2. INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA DEVELOPMENT
⢠PHASE 1 â PLANNING
â Step 1 : Developing the concept
â Step 2 : Stating the purpose
â Step 3 : Identifying the target audience
â Step 4 : Determining the treatment
â Step 5 : Developing the specifications
â Step 6 : Storyboard and navigation
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3. STEP 1 : Developing The Concept
⢠âWhat, in general, do we want to do?â
⢠Every multimedia project originates as an
idea.
⢠The process for generating ideas can be as
unstructured as brainstorming sessions or as
formal as checklists with evaluation criteria
which is based on current line.
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4. STEP 1 : Developing The Concept
⢠Such a series of questions might consists of the following:
â How can we improve it? (make it faster, use better-
quality graphics or updated content)
â How can we change the content to appeal to a different
market? (consumer, education, corporate)
â How can we take advantage of new technologies? (virtual
reality, speech recognition)
â How can we repackage or repurpose our content? (books,
movies, games, reference materials, brochures, magazines)
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5. STEP 2 : Stating The Purpose
⢠âWhat, specifically, do we want to accomplish?â
⢠Once a concept has been developed, project
goals and objectives need to be specified.
⢠Goals are broad statements of what the project
will accomplish, whereas objectives are more
precise statements.
⢠Goals and objectives help direct the development
process and provide a way to evaluate the title
both during and after its development.
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6. STEP 2 : Stating The Purpose
⢠Because multimedia development is a team
process, objectives are necessary to keep the
team focused, on-track, on budget, and on
time.
⢠They need to be stated in measurable terms,
and they need to provide for a timeline.
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7. STEP 3 : Identifying The Target Audience
⢠âWho will use the title?â
⢠Audiences can be described in many ways, in terms of
demographics (location, age, sex, marital status, education,
income, and so on) as well as lifestyle and attitudes.
⢠Developers must determine what information is needed and
how specifically to define the audience.
⢠There is a trade-off between the size of an audience an a
precise definition of it.
⢠The larger the audience, the more diverse its needs and the
more difficult it is to give them what they want.
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8. STEP 4 : Determining The Treatment
⢠âWhat is the look and feel?â
⢠Taken together the concept, objectives and
especially the audience will help determine
how the title will be presented to the user.
⢠Look and feel can include such things as the
titleâs tone, approach, metaphor and
emphasis.
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9. STEP 4 : Determining The Treatment
⢠Tone â Will the title be humorous, serious,
light, formal?
â Is it for home use, games and recreational titles,
humor or business use that are more serious in
their tone.
⢠Approach â How much direction will be
provided to the user?
â Approach is deciding how much help to provide
and in what form; exploration
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10. STEP 4 : Determining The Treatment
⢠Metaphor â Will a metaphor be used to
provide interest or to aid in understanding the
title?
â Examples of metaphor:
⢠File cabinet
⢠Books with chapters
⢠Encyclopedia with articles
⢠Television with channels
⢠Shopping mall with stores
⢠Museum with exhibits
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11. STEP 4 : Determining The Treatment
⢠Emphasis â How much emphasis will be
placed on the various multimedia elements?
â It is important to consider the significance of each
element based on the concept, objectives, and
audience for the title.
â Budget and time constraints, however, may
ultimately dictate the relative weight placed on
text, sound, animation, graphics, and video.
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12. STEP 5 : Developing The Specifications
⢠âWhat precisely does the title include and how
does it work?â
⢠Specifications - list what will be included on
each screen:
â the target playback system
â the elements should be included
â the functionality of each object
â the user interface
⢠Specifications should be detailed as possible.
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13. STEP 5 : Developing The Specifications
⢠Target playback systems â The decision of
what computers to target for playback is
usually not difficult.
⢠For example, an instructor who is developing a
multimedia presentation would be confined to
â the playback system set up in the classroom;
â a sales representative might be restricted by the
model of laptop computer that she carries;
â or a person developing a title that runs on a kiosk
would be restricted to the kiosk hardware.
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14. STEP 5 : Developing The Specifications
⢠Elements to be included â The specifications
should include, as much as possible, details
about the various elements that are to be
included in the title.
⢠For examples:
â what are the sizes of various objects such as
photos, buttons, text blocks?
â what fonts, point sizes and type styles are to be
used?
â what are the colors for various objects?
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15. STEP 5 : Developing The Specifications
⢠Functionality â Objects such as text, graphics,
buttons and hypertext are often part of
multimedia title.
⢠The specification should include how the
program reacts to an action by the user, such as a
mouse click.
⢠The user needs feedback that the button has
been selected.
⢠If no feedback is given, the user might click on
the button again, resulting in the undesirable
effect of jumping to the wrong screen.
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16. STEP 5 : Developing The Specifications
⢠User interface â The user interface involves
designing the appearance â how each object is
arranged on the screen â and the interactivity
â how the user navigates through the title.
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17. STEP 6 : Storyboard and Navigation
⢠âWhat do the screens look like and how are they linked?â
⢠A storyboard â a representation of what each screen will look
like and how the screens are linked. (often in the form of
hand-drawn sketches)
⢠The storyboard serve multiple purposes:
â To provide an overview of the project
â To provide a guide (road map) for the programmer
â To illustrate the links among screens
â To illustrate the functionality of the object
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20. STEP 6 : Storyboard and Navigation
⢠Another important feature of the storyboard is
the navigation scheme.
⢠The linking of screens through the use of
buttons, hypertext, and hot spots allows the
user to jump from one screen to another.
⢠The multimedia developer decides how the
various screens will be linked, and this is
represented on the storyboard.
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21. STEP 6 : Storyboard and Navigation
⢠In some cases, the linking is too complex to
land itself well to a storyboard display, the
programmer would rely on the specifications
to indicate the navigation scheme.
⢠Navigation structure :
â Linear
â Hierarchical
â Non-linear
â Composite
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22. STEP 6 : Storyboard and Navigation
⢠Linear - Users navigate sequentially, from one
frame of information to another.
⢠Hierarchical - Users navigate along the branches
of a tree structure that is shaped by the natural
logic of the content. It is also called linear with
branching.
⢠Non-linear - Users navigate freely through the
content, unbound by predetermined routes.
⢠Composite - Users may navigate non-linearly, but
are occasionally constrained to linear
presentations.
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