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1. title or project demands considerable responsibility and no small effort Success depends a lot on the amount of work and effort that you are willing to spend not just up front but right through the whole preparation stage You need to figure out the most effective development process so that your multimedia project can accomplish the goals that you and your team anticipate The simplest tip that is basic to any project is to write down clearly your project topic and its purpose Bear in mind who your intended audience is Always decide clearly early in the planning stage the development approach you want to take Then stick to it throughout the entire design and development process I have divided the planning stage further into three sub phases a Idea goals and constraints b Style and concept and c Storyboard and prototype 5 1 1 Idea Goals and Constraints It is said that everything starts with an idea A design idea may not necessarily represent a complete final product of the multimedia package that you intend to develop However you need to come up with a solid idea first because the idea is the heart of your project Your design idea may come from your desire to provide something better for your client Even though there may be other similar multimedia products you still can find ideas to innovate and improve on them Besides having a good design idea you also need to set your design project goals A general goal or
2. vision is a broad statement of what your multimedia project intends to achieve From this vision you identify further goals because TOPIC 5 MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT lt 81 having more specific goals can make you become more focussed and committed to succeed Goal setting is very important because when you set a goal you will also need to develop a timeline together with a roadmap These planning tools help you be on track and on time to move your multimedia project forward in the right direction Figure 5 1 is a cartoon to emphasise the importance of knowing the goal for a football player to succeed Figure 5 1 The importance of knowing the goal Source http www cartoonmotivators com images football goal gif In addition to ideas and goals you also need to identify early on the potential constraints under which your project will run You need to have a thorough understanding of the factors that will affect the design and development of your project These factors may include technical aspects such as development software and hardware or non technical aspects such as budget and time limitations 5 1 2 Style and Concept For a multimedia project a statement of design style or standard is normally available in a standard document called the style manual Sometimes it is called the project standard manual This document acts as a driver for you and your team members to establish a set of expectations of how your proje
3. 91 Figure 5 8 illustrates some of the issues related to multimedia software usability Functionality Multimedia Software Usability Issue Navigation Error Tolerance Figure 5 8 Multimedia software usability issues Redesigned from Source http www 1 istockphoto com file_closeup nature elements water 3479221_aqua_icons php id 3479221 SELF CHECK 5 4 Summarise the multimedia design guidelines outlined in this unit Select several multimedia titles and study their screen designs on the basis of functionality navigation and usability 92 gt TOPIC5 MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT SP ee DISCUSSION F Windows Vista Interface Causes Problems For Consumers Support Firm Says By Antone Gonsalves InformationWeek July 13 2007 10 06 AM Navigating Windows Vista s Aero user interface is a big problem for many consumers learning Microsoft s 6 month old operating system a technical support company said Thursday Support com which offers technical support to consumers said the top three reasons people called for Vista help were to solve navigation problems device incompatibility and home networking issues While Vista is a leap forward in terms of usability and functionality it requires consumers used to working with older versions of Windows to learn something new http www informationweek com news show Article jhtml article D 201001268 Discuss how to solve the usability and functionalit
4. Topic Multimedia Project Development LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this topic you should be able to Plan a multimedia development project Explain the steps involved in multimedia design Describe the processes involved in multimedia development and Discuss the usability and design guidelines in multimedia project development gt INTRODUCTION In topics 3 and 4 you were introduced to the five elements of multimedia text graphic audio video and animation In Topic 5 now we will first learn about multimedia project development and its three main phases which are a Phase I Planning b Phase II Design and c Phase III Development After that we will look at two major factors that we should also consider in multimedia project development These are the design process and design usability 80 gt TOPIC5 MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT 5 1 PHASE I PLANNING For most novice users authoring multimedia documents remains a complex task Deltour amp Roisin 2006 One solution to deal with this difficulty is to make available template based and wizard style authoring tools although this has its own drawbacks with limited tool functionality and capability However regardless which approach you maybe thinking of the planning phase of a multimedia project is probably the most important stage that will hugely determine the success or failure of your project Creating even a simple multimedia
