LO5: Evaluating the negative impact of my product

To make sure my product is suitable for a wider audience I will need to analyse any negative effects that could occur to my target audience when they are using the app, and how i can prevent the problems from happening.

The app PhotoBeauty can cause negative impacts on the users and other people who have heard of the product. This could have a negative impact on society as by using this particular product you wont need to leave your house to go and test and purchase the beauty items, which can cause people to become lazy and not wanting to interact with people, whilst being out. In the long term it could potentially cause a moral panic as people wont have been out for so long to a beauty shop, where you need to test your shades etc, after using the app, people may get anxiety when they need to get a member of staff to help them choose out which products will best suit them. Another issue is that if people aren’t going in to stores such as Boots, then it can negatively effect the amount of jobs that the company has to offer. This will be because if fewer people are going into stores and ordering all products they need from apps such as PhotoBeauty then there will only be minimal staff needed, for those who doesn’t have the app or who aren’t regular customers, who don’t know about the app. This will then put people out of a job and leaving them unemployed, struggling to find a new job, so they can pay bills etc. On the app i will also encourage people to go into stores whether this is to click and collect items or just to see the exclusive products from brands to that store, that will keep a larger number of jobs available to employers..

My app could have an effect on my audience that is the uses and gratification theory. This is where people use the media for their own purposes and they are able to recognise fantasy vs reality. The four different ways that people use the media for are escapism, surveillance, building personal relationships and building personal identities. An example of escapism when using my app, PhotoBeauty. This would allow personnel to forget about the real world and everything that's going on around them, as it allows them to change their style and appearance as well as create features on themselves that they aspire to look like, by using makeup. To build a relationship some people use the app such PhotoBeauty, this app allows people to add photos of themselves and what makeup they want to try out, which helps them build up different types of relationships, as they can share the different looks with friends using social media. A media which could be used to build a personal identity is Instagram. This allows you to create a feed of different things you get up to, whilst taking different pictures of yourself and your lifestyle. In order to show your friends and family about you as a personal. This relates to my app as you can upload and share on to social media platforms, the different makeup looks, so you can opinions and comments of the different styles of makeup that you are trying out.

For users of the app it is also a possibility of face dysmorphia as the app allows you to add the makeup to your face and try the different skin tones, whilst it can airbrush your face using different filters. However, when you take the filters off and have your natural face back it can mean that people don’t like the look of their natural face and will want to change it. This could mean people going on a diet to loose face fat or even getting filler to enhance features such as lips or to get Botox to get rid of fine lines and wrinkles. But this could lead to problems in the future as people may get too much to the point of there lips exploding or going as far as surgery so they change their face completely TIL they are unrecognisable. To prevent people from going this far i will make sure that the filters added are minimal and you can still recognise themselves, as well as adding different links to people who can help people become confident if their own skin.

A negative impact ethically is that some people may believe the app is only suited to females, people who don’t care about cruelty free products, vegan or for specific skin tones. However, when advertising PhotoBeauty i will ensure that i included images and videos of different skin tones and different genders, as well as including taps showing the cruelty free and vegan products logo. By making sure the products not the app and  having a wide range of makeup shades it will cater to a large audience and be suitable for anyone and everyone.