1. 1 Unit 4 Design and Produce Multimedia Products

2. 2 What is this unit about? Multimedia products are used widely nowadays to provide entertainment, education or a means of advertising goods. You are probably familiar with products which may be distributed over the internet, or on CD or DVD as a piece of software. Multimedia consists of Text Images Sound Video Animation This unit is about combining these to produce a product to create an interactive product for a particular purpose.

3. 3 4 Assessment Objects Review 3 existing multimedia products Design a multimedia product Source and store suitable multimedia elements Create the multimedia product Seek feedback and suggest improvements

4. 4 Review One of the best ways of learn anything is to see how the professionals do it. If you are being paid to deliver a product, then you expect the standard to be high. Multimedia is a growth industry so there are examples of products everywhere. The purpose of the first task is to take a close look at three examples and look at good practice and to see errors to avoid. These could be: Interactive multimedia websites Online or CD ROM presentations Education or recreational computer games Commercials/adverts on CD-ROM

5. 5 What you have to do LevelWhat you have to do Pass Write a review of 3 different multimedia products. Identify some good and bad features of each product. Merit Write a review of 3 different multimedia products. Identify the aim of each product Give a detailed explanation of the good and bad features of each product Suggest some possible improvements Distinction Write a review of 3 different multimedia products. Identify the aim and audience of each product Give a thorough explanation of the good and bad features of each product Suggest some valid improvements to help the products meet the aim.

6. 6 Audience The group or type of people that a product has been designed to appeal to most Target audience An important concept that describes a group in the community selected as being the most appropriate for a particular advertising campaign or product The target audience is usually defined by the characteristics of the group that a product is aimed at Audience and Target Audience

7. 7 When identifying the audience, think about whether or not the product is aimed at: a particular age group a particular gender (male/female) people of a particular education level and/or background a particular family size and/or income level at people living in a specific location Target Audience Identifying the Target Audience

8. 8 Identifying the aims Attract attention A multimedia presentation in for example a car showroom, an entrance hall is designed to attract the attention of people entering or passing an area. It should be eye-catching and dynamic so that people are encouraged to stop and look. Persuade the target audience to purchase a product. The aim of multimedia product is to generate as many sales as possible. Every positive aspect of the product being advertised will be glorified and all possible benefits to the audience emphasised. It is difficult to imagine a product that does not provide information

9. 9 Identify Aims To persuade target audience to join something Parents visiting a school open evening may be shown a multimedia presentation. It will include photographs of happy students doing interesting lessons, school orchestra playing beautifully and students using computers to do their work. The aim is to show that the school is a good place to send their kids. It will give lots of factual information about examination results and the success of former students to persuade parents to send their children to the school. It will not show graffiti or food in corridors. To entertain or engage A recreational computer game is designed to entertain the user so that they will continue to play the game. Different levels of achievement are usually used to engage the user. Some are designed to be played by more than one person. To change behaviour – anti-smoking campaign To teach/train/educate to specific learning objectives E.g. educational CD ROMS

10. 10 Identify the good and not so good features Identify what features have been used Decide how appropriate and effective each feature is Provide an explanation about the good features Provide an explanation of the not so good aspects of each

11. 11 Images How appropriate are the number of images How do images attract the viewer’s attention? Are they distracting? How well do they relate to the text? What is the quality of the images? Are they positioned appropriately on each page in relation to the content?

12. 12 Example of good comments The images were of very good quality and were appropriate to the text, they added purpose to the text. Images sizes were all appropriate for the page size and layout. Good use was made of the space to the right of text. Image did not overlap any text. The image used as a background behind the text as a watermark looked very professional and was very effective as the image related well to the text and the presentation look interesting. The animation used on the home page was very effective. It moved smoothly across the screen and added interest to the website. It made me keen to see the rest of the website. The animation of the person skiing through the slopes was very life like – it made me want to try it myself. This was a good technique which should encourage people to want to try skiing

13. 13 Examples of negative comments Too many pictures were used and these did not relate to the product being advertised. They looked as if they were just put there to add colour to the page. Most images were too big in comparison with the size of the page. The captions on the images were difficult to read. The images took a long time to display on the pages. The images were not always positioned appropriately on the page making the page look untidy. On several pages, two or three images were placed next to each other with very little text to explain what the images were about. The animation on every page was irrelevant to the content and distracting. It was difficult to concentrate on the content because of the frog constantly jumping up and down.

14. 14 Use of colour How appropriate were text and background colours? Are text colours clearly legible against the background? How do text, link, hyperlink, visited link colours and background colours complement each other? Is the use of different colours appropriate? Are there too many or too few colours? How effective are the colours used on different pages/slides/screens in the product?