5. cess involved in multimedia development zah PO Online AS Offline Media Authoringand s x Creation Compilation Delivery gt Figure 5 6 Multimedia development process Redesigned from Source http en wikipedia org wiki Multimedia http www joeuser com sdfiles mormegil IAD 88 CDR 01 jpg http images stockxpert com pic m a ag agb 192406_35175349 jpg pv 5 3 2 Product Testing Any type of multimedia software development project needs at least two major testing processes The first one is carried out internally by the development team themselves and is called alpha testing The other major testing is done later the beta test that involves the client or external testers In alpha testing you may prepare a customised evaluation form or a checklist based on the style manual Under alpha testing you want to recheck whether the look and feel as well as the style convention suits the requirements that you have set earlier before you started the development process Most importantly however it is the functionality of your application that you want to test thoroughly You want to make sure that all buttons are clickable and menus are functioning perfectly Then based on what you have evaluated in the alpha testing revisions and corrections are done On the other hand the beta test is a complete testing of a final product to be carried out by the client of your project It is a sort of a formal quali
6. ct would look like The style manual determines the look and feel of the screen design in terms of logo placement font and text style colours button style etc 82 gt TOPIC5 MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT The term concept here means a general or generic idea about a particular subject or topic For your multimedia project you must determine its concept first and then stick to that style and concept all the way throughout the development of your project Figure 5 2 shows an interior view of a Nokia concept store This store concept will be applied to all other Nokia stores throughout the country using the same colour style and look and feel Figure 5 2 The Nokia concept store Source http 360east com blogfileupload nokiaconceptstore jpg You must remember that style and concept are vital to your multimedia development project Once you have decided on your design style and concept you should be consistent in applying them throughout the entire project For example if you chose to play around with a blue colour concept stick to it till the end do not deviate Air Asia uses a distinctive red as its concept and corporate colour You find the colour on almost everything that is related directly to the airline from their crew attire to the in flight menu card It may make one thinks that there are no other colours available on earth other than red 5 1 3 Storyboard and Prototype Storyboard is a visual planning tool
7. d to think deeply whether your audience will accept your idea and design or not 86 gt TOPIC5 MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT SELF CHECK 5 2 1 Explain the tasks that should be handled by an audiographer a videographer and a photographer 2 In your own words explain the stages involved in multimedia compilation 5 3 PHASE IlI DEVELOPMENT 5 3 1 Development Process In the development stage again a plan is needed At this stage you need a project management plan In this plan you need to set a time frame and dateline for each development process involved For this purpose use a Gantt chart Also do not forget about the management of budget o on op A A A W N 1 4 06 15 4 06 29 4 06 15 5 06 27 5 06 10 6 06 24 6 06 Figure 5 5 A Gantt chart Source http hsc csu edu au ind_tech design_mgt 3291 gantt_chart gif To help you be clear about the development process you may divide the process based on the multimedia elements that you need So first you may need a text component of your project If it involves automated functions simple authoring is insufficient You also need to have a programming stage For other multimedia elements you need to create graphics and produce audio video and animation The most important stage of the development is to assemble these separate pieces of multimedia elements into one single compilation Then once the overall TOPIC 5 MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT lt 87 product
8. for your multimedia project design It helps you to visually illustrate the sequence of the design process involved in your multimedia project A storyboard has been traditionally used in the animation and filmmaking industry and is still being used until today The storyboard acts as a graphic organiser to handle the multimedia elements involved such as images audio etc TOPIC 5 MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT lt 83 By using the storyboard you can communicate your design style concept and sequence effectively to your project client For a multimedia program or title your storyboard design can be extended so that it has a sequence number and a designer s comments section besides just a sketch of the screen elements Figure 5 3 shows an example of a storyboard Tu al itt iN te the Zee Jatin got fora wal walk mak j Se a __ E Hele Help Help Jn ns away He feel sily Figure 5 3 A storyboard Source http www makemovies co uk curriculum curriculum_images storyboard gif Once you have your storyboard design confirmed you may start to create an early prototype of your multimedia project A prototype is simple rendition of how your final multimedia package may work Can you think of the possible reasons why producing a prototype is important Having a simple prototype version of your product can help you smoothen out the whole design process before the major work begi
