designed to show what attracts people into buying a mobile phone. The questionnaire will be targeted for my peer group at school and will be designed to find out what influences, either external/internal persuades the purchase of a phone.

From the questionnaire I will be able to plot the influences on buying decisions such as advertising, price, network, peer pressure etc.

I will also include some exhaustive research into the data of the current mobile phone companies pricing structures.

Target Audience

My target audience will be teenagers but I am sure their parents would be interested as well. My presentation will recognise that teenagers have a keen interest in obtaining and knowing about the latest models available, what the different phones cost and once bought the different prices charged for calls and text messages. I will also show what software is around. Most teenagers know that there might be a risk for their health in using mobiles and I will present some information and research into this. Most teenagers know someone who has or have themselves been mugged for their mobile so I feel they will be interested in knowing how to help this not happening to them.

My presentation will need to be lively, colourful and interactive so as to keep the attention of the age group I am aiming for.

Information

My presentation will show:

the many different mobile phone networks there are to choose from

the different tariffs charged

the games you are able to get with different phones

the importance of being aware that there are people out there who would rob you of your phone and how to try to avoid this happening

information on health related risks and how to minimise these risks

My presentation will include views from teenagers on what they look for in a phone, the age they first got a phone, how often they use it and whether anyone has tried to rob them of it. My presentation will also include pictures and descriptions of various phones,

Research

I will create questionnaires and leave them in local primary and secondary schools for youngsters to fill in. I will use the Internet to obtain information about the different phone companies, their tariffs and latest models. I will contact the phone companies to find out their price range and what new software will be coming up in the future. I will create a database, which will include a snapshot of the best-known mobile phone companies, their latest products and the prices charged.

I will investigate through the police station the best way of keeping mobiles safe and research through the Internet, mobile phone shops and papers health related issues.

Analysis

The research I have gathered includes:

System Specifications

I want my presentation to contain the following:

Success Criteria

My presentation should show why mobile phones are so appealing to youngsters.

My presentation and my database should give information on the different tariffs companies charge.

My presentation should show both the advantages and disadvantages of using a mobile phone.

My presentation makes the audience aware of the potential health risks involved in using mobiles.

My presentation makes the audience aware of how they ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Analysis

The research I have gathered includes:

System Specifications

I want my presentation to contain the following:

Success Criteria

My presentation should show why mobile phones are so appealing to youngsters.

My presentation and my database should give information on the different tariffs companies charge.

My presentation should show both the advantages and disadvantages of using a mobile phone.

My presentation makes the audience aware of the potential health risks involved in using mobiles.

My presentation makes the audience aware of how they could become victims of robbery if care is not taken.

The information I have obtained is up to date and correct.

The style of language I use and the content of my presentation is appealing to young people.

The pictures I use are all clear and load up correctly.

My presentation looks uniform throughout, for example using similar fonts in all the programmes I use.

My presentation is colourful and appealing to the young audience I am aiming for.

Testing

Implementation

After making my decision on the content of my presentation I had two ways of presenting it in my mind. The first was to type up the HTML source on my web site in FrontPage Express and to do my presentation on the Web and the second way was to use Word and PowerPoint.

After thinking about my target audience and the information I wanted to show I decided to go for PowerPoint. I have used this programme before and have had success with it. I knew that I wanted to do a slide show and knew PowerPoint has special applications and because I am aiming at a young audience I knew that PowerPoint would help me making my presentation interesting as well as easy to follow

I have started of by typing all the information that I plan to put into my presentation into Word. I could have used notepad but I find Word a more powerful programme with lots more facilities available. I was able to type quickly, use fonts, tables, borders and shading.

I wanted to include a database and I have chosen Access as this will be able to do the job and I will be able to retrieve information I need quickly and efficiently and to do any queries my audience may have.

I wanted to include a flowchart in my presentation and first of all looked at Visio. I thought this to be a good programme and it would have done what I wanted but as I was already working in PowerPoint I thought it would save me time if I used the Flowchart contained in this programme.

I am using the same programmes at home and at school and when I update my work I e-mail myself the changes in the form of an attachment.

