Digipak questionnaire results and analysis

Our group memeber, Laura, has designed a questionnaire for research on the digipak. I asked 20 people of the age range 16-20, 9 questions to find out a little more information about what they would like to see on a digipak. We will use all of our results when coming to designing the digipak. I have put the questionnaire results into different graph styles to make it easier and clearer for you to see when i come to talking about each question.

Question 1:

What would you prefer to see on the front cover of the digipak?

A: A scenic photograph

B: Band photo

C: Artist illustration

D: City landscape



As you can see from the pie chart above, over half of the audience members i asked said they would prefer to see a professional band photo rather than the other 3 options. I think this is because many current artists/bands tend to do this on their album covers. Also, an image is better for recognising the band, and when the audience want to connect with the band or artist. Since our aim is to make the band seem as realistic as possible, a band photo would be the best option as it is realistic, a common aspect, and our audience is able to connect our video with the album more clearly.

Question 2:

How many songs would you expect to see on the back of the album cover?

A: 5 to 10

B: 10 to 15

C: 15-20

The bar chart above clearly presents that the most common answer for this question was 10-15. In my opinion i would have gone for this option aswell as it is just the correct amount of songs for an album cover. I feel and i think the audience would have felt that 5 to 10 would have been too less and 15 to 20 would have been too many. This brings us to the next stage of making up appropriate named songs. The songs are important because they need to be realistic and suitable for an alternative/indie album. It would also be good if we included some live versions, or remixes of the songs on the back for a more conventional look.

Question 3:

What kind of colour scheme do you think would be suitable?

A: Simplistic

B: Mysterious

C: Bright

D: Natural

The pie chart above presents that the majority of the members of our audience research group chose that they would think a Simplistic colour scheme would be the best choice for our digipak. A few of the members also thought the Mysterious colour scheme could look like a good colour scheme for the album, however the bright and natural colour scheme were less popular. A simplistic colour scheme is quite conventional for an indie album cover, as it is probably the most common style used in that genre.

Question 4:

Any extra elements for the digipak?

Half of the group of people thought that the most important extra element would be the album name. An album name is a very important aspect as it adds something to the cover. The element of a bar code was also quite popular. I can imagine this is because it is a realistic element for a CD. The production company and logo weren't as popular, however these could still be used for smaller elements on the back of the digipak.

Question 5:

How much would you usually pay for an album?

A: £5-10

B: £10-15

C: £15+

As clearly shown in the bar chart, people would usually bay around ten to fifteen pounds for a new CD or album. Price isn't extremely important for the digipak however i collected the result as a little more extra research in case we struggle to fill space. 

Question 6:

Preferable album cover.

A: Florence and the machine

B: Arctic Monkeys 

C: The Killers

D: Vampire Weekend



 

The most popular digipak out of the four was the cover of Vampire Weekend. This cover is very simplistic, which is also the colour scheme the audience wanted for our digipak. As shown in the pie chart above, the Arctic Monkeys album cover was the least popular. I think this is because it is almost too simple, and doesn't even advertise the band. This could be because of their particular mysterious style that they have. In my opinion i personally prefer the vampire weekend album, however i think a band photo or a location could have been used to make it slightly similar to what we're going for.

Question 7:
What usually catches your eye on an album cover?
A: Band name
B: Cover image
C: General text
D: Colours

 

The most common answer for what was eye catching on an album cover was the cover image. From this result we need to make sure that our cover image is the first thing the audience look at, and that it is so powerful it diverts the audience attention straight away from everything else on the page. The second most popular answer was the band name. Obviously this is a much needed element for a digipak. The band name also needs to be an element that attracts the audience's attention.

 

Quesion 8:

Do you think the album art work is important and should link with the music?

The majority of our questionnaire audience voted "yes" for this question. 2 out of the 20 people voted "no" and decided that it wasn't essential for the art work to be linked to the music style. I think in terms of colour scheme, logo and band name, there should be a link with the album tracks, however art work such as the photo or any other illustration isn't as important.

 

Question 9:

What do you think could be additionally added to the final product for a little extra effect?

A: Lyrics inside cover

B: Different versions of songs

C: Inside images of artist illustration

 

The most popular answer for this question was "B: Different versions of songs". I personally also think this is the best option as it makes the back of the digipak look more realistic. It is a particularly conventional think to advertise different or live versions of songs or something like a feature DVD movie. The second most popular option was "A: Lyrics inside cover". This also used to be quite a conventional element for an album however is not so popular anymore.

 

We will take all of this into account when coming to designing and creating our digipak. I think the results of this questionnaire has really helped our group for ideas, in creating a very successful and professional digipak.