9. he design process you may sometimes experience a fussy client who is always asking you to change the design every now and then This project creep may occur even when you are designing a multimedia project for yourself To solve this problem you must be disciplined in your design approach so as not to be taken off track 5 2 2 Multimedia Compilation Under multimedia compilation first you have to locate and assess potential multimedia materials that you want to include in your project In assessing materials clear any copyright and Intellectual Property IP issue before proceeding further Next in the digitisation step you need to convert hard copy files into soft copy by scanning the text or typing it again entirely For digital images you can use the digital camera to capture the pictures that you need You also need to convert sounds and audio into their digital versions if they are not already so Finally compile all the digitised multimedia content using multimedia authoring software The process involved in multimedia compilation can be summarised in Figure 5 4 Figure 5 4 Multimedia Compilation Stages Even with advanced multimedia authoring tools today the compilation of multimedia applications is still a challenging task It is not easy to gather digitise and produce an excellent multimedia package This is because multimedia is not only about presentation but also about production and thinking Gershon 2006 You nee
10. is completed you will need to prepare supporting documents such as the user manual In designing a multimedia application the challenges involved in integration of multimedia data include how to produce convenient packages that use minimal storage To meet this mounting challenge all the efforts to achieve minimal storage have to be done during the three stages of development which are namely a content design b technical design and c visual design To ensure that the content we design match intended user requirements we should for example consider the immediate feedback based on user choices for each interaction Finally we should remember that people can only remember 80 of what they interact with Technical design ensures that the multimedia application runs properly For instance effective technical design and use of multimedia digital libraries need to deal with the process of building efficient content annotation and retrieval tools In terms of visual design a multimedia presentation should have a consistent theme and style Authoring interactive multimedia presentations is much more complex than authoring purely audiovisual applications or text The authoring of multimedia content is a challenging task It has become more challenging when the targeted multimedia presentation needs to meet a specific user context Scherp amp Boll 2005 88 gt TOPIC5 MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT Figure 5 6 summarises the pro
11. mer an audiographer a videographer or a photographer Then a graphics artist is also needed to create a sleek illustration for your project Besides that you need advice from the content expert or the instructional designer if you are designing an educational multimedia package Once you have developed the initial content idea explained in section 5 1 you then need to have a brainstorming session with your group members You may find that you have to eliminate some irrelevant ideas that are not directly related to your project After that at every step of the design process you need to do task and concept analysis Then a design document is to be prepared It helps for your development team to work with a standard process method and objective To communicate with your client as well as the team members you may use flowcharts to show a bird s eye view of the design process structure and sequence Later on after gathering the multimedia contents you need to review them for appropriateness and quality Animation and video require special attention since it can be difficult to explain some ideas without using text You may need to ask TOPIC 5 MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT lt 85 an expert to review the quality If your multimedia product includes speech or video you need to produce a script Throughout the design process be mindful of the importance of ongoing evaluation and assessment of project completion percentage During t
12. ns You can even present the early design of your prototype to your client though it could be a rather shallow rendition of the final multimedia package You can conclude that in the first phase of the multimedia project development you need to produce a simple prototype This mock up version of your multimedia title or program is important for you to portray the look and feel of the whole product It is also a concrete proof for your client that you have started work on the concept even though it is just in the early stages of the development process 84 gt TOPIC5 MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT SELF CHECK 5 1 1 Why do you need to follow a standard style or concept in your multimedia design 2 Sketch a simple storyboard for a three scene animation 5 2 PHASE II DESIGN 5 2 1 Content Design Before we discuss the various steps in multimedia design it is useful for you to understand what the purpose of the design project is As the multimedia designer you are required to not only incorporate multimedia design guidelines in your efforts but to also create multimedia software that suits your intended audience requirements In view of this you may need a bigger team to assist you in the design process The composition of your design team will vary depending on the nature of your project First you need a pool of experts to provide you with professional quality multimedia materials For example you need a program