15. 15 Text How appropriate is the amount of each text on each page/slide/screen? Is there too much or too little text? How appropriate is the text layout on each page/slide/screen? How easy is it to read the text? For example, is the text style (font type, font size) appropriate?

16. 16 Information How appropriates is the amount of information. Provided? For example, is there too much information to absorb? Is there too little? How relevant is the information? How appropriate is the level of language to the target audience. How accurate, factually and technically is the content? For educational CD-ROM, how easy to understand are learning activities? Do they cover the stated learning objectives.

17. 17 Examples of good and not so good features of colour, text and information The text, link, background colours were clear and easy to read and complemented each other well. The text colour was effective against the background colour and made the page look very striking and professional. Headings and subheading were used so it was clear what each section was about. The pale text colour was difficult to read against the pale background colour. Once the links were visited the linked text colour was almost illegible. Red text against a a green background is difficulty for colour blind people to read. This is not a good colour combination. Bad features Good features

18. 18 Sound How relevant is sound to the product and target audience If sound is playing continuously, how easily are users able to adjust the volume or switch the sound off? If sound is used continuously, is this appropriate? Are links to the sound clips clearly visible? Is it clear how the users load the sound clip? How clear is the sound quality? Is the sound volume of different clips consistent or are there large variations in volume? How appropriate is the lengths of any sound clips? What is the impact of the sound on the listener? How appropriate and effective is any narration?

19. 19 Video How relevant are video clips to the product and target audience Is it clear to users how to load the video clip? How quickly does it load How suitable is the length of any embedded video clips? What is the film quality? How appropriate is the use of the associated sound/music/voice? Does the video contain appropriate playing buttons(eg pause, rewind, forward, stop)?

20. 20 Navigation How clear is the navigation? Is interactivity used appropriately and effectively? How clearly visible are links to all other pages/sections of the product? Are buttons/links available for the user to return to a previous page or go back to previously visited pages/slides. Are all the hyperlinks clearly visible. Do they remain visible while the user is navigating the product? How quickly do links load? Is the use of anchors (eg named anchor, return to top) appropriate? If anchors are used (for example on long pages) should these have been included.

21. 21 Examples of good features of sound and video The spoken instructions at the beginning of each section were very useful because it meant that the user did not have to read lots of text. The background music as you reached the end of the game added to the tension and was very effective. The video clip was fun, interesting and really held the attention from start to finish. The length was just right.

22. 22 The continuous narration was distracting and made it difficult to concentrate when reading the content. The sound was badly recorded, - there was a crackling voice in the background and the speaker’s voice echoed making it impossible to understand what was being said The video quality was poor, the sound was barely audible and did not synchronise well with the images. Examples of bad features of sound and video

23. 23 Suggesting improvements List each feature that you identified as being not so good then make suggestions on how to improve that feature Refer to the features you identified and list any features that were not originally included in the product that you think that should be included and would help improve the product. There are two useful techniques

24. 24 Example 1 Feature – use of colourProduct – commerical advertisement on DVD Not so good feature identified Although the target audience was teenagers, the advertisement looked lie it was intended for very young children because too many bright and garish colours were used. The colours clashed with each other and with the pictures – the user might want to turn off the screen. Suggested improvements Avoid the use of too many bright colours – simple is often the most effective. White text on a black background would have worked better than grey text on a white background and would have coordinated very well with the images of the fireworks which all had black backgrounds.

25. 25 Example 2 Feature - ImagesProduct – Interactive presentation Not so good feature identified The quality of the iamges was poor when the screen was disaplyed in full size. The iamges became very pixellated and the captions could not be read. Suggested improvements The original image sizes should be a little bigger on the page and better iamges with a higher resolution should be used so that when the page is maximised the iamge qualtiy is not spoilt.

26. 26 Example 3 Feature - NavigationProduct – Interactive multimedia website Not so good feature identified It was difficult to go back to the contents page or previous page because the link buttons were at the bottom of the page and the pages were long. Suggested improvements To make the website easier to navigate, a navigation table could be created with named buttons and alternative text linking every page to al other pages. This navigation should be placed a the top centre of the screen or on the top lef to the screen so it is clearly visible when a new page is loaded.

27. 27 Example 4 Feature – Overall reviewProduct – Educational comptuer game Not so good feature identified There was too much text on every page with very few images, this made the product dull. Suggested improvements The amount of text on every screen should be considerably reduced, and an interesting, revlevant iamge could be added along side the text to liven up the text. Animations could be added to keep the attention fo the user. Instead of providing user instructionsin the form of a long page of instructions, a video or audio clip could also be used explain the instructiosn ofr the next task.