Stress Management
For this assignment, I have chosen to review a health promotion website entitled “Change4Life.” It was created to inform people on how to be more active, acquire a healthier diet, and limit or give up drinking alcohol in a modern world which leans you toward sedentary lifestyle, eating fast food, and undergoing a lot of stress.
The layout of the website is incredibly appealing. The first word that comes to mind to describe its look is “positivity.” Colors make a large contribution to that and make you want to continue browsing. The leading is a warm yellow, used throughout the website and on the background; importantly, it does not eat out your eye. Secondary colors are green, orange, light blue, and occasionally red. Like leading yellow, all other colors are acceptably bright and warm. Darker colors mostly appear as contours of cartoonish images that fill the website, illustrating different sections, and add up to the overall positive vibe. It looks as though the website hints that a healthier life is a more positive one. In addition, there are a lot of images from Disney cartoons and animated films, because Change4Life cooperates with them to promote healthy lifestyle more efficiently. Concurrently, its simple to navigate the website; I am sure everyone will find what they are looking for.
There are three main sections on Change4Life – “Eat Well,” “Get Going,” and “Choose Less Booze.” “Eat Well” draws a fine line between saturated and unsaturated fats, explaining why you should minimize the consumption of products that include the first and eat more food with the latter, as well exemplifying how to do that throughout the day on breakfast, lunch and dinner in terms of commonly consumed dishes. The next subsection urges you to watch the level of salt in what you eat and outlines the normal daily dosage depending on age. Warning that even unsweet food today may include significant amount of sugar, another subsection explains that too much sugar is bad for your health and proposes ways to cut down the consumption of it on a daily basis. Finally, there is a subsection that introduces “5 A DAY” concept, an easy and inexpensive way to be healthier and prevent some diseases by eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. “Get Going” section explains why being just a little active every day is important, simple and does not take away a lot of time, concerning both adults and kids. This section provides a lot of various examples on how to lead an active lifestyle and even has an in-built application that generates different activities for kids. Lastly, “Choose Less Booze” section provides a lot of information about alcohol, alternative for it as well as benefits of lowering or giving up alcohol consumption.
In my opinion, the main audience is people who live in families, have kids and had only decided on leading a healthier way of life. Therefore, I have to say that the level of clarity is high for target audience. The information is given in a simple and concise manner, without any complex words and terminology. The website’s mission is to interest the target audience without boring anyone out. Concurrently, the overall tone is encouraging and very friendly; this is especially clear in terms of word choice. All of these support my opinion about the target audience. I also did not find any mistakes.
One of the best examples of health promotion is located in “Choose Less Booze” section. In a paragraph, the website manages to clearly outline the gradual benefits of cutting back on alcohol. The paragraph starts with quickly achieved benefits (feeling better in the morning, having more energy and feeling less tired during the day, the skin may start look better) and shifts to long-term: saving the immune system from various infectious diseases.
The overall usefulness is high, especially taken the target audience. Through its positive design, encouraging and friendly tone, and lots of information, Change4Life can push a lot of people towards leading healthier lives, showing how to do that in a simple manner. Foremost, this website may be enough for people who had not developed severe health problems due to their lifestyle, but want to be healthier without going to the doctor.
In addition everything mentioned above, Change4Life is mostly aimed at people of Western culture and is excellently though out and executed in terms of that. Yet there are a few drawbacks. First of all, there is nothing about the dangers of smoking for health and how one could quit. Secondly, there are no tips for self-care management.
References
Change4Life http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/Pages/change-for-life.aspx
