Comparing the two media through a quantified pros and cons list.
Pros and Cons for choosing website as medium
Pros:
Cons:
Previous experience with medium (2)
Pros and Cons for choosing Interactive animation as medium
Pros:
Cons:
System for quantifying pros and cons:
2 - Medium Importance to project
1 - slight importance to project
3 - Very important to project
It is possible to integrate animations through utilization of JavaScript and CSS (3)
More space for creativity (freedom in terms of functionality and extent of customisability) (3)
Due to customisability as well as freedom in terms of functionality I would be able to meet the client's demands more effectively and with a broader range of tools available. (3)
More learning material available (Tutorials on the internet, articles, papers, courses etc.) (between 2 and 3)
Website design is far broader than the other medium which means the amount of freedom I have could act as a double-edged sword and might even prove to be overwhelming. (2)
A website relies far too much on the user when it comes to how it delivers content. (3)
Preliminary Brainstorm
Product Ideas as well as connection to unit details.
Small business review
As one of the central themes is "culture" web design might not be the most "personal" mode of communicating ideas. (2)
Would be a creative way of solving the client's problems (1)
Relies less on the audience in terms of deliverance of authorial intent. (3)
Animations are timeless, while there are numerous changing trends in web design, animations never grow stagnant.
Not many resources readily available to learn from (3)
Creating interactive designs require a lot of work for example if I were to give the user 3 options to choose from I would then have to create 3 different timelines and only would one of them be seen by the user, which means that not a lot of the information would be conveyed. (3)
This may be a contradictory statement as I had previously attributed merit to the fact that animations rely less on the user however, that is true when comparing interactive animations to websites however, the same is not true when discussing the advantages of interactive animation in general.
While websites have links and thus are easy to share, depending on the platform where I make my animation this will not be true and it might require possible consumers to download the animation first which is inconvenient. (2)
People could be recommended small businesses in their area and also review them.
SDG 9: Industry, infrastructure and innovation - The small businness commmunity has been hit hard by the pandemic.
" the pandemic had already caused massive dislocation among small businesses just several weeks after its onset and prior to the availability of government aid through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Across the full sample, 43% of businesses had temporarily closed, and nearly all of these closures were due to COVID-19."
"Respondents that had temporarily closed largely pointed to reductions in demand and employee health concerns as the reasons for closure" (If it is demand and emplyee health concerns how will a website solve this?)
https://www.bain.com/insights/how-marketing-can-overcome-covid-19-and-stay-on-course/ How marketing can help you solve the COVID-19 pandemic
Challenges
Taking inputs from user and displaying it on the website for all the users
Using the user's GPS location and giving recommendations using these.
Small businness culture:
"One of the primary appeals of the contemporary small business, in my opinion, is the family-centric culture that comes from a close-knit team. While in modern America, many may feel swallowed by corporations, the notoriety of the small business proves that people still find value in the intimate workplace.
Every industry across the globe has felt the staggering impacts of Covid-19, but small businesses were put under specific strain. Based on what I've seen, however, they have proved their undeniable resilience."
Possible solution: We could use geotags i.e. when you make a post you can write down the location of the business and user's can search for a particular location to get names of small businesses in the area.
Tourism encyclopedia
Negative impacts of tourism on culture
This idea discusses small business culture which doesn't seem to match the units details
"Negative impacts are the effects, that are caused in most cases, at the tourist destination site with detrimental impacts to the social and cultural area, as well as the natural environment."
"problems with the tourist-host relationship and the destruction of heritage."
https://images.slideplayer.com/27/9086530/slides/slide_5.jpg Image that summarizes the hars effects of tourism on culture and traditions
Cultural erosion
Before travelling, tourists can look up various places and learn about their respective cultures and traditions. Not only will this help stop things such as cultural erosion it will also be an educational experience which would allow for open-mindedness and a broader way of thinking.
SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production - My solution would educate toruists (the consumers) on various traditions of the places that they are visiting which would allow them to make the most of their holiday without diminishing the value of the region's traditions etc. If the consummers are mindful regarding what they buy and what they do, then producers would definitely follow market trends and also start to respect the local traditions and cultures more.
How can we make the website interactive? User inputs etc.?
Characteristics of interactive websites: https://www.mailerlite.com/blog/interactive-website-features-for-ecommerce
We could use animations and videos to better convey the intended message (educate people on the cultures and traditions of a specific region).
Allow people from a particular region to send in articles.
These articles would then be autommatically pasted onto an excel or google sheets where it would then be approved by an admin and posted to the website (to check authenticity.)
How would we do this?
Is food a part of culture?
"On a larger scale, food is an important part of culture. ... It also operates as an expression of cultural identity."
Example: 'Immigrants bring the food of their countries with them wherever they go and cooking traditional food is a way of preserving their culture when they move to new places.'
Why are age old recipes lost?
"[These recipes] have been lost to time due to various reasons such as the availability of ingredients, the processes employed and so on. Also, in the olden days, recipes weren’t documented. Cultural and historical reasons have also contributed to the disappearance of many dishes"
Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/living/food-fiesta/lost-but-not-forgotten-730219.html
"Food is the mirror of our society, and as society evolved, so did the food."
This link discusses numerous traditional foods from around India that have been lost.
A website where:
People can post traditional recipes, the website would be like a collaborative cookbook where people can share recipes and preserve their cultural dishes.
Has this been done before?:
There are currently not many websites that showcase traditional cultural recipes, although there are cookbooks that have this information they require people to pay. My website will make traditional recipes vastly available which will help in making sure that they do not get "lost" over time.
Research that backs up my ideas as well as the relevancy of the problem.
Culture and food in India: "Everyone loves to explore what history has to offer. Indian food is influenced by religion, cultural choices and traditions. India is not just culturally rich but rich in food, spices and flavors too."
List a few recipes that have been lost to display that the problem is not small:
19 lost recipes: https://www.triphobo.com/blog/old-recipes-of-india
The problem: These websites only list the names of the recipes without going into detail as to their preparation, this means that the dishes still remain unavailable to the vast majority of the people.
There was a conference where chefs met to preserve traditional cuisine: "The gravity of the issue hit hard at the first edition of the World Heritage Cuisine Summit and Food Festival 2018, held in Amritsar last month, where chefs from over 40 countries joined hands with the motive of preserving traditional cuisines."
2 reasons that the conference attributed the loss of traditional recipes to:
"Globalisation can be one culprit, which is helping people and trades transcend boundaries, resulting in the culmination of cultures and, hence, loss of ancient traditions. “Neo-colonisation is taking over some old traditions,” agreed chef Avraj Singh Marwa from Kenya."
"Besides globalisation, the second culprit for the disappearance of traditional cuisines is the rapid influx of technology and social media in our lives. With recipes of traditional and exotic dishes alike freely available online, everyone thinks they can cook, experimenting and adding new elements in the process. In the end, the original dish gets camouflaged"
Doesn't this mean that my solution would further camouflage these recipes?: No, onne of the chefs stated that "This is perhaps the biggest deficit that we’re facing… that chefs globally don’t understand the basic roots and cooking techniques". The website will display the recipes along with the techniques required to cook them, unlike social media's 2000 character posts my website will give detailed explaations.