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End of the Big Five Project

The Big Five project consisted of me being given a brief by a client of what they want. My choice of any of the Big Five animals of a continent went over in a 10-page booklet which can be both used online but also printed; using a specific set of page layouts which they wanted, such as column number and what should be on that page, and then designing it for them.  Initially I was going to do the big five of South America, as all of those animals interested me, but then after hearing where my peers were focusing on, and realising that I could further refine it into one country of the continent I swapped to Asia. This was because all of the key big five that most sites mentioned could be found in Borneo, and incredibly unique island and a place I was personally able to spend a month in, so I would be able to use my own experience and images when it came to creating the design. At first I felt pretty overwhelmed, having that much freedom when it came to the design, but also being so restr
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Interactive Design Vs Print Design

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 As stated, some design elements needed to change between the print version and this online interactive one, to make both as successful as possible. In general this hasn't changed most of the pages, and at the core they are still the same thing, providing the same information within it. However, on some pages this has required a bigger change such as the back page.  Generally, the main difference I've made when adding in the interactive elements, is adding in small circles, that have hyperlinks attached to them and work as little buttons, that when clicked on them it does what is needed, such as linking to a specific page or onto an outside webpage. On these two main pages, I have simply added a little bit of information stating that they are buttons and should be pressed, just to aid the reader into knowing what they are and how to use them. This is how the design looks in the final print version. Where as this is how it looks in the digital version. The buttons run along the
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InDesign Tutorial 2

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 Now that I'm onto creating the interactive side of the PDF, I want to try and include a form that will automatically submit the persons information, or at least a mostly functioning mock-up of one, for the back page.  However, this isn't something I know how to do using hyperlinks, so I am going to find a tutorial and follow one along on setting it up.  I have notes of how to create one, however, I do not know if this information alone will help me create one, or if it works as an interactive PDF. So first I shall try to follow these steps, provided by a peer, and if that leaves me stuck or doesn't work in my preferred format, I shall look up a video or image tutorial on what to do. I have also found a tutorial here:  Creating PDF Forms Tutorial I will be using both the premade list and this webpage with images to help me try to create this form. There is also a video on the site that can take me through it all if I find the image based text too difficult to follow. Follow
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Interactive Elements 2

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 For some of the interactive elements, I've made some specific design choices. Tablet of Contents: Such as for the table of contents, originally I was going to have it so that the text itself would act as a hyperlink, however I didn't like the fact this would then change how the text would look with the hyperlink information. So instead I have decided to include these little buttons, the same colour as the animals from the image below. The text that is below, I am going to edit and include how the reader can click a button to take you to that animals specific page. I shall also then see what it looks like to mimic these buttons at the top of the animals page, which will then take you back to the table of contents, however if it doesn't look good, then I shall remove them. To ensure that these work, I shall export a test Interactive PDF, and test out these 'buttons' there. Having exported a test Interactive PDF at this point, not only do the buttons work, but the int
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Interactive Elements

When it comes to interactive elements, I defiantly need to include some as that is what the client requested, but I do need to ensure that I both don't over use it or underuse it. Having too much of it interactive can come off as almost gimmicky and that isn't something a client would want for a booklet advertising the Big Five to get people to go on holiday there. However, if I don't use enough it won't seem like it's interactive, which I also do not want.  I also gave to be careful with what items I chose to have interactions, otherwise it could feel like they were just shoe-horned in without any thought, which is not something I want as I have taken this into account.  The main elements to which I will add interactions is the Table of Contents and the back of the booklet. The table of contents I want to actually work, so that when the reader clicks on each animals name as it's listed, they are taken to that page, which gives the table of contents an actual ro
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Exporting Final Print version

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When it came to exporting this printed version, I first saved a final version of the InDesign called Final Booklet Print Ver. This gives me quick and easy reference if I want or need to go back and change anything in this printed design, I can then go and use the original file to create the Interactive Version and not worry about loosing the master file for this printed design.  When it came to exporting, I kept this same name of Final Booklet Print Ver, but chose to save it as a PDF. This is the best and industry standard to save the file as, as it allows everything to be viewed and looked through without accidently editing or moving any of the assets. The settings were easy enough as I had set up the file in the beginning to have all of the required settings, which just meant I had to tell it to use the document settings. I did notice, upon closer look, you can tell InDesign to save the print version with the interactive elements, which is good to know in any future case, however doe
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Back Page

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 The Back Page of the booklet is something that has caused me the most difficulty in designing, even more so then the ad, as I try to include everything the client wants. While still making the design look good and match the rest of the design. This is due to the fact that most of the booklets I have seen and looked at while researching, they tended to keep their back page plain.  This has further proved difficult for me to design for the print version, this is because it would want completely different information. A printed booklet would not want to you put in your email address as that would then involve cutting up the back page, and thus the page connected to it, as well as then posting that off when it would be easier to direct people to either the digital version or another webpage that could take in this information. It would however, defiantly need to companies contact information, as this wouldn't be hosted on their site and could be taken home with a pile of other booklet
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