13. s it always better Proceedings of the Ist ACM international workshop on human centered multimedia 9 10 Lanuzza M Margala M amp Corsonello P 2005 Cost effective low power processor in memory based reconfigurable datapath for multimedia applications Proceedings of the 2005 international symposium on low power electronics and design 161 166 Scherp A amp Boll S 2005 Context driven smart authoring of multimedia content with xSMART Proceedings of the 13th annual ACM international conference on multimedia 802 803
14. timedia application To get a clearer description of what your audience would expect consult your project client The primary purpose of navigation on the other hand is to help the user move forward while interacting with your multimedia application Can you imagine how frustrating it can be when a user gets stuck and is not able to navigate through the screen The characteristics of a good navigation system are that it is user centric besides being attractive A good navigation system helps the user finds his way around navigates easily through the multimedia application 5 4 2 Usability Issue Usability is defined as the effectiveness of a product regarding its fitness for purpose ease of use and ease of learning The objective of usability testing is not only to determine whether the product is easy to learn satisfying to use and contains the functionality that the users desire but also to identify difficulties weakness and areas for improvement When doing usability testing make sure that you consider the following factors a Learning ability b Performance effectiveness c Flexibility d Error tolerance and system integrity and e User satisfaction Once you have conducted the usability test analyse the testing data Then report the results to your client This is important to improve the design and the effectiveness of your multimedia application or product TOPIC 5 MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT 4
15. ty evaluation done externally You may ask your client to do it independently but I expect you to take the collaborative testing approach In this way you can hear the comments TOPIC 5 MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT lt 89 directly from your client Immediate response and correction can also be done on the spot These two major types of multimedia software testing are illustrated in Figure 5 7 Multimedia Software Testing Alpha Testing Figure 5 7 Multimedia software testing Redesigned from Source http blog 1time ie wp content uploads 2006 03 software package zoom jpg http www1 istockphoto com file_thumbview_approve 2363185 2 istockphoto_23631 85_shiny_icons_configuration jpg Beta Testing SELF CHECK 5 3 i ee challenges in the multimedia development process 2 Discuss the factors you must take into account when conducting user testing sessions 5 4 USABILITY AND DESIGN GUIDELINES 5 4 1 Functionality and Navigation It is very important to develop a multimedia application system that functions thoroughly This must be ensured before the application can be launched to reach the intended audience To determine the correct functional system you need to understand the characteristics of your target computer or running platform 90 gt TOPIC5 MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT Functionality is defined as capable of serving a purpose well Answers com hence you need to be clear of the purpose of your mul
16. y problem of Windows Vista with your colleagues The planning stage has three sub phases idea goals and constraints identification style and concept and storyboard and prototype development In every step of the design process you need to do task and concept analysis The multimedia development process should be carried out based on the multimedia elements that you need The process involved in multimedia development is media creation authoring and compilation and delivery There are two types of testing Alpha to be done by the developer designer and Beta to be done by the client or final user To develop a multimedia application that functions correctly understand the characteristics of the target user Usability is important to ensure the effectiveness of a multimedia product TOPIC 5 MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT lt 93 KEY TERMS i seer rere rer re Alpha and Beta Testing Prototype Authoring Tool Storyboard Content Expert Style and Concept Copyright and Intellectual Property IP Style Manual Functionality and Navigation Technical Design Gantt Chart Usability AAA REFERENCES Deltour R amp Roisin C 2006 The limsee3 multimedia authoring model In Proceedings of the 2006 ACM symposium on document engineering 173 175 Functionality n d WordNet 1 71 Retrieved March 01 2009 from Answers com Web site http www answers com topic functionality Gershon N 2006 Multimedia i

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