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THE PROCESS OF DESIGNING FOR INTERACTIVE MEDIA Richard Oliver, Multimedia Consultant 1 Why do we need to think about the process of designing for interactive multimedia? 1.1 Why do we
need to think about the process of designing for interactive multimedia? The need to
consciously shape the process of designing and producing interactive
multimedia may seem strange, for those of you who come from a traditional
media or software background. In those areas you will probably have been
taught a process as part of your early training in the field. This way of
doing things very rapidly becomes taken for granted - it is the way that
you design and produce a magazine or a film or a piece of software -
something that does not have to be questioned. At some point in the future
this will be the same for interactive multimedia. But, interactive
multimedia is still in its infancy and as well as inventing what we can do
with it, we also have to invent the way we do it.
1.2
A new medium Interactive
multimedia is very young. The World Wide Web only began in 1991. Guide and
Hypercard, the first widely available multimedia authoring packages only
emerged in the late 1980s. There are very few people who have more than
ten years of experience of working in this medium. While there is some
experience of what works and what does not, we are still in the process of
inventing the medium. It is important to remember that the conventions and
practices of all media had to be invented and that this took place over
long periods of time. The concept of the page number in book took many
centuries following the invention of printing before it was widely
adopted, but was crucial to the book being a useful information source.
Similarly, in cinema, conventions such as the close-up or moving the
camera, that we take for granted, needed to be invented by film makers and
their meaning learned by their audiences. With interactive multimedia we
may still be in the position of where our equivalent of the page number or
close-up is still in process of being invented. 1.3
No real tradition Interactive
multimedia is too young to have a real tradition of its own. At best it
can be said to have some habits. This presents designers in this medium
with a problem. Whereas designers working in print or people working in
film and television have a large body of work and experience developed
over many years - in the case of print over centuries - as examples of
what works and what does not, with interactive multimedia this is not the
case. But designers in this medium do have some advantages. Some of the
lessons learnt in earlier media can be applied. The trick is to recognise
which are relevant and which are not. Also, some of the lessons learnt
from the longer experience of developing interactive application software
can also be applied. Further, there has been earlier work in the seventies
and eighties, particularly with hypertext, which can give us insights in
to how we could proceed today. But, perhaps the greatest advantage we
have, in terms of building experience and a tradition, is the internet,
operating 24 hours a day, 7 days weeks, which is one of the fastest means
of spreading innovations and ideas that has ever existed. 1.4
Constant change and flux Interactive
multimedia has a short past. It also lacks a stable present. To take one
aspect of the medium, the internet. The internet is the fast growing
medium in history - 17 million users worldwide in 1992,195 million users
in 1999. Its rapid growth is not just in numbers of users, but in the
technological inventiveness that has accompanied that growth and in the
ingenuity that has been applied to finding new uses for the medium. And
this is just the beginning, if anything the pace of its development is
likely to accelerate over the next decade as its practical and creative
possibilities unfold. This means, that as designers, we need to be aware
of the new software and hardware that is constantly coming on-stream,
opening up new possibilities and fresh opportunities. But more profoundly
than that we need to recognise when such innovations radically shift the
nature of the medium, requiring us to rethink our whole approach. The
development of the World Wide Web required such a shift for those of us
who had been working with disc based interactive multimedia. The one
certainty is that the medium will continue to develop very fast and that
its development will not be a smooth linear progression, but something
much bumpier and more unpredictable. 1.5
The Design Process as a stable element The fact that
interactive multimedia is a new medium, with little tradition to draw on
and is still in a period of very rapid and turbulent development makes it
important to look for areas of stability. The dangers of operating in a
context of constant flux and change is that it is too easy to be seduced
by the latest fad or exciting new bit of technology. Any interactive
multimedia design, whether it takes the form of a CD-ROM, a web site, a
kiosk in a museum, or the myriad of other possibilities, should have a
clear purpose. That purpose should be to provide the user with an
experience that cannot be achieved by any other means. The advantages of
using interactive multimedia as opposed to any other medium or method to
achieve that purpose should be demonstrable. Following a systematic design
process is a way of ensuring that all the issues that need to be addressed
to create purposeful interactive multimedia will be tackled at the
appropriate stage of the process. More than that, a systematic design
process is a means of coping with a context of rapid change. Using such a
process provides a stable framework for making design decisions, such as
whether or not to use a new piece of software or any other innovation,
because the criteria for such decisions always comes back to the purpose
of the design and the kind of experience it should provide for the user. 2 Functions of Interactive Digital Media 2.1 Functions of Interactive Digital Media The greatest
distinction between interactive multimedia and more traditional media,
such as books, newspapers, magazines, films, radio and television is the
variety of functions and combinations of functions it can perform. As a
distribution medium it can carry the content of these older media and make
them available by disc or by the network. On the internet they are
available from any connected device anywhere in the world 24 hours a day,
seven days a week. As a medium in its own right it can be used to mediate
almost any human interaction you can think of. This is what makes it so
powerful and so exciting a medium to be working in. Because interactive
multimedia can carry out a variety of different functions a key, but not
always immediately obvious, design decision is what function or
combination of functions any particular interactive multimedia project
should be trying fulfil. 2.2
Communication Unlike
traditional mass media many forms of interactive multimedia enable two way
communication. Indeed, one of the drivers of the popularity of the
internet has been email, followed quite closely by chat rooms, instant
messaging and a range of other vehicles for communication between people.
