JUMPTV only started a few years ago. They had the idea down but they needed someone to both make the identity and website for them. I saw the email and jumped straight on it (pun intended).

The Meaning of JUMPTV

The idea and name of JUMPTV was thought of by JUMPTV themselves. It was the idea that everyone in the media school at bournemouth university would hopefully join in and what jump stands for is actually an acronym for 'Joined Up Media Project'.

Given I knew the philosophy and the reasoning behind it. It gave me the ability to think of an appropriate identity for them. My thinking behind the logo quickly turned into the idea that they were posting into primarily 4 general categories. News, Music, Sport and Entertainment. The idea of JUMPTV was that also we were to work together from different courses and different skills.

This set it up perfectly for the idea that each of the slightly skewed rectangle that frames the TV part of the logo is to be thought of columns providing stability. They were made to look like they were slotting together to make one cohesive idea, what JUMPTV was intended to do.

The colours were chosen to make it look more fun. After all it is called JUMPTV, it has jump in the name! They also doubled up as a great way of representing the 4 categories of content they were going to post under.

The Website

When I asked about the website, I specifically asked them about how they wanted to upload the website. They asked if they could use Youtube, this was exactly the answer I wanted to hear.

By using Youtube, they wouldn't have to deal with hosting large video files. I was able to use Youtube's api to then be able to simply request all the videos. it was going to be great.

The Website Design

When it I decided to do the design I wanted to make it as simple as possible to focus on what was important. I looked at lots of other university TV stations as per JUMPTV's opinions but none of them cut it for me. I decided to look at Hulu's design and I ended taken some major inspiration from them for it. It was clean, clearly categorised everything it should be.

I don't have any iterations or designs of JUMPTV as they are on an older computer. However, the designs I produced and the site I produced are very close in design to one another. So you're not really missing out on anything.

The Limits of Youtube

When it came to actually using Youtube's api it was much harder than what I wanted it to be. Once I did have it working though, I quickly saw the limits of Youtube's api.

Youtube doesn't let you categorise videos like I wanted to be able as per JUMPTV's specifications. Theoretically, I knew how to make this possible. However at the time due to universities commitments plus my lack of knowledge at the time I never did get to implement a proper way of doing it. Instead I simply made static pages that linked to the right videos.

JUMPTV was a fun project I got to create a brand, and a new website powered by the youtube api. Looking at it now I would love to rebuild it again using newer technologies, especially now that my skills have improved since the first build. </div>