Hardware

I am using my personal computer at school together with my home computer. They are both Pentium based computers with CD-ROM, sound card and Internet access. The operating system I am using is Windows 95 with a 64 KB RAM. This hardware gives me the speed I need and has plenty of spare capacity on the hard drive.

Implementation of Solution – Data Collection, Data Capture and Input

Implementation of Solution – Data verification and validation

To check that all of the text information is correct I will get my next door neighbour, who is a policeman, to check the information on mobile phone safety. I will get someone from my local mobile phone shop to check the prices are current and that the phones I have listed are the latest mobiles available and I will look in the internet to check that no new announcements have been made on mobile phone health risks.

I will ask someone from year 7 and someone from year 12 to look at my presentation and make sure that they can access it easily, have no trouble following my slides and ask them to check that my animation works.

I will use Word to spell and grammar check my text.

Implementation of Solution – Data and program structures

In my mobile phone presentation I have decided to do it in PowerPoint. Diagrammatically the first few pages will look like this:

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

Linked to pages 1-8 Linked to pages 1 and 3 Linked to 2 and 4

I think that the order of information I have chosen is appropriate because:

Introduction – this will give my audience a clear overview of what my presentation will be about.

Slide 1 – Is an assortment of hyperlinks leading the audience to every page. If there is a page that the audience would like to see they could skip to any page they want to.

Slide 2 –This is my first topic of my presentation and is explaining the history of mobiles so people can get some information on how the mobile came about.

Slide 3 –In this slide I show the assortment of mobile tariffs that people use and the prices they charge for connection of calls and the price for texting.

Slide 4 –I have put the main health risks in this slide which explains the main causes for concern in mobile health and safety. I feel this is an important topic for my age group, but one we easily ignore as the pull to have a mobile phone is very strong

Slide 5 –In this slide I have put some information about keeping your mobile safe. This is important because mobile theft is one of the highest reported crimes in Britain.

Slide 6 –On slide 6 I show information and the prices of some popular and up to date mobiles. I am aiming to show the teenagers how the mobile companies are trying to influence them into buying their products

Slide 7 –I have then put about why we teenagers love our mobiles and on this slide I am to emphasis the many good points in owing a mobile.

Slide 8 –On this slide I have put the disadvantages as a contrast to show why we should be careful with the use of our mobiles.

I have done a leaflet in Publisher and will give this out to the teenage audience at the end of my presentation to take home with them.

I have done a database in Access so prices and phone companies can be easily available.

Implementation of Solution – Output format

For ease of use I have decided to use a standard PowerPoint presentation which will be available to all software formats from Office 97 upwards. The format chosen allows the audience to choose a whole display via a slide show and this is easily formatted to their own requirements as it is popular software

I have used diagrams downloaded from the Internet to display current mobile phone technology. These pictures will be imported into my PowerPoint presentation to display the availability of different types of phones.

The on screen display does fit on the screen as the chosen software automatically adjusts and/or can be adjusted to suit most modern media presentations.

The text I have chosen is a standard font available in all MS office applications and it is clear and very readable.

The colour scheme has been chosen for the age group I am aiming at. This is very bright and has a large contrast.

The data is displayed using visual images, clipart, animated text and visual written word.

Testing of Solution

Evaluation Sheet

Is the style of language clear? Yes

Do all the pictures load up? Yes

Do all the animations work? Yes

Do all the queries work? No, need to redo one

Signed……………………………………………(Year 8 pupil)

User Document

Table of Contents.

This presentation will show how over a relatively short period of time mobiles have become an important item in a lot of peoples lives. What makes the different phones so appealing, especially to teenagers. I t will show the good things about owning one and also the disadvantages, this will also include the dangers of owning a mobile phone, such as “mugging”.

To run this presentation you will need to have a Pentium based computer with compatible software, sound card and Internet access. You will need an operating system such as Windows 95 with at least 64KB of RAM. This hardware will give you the speed you need and will have plenty of spare capacity on the hard drive.

Each page in my PowerPoint presentation will have a similar format to the example below: (use print preview to get a better idea of how this will print out).

Troubleshooting

Evaluation of Solution

Success Criteria