While most of these forms of communication have been text based, increase
the possibilities of including images, sound and video are becoming
available. This potential for dialogue with and between users is something
that needs to be seriously considered in any interactive multimedia
project. 2.3
Information There is now an
enormous volume and variety of information on CD-ROM and the Web. Much of
this is still effectively printed text on a computer screen. But even in
these cases their use in an interactive multimedia content can add
utility. Directories on CD-ROM can be much more effectively searched.
Brochures, academic papers and timetables more easily accessed through
search engines on the web. As the medium develops it is likely to move
further away from material originated for print to take advantage of its
ability to deploy different media types to communicate information more
effectively. The choice of the appropriate media types to convey any
particular form of information to a specified audience is a key design
decision in this new medium. 2.4
Entertainment It is often forgotten that computer games are a form of interactive multimedia. From their primitive beginnings in the early 1960s they are now a multi-billion dollar global industry. In that sphere alone interactive multimedias potential as an entertainment medium has been proved beyond doubt. The range of entertaining experiences that interactive multimedia can offer is almost certainly much broader than those currently offered by computer games and would include the opportunities for convivial social interaction offered in some chat rooms, MUDs and MOOs. The question of whether an interactive multimedia project should include an element of entertainment is a design decision that needs to be very carefully considered. In some cases it can enhance the experience, in others it may be a distraction from the central purpose of the design. 2.5
Transactions The success of
transactional web sites such as Amazon.com and Ebay and all the other
sites that offer opportunities for buying and selling between businesses
and consumers and business to business, are an obvious demonstration of
the importance of this function of interactive multimedia. But it is also
important to remember that these are not the only transactions this medium
can support. There are a whole range of transactions that involve the
exchange of information between parties, often involving filling in paper
forms, that could more effectively, more speedily and economically be
carried out using this medium. Since many of us find such informational
transactions difficult, one of the challenges facing designers in this new
medium is how to use its multimedia capabilities to offer help and support
in carrying such transactions. 2.6
Applications Interactive
multimedia is computer software and because of this it can actually enable
people to do things as well as showing them things. Take for example a
railway timetable. In its traditional form you can look things up, but you
have to do your journey planning yourself, often with much difficulty.
With interactive multimedia the timetable becomes a tool that can help you
plan you journey, displaying a number of choices depending upon the
criteria you set. Because so many interactive multimedia projects have
focused on displaying information and their interactivity has largely
consisted of being able to move around that information, the more active
potential of the medium some times gets forgotten. It is a useful
discipline when designing any interactive multimedia project to imagine
how it could be more of an application that enables people to do things
rather than simply looking at them. 3 The Design and Production Team 3.1 The
Design and Production team The design and
production of interactive multimedia is essentially a team activity. While
it is possible for individuals to produce interesting small scale work,
anything of any real ambition requires a broader range of skills than any
individual can command. Because this is a very young medium job titles and
definitions are still very fluid. However, we would argue that the
successful design of any interactive multimedia project of any ambition
will need: 1. Someone to
organise and coordinate the project - a project manager. 2. Someone to
structure the content and to determine how a user can interact with that
content - an interactive multimedia designer 3. Someone to
ensure that the technology underlying the users experience is as
unobtrusive as possible - a software engineer. 3.2 Project
Manager The Project
Manager is responsible for organising, coordinating and managing an
interactive multimedia project. However, at its best, this is more than
simply a managerial role and the Project Manager should be seen as a full
member of the creative design team. An important aspect of this role is to
represent the interests of the user. This means keeping the whole of the
design and production team focussed on the goal of meeting the users
needs and expectations. 3.3
Interactive Multimedia Designer The Interactive
Multimedia Designer is responsible for the overall structuring the content
of an interactive multimedia project and the way a user can interact with
that content. The way that content is structured and the way the user
interacts with it will shape the users experience of it. In designing
interactive multimedia we are designing experiences. The nature of those
experience should reflect the content and what the project is trying
achieve. To create the appropriate experience the Interactive Multimedia
Designer will usually need the collaboration of other media specialists
and crucially will have to work very closely with the Project Manager and
the Software Engineer. 3.4 Software
Engineer The Software
Engineer has a very important role in delivering the intended experience
to the user. It is the Software Engineers responsibility to make the
