Week 4 Out Of Class: Cookie layout, Content and Demographics

Content

Below is the content I created for the topic I decided on, "A day in the life of and Internet Cookie":

Did you ever wonder about those Internet cookies you always get notification messages about on your desktop? Do you ever question how those websites know your name? Or how those ads know exactly where you shop? Is there more to a cookie than just that? Well here’s your chance to find out! Read on to find out about the life of an internet cookie!

How about you tell our readers a little about yourself. Well, I’m Calvin Doe, a typical cookie of the chocolate chip variety. I grew up in Hershey, Pennsylvania and am made up of the finest chocolate. I am thirty-one years old, and I am an internet cookie.

Great! Can you tell me more about your occupation? Why sure. I am an internet cookie. I have been working as one since I got out of college, so for about nine years now. My main purpose is to detect users and possibly arrange personalized web pages for them. I am also capable of saving log-in information, if the user provides personal information and would like it saved for that site. Then I package it and send it to the browsers, and they store it for later use.  If the user does not need me, I usually can be found sitting in the break room on their computer’s hard drive drinking a cup of coffee. I am an avid coffee drinker, especially if I have to work late nights. When the browser asks for your preferences again, I will be there to help them out. I personally store a small amount of text that has information about the browser in its context.

Now you are not one of those evil cookies, right? The professional term for that title is Malicious, and no, I pride myself in my work and stay on the legal side of the career. The amount of cookies in the malicious field is spreading though. In this career, a cookie just sits and tracks their chosen user’s online activities and surfing habits. As time goes by they build up a consumer profile about their user and eventually sell their information to an advertising company on the cookie black market. Users are learning through and are starting to download spyware for their systems so they can be aware of suspicious activity. Sometimes, spybots get in my way on the job but I have learned to work around them. Nosey things they are.

I am sure you have a life outside of your job.  Is there a Mrs. Doe you come home to? Yes there is! She is a spunky snickerdoodle named Cassidy.  We have been married for four years this November. We met in high school but did not start dating until the beginning of our college years. Together we have a wonderful, rambunctious son who just turned two this summer named Chip. We also have one more on the way that is due in the spring. So it is a very busy time right now in the Doe household.

That’s fantastic! So with all of this busyness in your life do you have down time? Hobbies? Somehow along the way I do manage to fit in some downtime here and there. I am a real computer guy at heart. I love to just sit on webpages and read article after article about technology and the newest gadget on the market. I often find myself commenting on posts and debating logistics with other cookies.  They even get pretty heated sometimes; we cookies can really debate! I am also a huge fan of human sports; Cassidy thinks it is ridiculous, but I find it fascinating! I mainly enjoy baseball and hockey, but I can watch anything. Being from Hershey, I love the Phillies and Flyers. I watch every game I can when I get home from work. I could never imagine actually going to sporting event though; too afraid I would be mistaken as a snack! I’m a big social media cookie too!

So are you saying our readers could friend you on Facebook? *chuckles* I don’t know about that but yes I do have a Facebook. Once Chip was born, I was on more than ever, posting pictures and videos of him growing up. I also use it to stay in touch with family like Grandma Oatmeal Raisin and Uncle Macadamia Nut. They always comment on my posts. I am also very addicted to Candy Crush, ever since Auntie Sugar sent me an invite. See, I can have fun on the computer too! I am not just a normal internet cookie.

You said you are a big social media cookie, what other sites do you frequent?

I am on a vast number of sites all the time because anytime I see something new on the job, I have to go home and check it out. I can constantly be found tweeting. I follow all my favorite athletes and all of the best techno geeks. I do follow a few famous cookies, but I try to refrain because they always clutter my feed. One of my favorite things to do is re-tweet any great content articles I find about new technology.  From my job and being around computers all the time, I know that good content can be hard to find, so I want to get it out there to help users along. Instagram is something I am starting to get into. I am guilty of posting a picture of my latest coffee run on Instagram and anytime Chip does something funny, it can be found there. One of my work buddies introduced me to Snapchat, so that’s mainly a work thing. We send silly pictures of one another on the job to each other quite often. Finally, I’m…a closet Pinner. Yes, I am on Pinterest. I just kept hearing Cassidy talk about it, and she would always make these delicious recipes. Then I would ask her how she came up with this and she always said Pinterest. So I decided to give it a try. I pin a lot of geeky things, but I will also pin things like recipes or any funny pictures I see. I’m not nearly as addicted as Cassidy.

Wow, you are on a lot of sites! Well thank you for giving us an insight into your life, telling us not just about your job, but really letting our readers into your personal life.

Layouts

Below is three sets of layouts that I created to possibly house my content. Throughout the layouts I used dark brown as the body copy color to relate back to the content that he is a chocolate chip cookie. The interview questions I put in a light green to sort of reference the internet side because that color makes me think of the 0's and 1's on early computer screens. I used a light blue as a way to show where the images will go. I will be mainly creating illustrations for my layouts so they will not be perfect boxes but more organic shapes, the boxes are just layout place holders. The thin lines are body copy and the larger ones are pull out quotes. For most of my impact spreads the entire page is blue because the spread will most likely be full of an illustration.

In the layout above I tried to make it cohesive by always having the content in the corners of each layout. This is all started by having the Title in the bottom left and the attention grabbing questions in the upper right. This is the most content heavy spread.

These spreads are a balance between angled and more linear spreads. One side of the spread is always angles, on the same sort of angle and the other side is straight. As of right now this layout really does not have any pull quotes.

Theses spreads play off the focal point being in the middle, whether it be a pull quote or an illustration. The copy is also a little less than the first one, it is playing with balance and activating the white space by only using half the paper.

Demographics

I think the type of magazine this content would be in is a technology magazine that is more for hobbyists, not the hard core sort of techno person. Someone who enjoys hearing about the newest gadgets but not necessarily analyzing them. The age group would most likely be early to late twenties. I think the magazine would be online and print and would be in the computer/electronics section of a bookstore.