Development and Design of Multimedia Titles UNIT E Bob Griffin MM110 – Communicating with Multimedia

Unit Overview When creating multimedia productions, 75% of the work is design and 25% is development Because developing multimedia can be extremely complex, costly and time-consuming the “wing it” approach invariably results in less effective and more costly titles. This unit focuses on the development process and on design issues related to it.

Planning the Title “ADDIE” – Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate Pre-production, Production, Post- Production Planning, creating testing

Planning the Title – Part 1 Developing the Concept What do we want to accomplish? What is the idea? What is the vision for this piece? The proposal for a MM piece starts with an idea that supports the vision…

Planning the Title – Part 1 Developing the Concept Stating the purpose: what specifically do we want to accomplish State the goals and objectives The goals support the vision; the objectives, which must be very clear, measurable and obtainable, are developed from the goals

Planning the Title - Part 1 Developing the Concept Writing the goals and objectives of a title is probably the most important step in this whole process. The goals and objectives is the only way that you can evaluate the title after it is developed

Planning the Title – Part 1 Developing the Concept Identify your audience “Who will Use It?” The more information that you have about the audience, the greater the likelihood that the user will be satisfied

Planning the Title – Part 1 Developing the Concept The audience can be described in terms of its demographics, lifestyle and attributes Trade-off between a precise definition of your audience and the size of the audience, i.e the larger the audience the less precise the definition

Planning the Title – Part 2 Determining the Treatment Determining the Treatment What is the “look and feel?” The treatment indicates how the title will be presented to the user As indicated the concept, goals, objectives and target audience are a part of the treatment, so is the tone, approach, metaphor (interface), and emphasis

Planning the Title – Part 2 Determining the Treatment The treatment can also contain the following elements: Tone Approach Metaphor (Interface) Emphasis

Planning the Title – Part 2 Determining the Treatment Tone: Will the presentation be humorous, serious, light, heavy, formal or informal? Approach: How much direction will be provided to the user? Metaphor : Will the program use a metaphor or a theme to assist the user “Corporate Doom” Emphasis : How much emphasis will be placed on the various multimedia elements?

“Ambiguity in Content” Labels and Indices Why you should care Labeling systems, not labels Users need to learn systems, not individual labels The way you say or represent information says an AWFUL LOT about you and your ability Consistency breeds familiarity and familiarity breeds content(ment). Ha! Cultural differences Always remember the “El bobbo” story Watch out for Ambiguity “pitch” Anticipate what isn’t covered yet as you develop your content

Schemes Exact Alphabetic Chronological Geographical Ambiguous Topical Task-oriented Audience-Specific Metaphor Driven Hybrid Really Important Page

Ambiguous Schemes There’s a reason why people like ambiguous organizational schemes. Because we don’t know what we are looking for? Topical - organizing info by subject or topic, for example the yellow pages. When using topical arrangements keep in mind that you are defining the universe of that website’s scope (both present and future) --- or defining expectations Task-oriented- organize content into a collection of processes, functions or tasks --- this format is great when you know that there are a “limited number” of tasks. This type of organizational scheme is less common because most website’s are content driven

Ambiguous Schemes Audience-specific - organizing info this way is used when there are two or more clearly defined audiences for a website or intranet Metaphor-driven- organize content this way is difficult but highly successful. Metaphors are commonly used to help users understand the new by relating it to the familiar. You need not look any further than your desktop, folders, files and trash to see great metaphors. For metaphors to succeed they must be familiar to the audience Metaphors can be limiting so be careful Hybrid - This is conceived when you “blend” exact schemes with ambiguoud, which can be a good thing, BUT when you start to blend ambiguous schemes with other ambiguous schemes ---- you must be careful For example, a topical scheme with an audience specific one

Structures Content can also be seen as being in a “structure” Hierarchy Databases hypertext

Structures: Hierarchy Hierarchy Top-down approach Should be mutually exclusive Balance between breadth and depth of info (sometimes it’s good to split) Narrow and deep Broad and shallow

Structures: Hypertext Hypertext Chunking Presents possibilities for confusion Rarely a good choice for a primary organizational structure Limit: my website

Structures: Databases Databases Bottom-up approach Time saver Allows you to repurposes the same content in multiple formats Limitations: Crate & Barrel - “kitchen table”

Structures: Databases Typical scheme of a database structure