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Chapter 10 designing and producing Multimedia
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- 2. Overview • Strategies forcreating interactive multimedia. • Designing a multimedia project. • Producing a multimedia project.
- 3. Strategies for CreatingInteractive Multimedia • Designing and building multimedia projects go hand-in-hand. • Balance proposed changes against their cost. • Feedback loops and good communication between the design and production effort are critical to the success of a project.
- 4. Strategies for CreatingInteractive Multimedia • A user can either describe the project in minute details, or can build a less- detailed storyboard and spend more effort in actually rendering the project. • The method chosen depends upon the scope of a project, the size and style of the team, and whether the same people will do design and development. • If the design team is separate from the development team, it is best to produce a detailed design first.
- 5. Designing a MultimediaProject • Designing a multimedia project requires knowledge and skill with computers, talent in graphics, arts, video, and music, and the ability to conceptualize logical pathways. • Designing involves thinking, choosing, making, and doing.
- 6. Designing a MultimediaProject • Designing the structure. • Designing the user interface.
- 7. Designing the Structure •The manner in which project material is organized has just as great an impact on the viewer as the content itself. • Mapping the structure of a project should be done early in the planning phase.
- 8. Designing the Structure •Navigation maps are also known as site maps. • They help organize the content and messages. • Navigation maps provide a hierarchical table of contents and a chart of the logical flow of the interactive interface. • Navigation maps are essentially non-linear.
- 9. Designing the Structure Thereare four fundamental organizing structures: – 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.
- 10. Designing the Structure Thereare four fundamental organizing structures (continued): – 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.
- 11. Designing the Structure •The navigation system should be designed in such a manner that viewers are given free choice. • The architectural drawings for a multimedia project are storyboards and navigation maps. • Storyboards are linked to navigation maps during the design process, and help to visualize the information architecture.
- 12. Designing the Structure Auser can design their product using two types of structures: – Depth structure - Represents the complete navigation map and describes all the links between all the components of the project. – Surface structure - Represents the structures actually realized by a user while navigating the depth structure.
- 13. Designing the Structure Hotspots: –Add interactivity to a multimedia project. – The three categories of hotspots are text, graphic, and icon. – The simplest hot spots on the Web are the text anchors that link a document to other documents.
- 14. Designing the Structure •Hyperlinks - A hotspot that connects a viewer to another part of the same document, a different document, or another Web site is called a hyperlink. • Image maps - Larger images that are sectioned into hot areas with associated links are called image maps.
- 15. Designing the Structure •Icons - Icons are fundamental graphic objects symbolic of an activity or concept. • Buttons - A graphic image that is a hotspot is called a button.
- 16. Designing the Structure •Plug-ins such as Flash, Shockwave, or JavaScripts enable users to create plain or animated buttons. • Small JPEG or GIF images that are themselves anchor links can also serve as buttons on the Web. • Highlighting a button is the most common method of distinguishing it.
- 17. Designing the Structure •It is essential to follow accepted conventions for button design and grouping, visual and audio feedback, and navigation structure. • Avoid hidden commands and unusual keystroke/mouse click combinations.
- 18. Designing the UserInterface • The user interface of a project is a blend of its graphic elements and its navigation system. • The simplest solution for handling varied levels of user expertise is to provide a modal interface. • In a modal interface, the viewer can simply click a Novice/Expert button and change the approach of the whole interface.
- 19. Designing the UserInterface • Modal interfaces are not suitable for multimedia projects. • The solution is to build a project that can contain plenty of navigational power, which provides access to content and tasks for users at all levels. • The interface should be simple and user- friendly.
- 20. Designing the UserInterface Graphical user interface (GUI): – The GUIs of Macintosh and Windows are successful due to their simplicity, consistency, and ease of use. – GUIs offer built-in help systems, and provide standard patterns of activity that produce the standard expected results.
- 21. Designing the UserInterface Graphical approaches that work: – Plenty of "non-information areas," or white space in the screens. – Neatly executed contrasts. – Gradients. – Shadows. – Eye-grabbers.
- 22. Designing the UserInterface Graphical approaches to avoid: – Clashes of color. – Busy screens. – Requiring more than two button clicks to quit. – Too many numbers and words. – Too many substantive elements presented too quickly.
- 23. Designing the UserInterface Audio interface: – A multimedia user interface can include sound elements. – Sounds can be background music, special effects for button clicks, voice-overs, effects synced to animation. – Always provide a toggle switch to disable sound.
- 24. Producing a MultimediaProject • In the development or the production phase, the project plan becomes the systematic instruction manual for building the project. • The production stage requires good organization and detailed management oversight during the entire construction process.
- 25. Producing a MultimediaProject • A good time-accounting system for everyone working on a project is required to keep track of the time spent on individual tasks. • It is important to check the development hardware and software and review the organizational and administrative setup.
- 26. Producing a MultimediaProject Potential problems can be avoided by answering these questions: • Is there sufficient disk storage space for all files? • Is the expertise available for all stages of the project? • Is there a system for backing up critical files? • Are the financial arrangements secure? • Are the communications pathways open with clients?
- 27. Producing a MultimediaProject Working with clients: – Have a system in place for good communication between the client and the people actually building the project. – Control the client review process to avoid endless feedback loops.
- 28. Producing a MultimediaProject Working with clients (continued): – Develop a scheme that specifies the number and duration of client approval cycles. – Provide a mechanism for change orders when changes are requested after sign-off.
- 29. Producing a MultimediaProject Data storage media and transportation: – This is necessary so that a client is easily able to review the work. – There needs to be a matching data transfer system and media. – Access to the Internet at high bandwidth is preferred. – The most cost-effective and time-saving methods of transportation are CD-R or DVD-ROMs.
- 30. Producing a MultimediaProject Tracking: – Organize a method for tracking the receipt of material to be incorporated in a project. – Develop a file-naming convention specific to your project's structure.
- 31. Producing a MultimediaProject Tracking (continued): – Store the files in directories or folders with logical names. – To address cross-platform issues, develop a file identification system that uses the DOS file-naming convention of eight characters plus a three-character extension.
- 32. Producing a MultimediaProject Tracking and copyrighting: – Version control of your files is very important, especially in large projects. – If storage space allows, archive all file iterations. – Insert a copyright statement in the project that legally designates the code as the creator's intellectual property. – Copyright and ownership statements are embedded in <meta> tags at the top of a HTML page.
- 33. Summary • Feedback loopsand good communication between the design and the production efforts are critical to the success of a project. • The four fundamental organizing structures are linear, non-linear, hierarchical, and composite. • The user interface should be simple, user- friendly, and easy to navigate.
- 34. Summary • The threecategories of hotspots are text, graphic, and icon. • A multimedia project is actually rendered in the production stage.