technology invisible to the user so that their attention is directed to
the media experience rather than the technology that underlies it. This
means that response times should be fast, that images download quickly, in
fact, it means avoiding all the technical glitches that can draw the
users attention to the technology. More than that though, the Software
Engineer is a key figure in making interactive multimedia a medium in its
own right, rather than simply being printed pages or a video shown on a
computer screen. The skill and creativity of the Software Engineer is to
work closely with the Interactive Multimedia Designer to deliver
experiences that are unique to the medium. 3.5 Other
Specialists Creating a
successful interactive multimedia project is likely to require input from
many different specialists including writers, typographers, graphic
designers, interaction designers, illustrators, photographers, recording
engineers, composers, animators, video makers, programmers, to mention
only some of those who may be involved. In many cases those specialists
will be working to a very precise brief and will not have the overall
picture of the project that the central design team will have. While the
Project Manager has a clear role in briefing and managing the work of
specialists, inputs from the Interactive Multimedia Designer and the
Software Engineer are likely to be necessary as well. 4 A Model of the Design Process Exploring the
design space Developing
initial ideas Developing a
detailed design Generating the
media elements Integrating the
media elements Testing,
Monitoring and Evaluating Maintenance 5
Exploring the Design Space 1 5.1 Exploring
the design space1 Every
interactive multimedia project begins with an idea. This first phase of
the design process involves exploring and testing the strength of that
idea and defining the constraints and opportunities of the design
space in which it can be developed. In many ways it may be the most
important part of the design process. If this first phase is carried out
rigorously, problems that may arise later can be avoided and creative
opportunities that might other wise have been overlooked can be
identified. It cannot be stressed too heavily how important this first stage is. When interactive multimedia projects fail to deliver what is expected of them, the reasons can usually be found in a neglect of this first phase of the process. The temptation facing both the design team and the client is to gloss over this first stage and to leap right in to the second stage of the process which is much more obviously productive and has a visible output. Much of this
first phase is concerned with formulating and asking the right questions.
Most of these are fairly obvious: what are we trying to say, to whom, in
what way and why are we saying it anyway? However, while the questions
maybe obvious, answering them can be very difficult. Sometimes the
difficulty lies in the fact that the answers are ones we do not want to
know, for example, the fact that a particular audience we wish to reach on
a web site has no access to the internet and hence that approach to the
project is pointless. Sometimes the difficulty is just because rigorously
exploring a design space is hard and may force to test and overturn a
number of our initial assumptions. And, sometimes we have to return to
this first phase of the process when what is learned in later stages of
the process mean that we have to revise what we are trying to do in a
project. But if this first stage has been properly carried out, such a
return means that this movement between stages can be a purposeful,
productive part of the creative process, because it is based on a sound
foundation. 5.2 Who? Accurately
describing the intended audience of an interactive multimedia project is a
vital, but often neglected, part of the design process. The more detailed
this description is, the more it can inform the design decisions that are
taken. Will you audience have access to the kind of technology you propose
to use? Will they have the experience to use it? 5.3 What? What kind of
experience are you trying to give your target audience? What do you want
your users to be able to do? What are you trying to communicate to your
audience? 5.4 Where? Where will your
audience be having their experience? In the home? In an office? In a
public space? The environment in which people use multimedia can play a
very important in their experience and the media types that are used to
communicate it. Too often designers end their thinking at the screen
rather than taking into account the context in which it is being used. 5.5 How? What are the
resources of time and budget that can be brought bear to achieve the
experience you wish to create? What are the media elements that can be
best used to create this experience? 5.6 Why? Why is it it
proposed to use interactive multimedia? Is it cheaper? Does it have a
greater reach? Can it communicate more effectively? Will it be more
engaging than other media? Does it do something you cannot do using other
media or methods? 6 Exploring the Design Space 2 6.1 Exploring
the design space 2 The outputs from
this first phase of the process are generally expressed in words. An
output such as a design proposal may also form part of a legal contract
between the client and the design and production team. But the reasons we
are considering them here is an aid to the creative process. These outputs
are a kind of map which if used properly can help the design team to keep
focused on the goals of the project. In any design project of what ever
kind, not simply in interactive multimedia, it is very easy to get
diverted or seduced away from what should be the central focus. In
interactive multimedia, because of the context it is now operating in and
because of its inherent complexity, the need for such maps and reference
points is perhaps greater than in many other kinds of design activity. 6.2 Design
Concept A design concept
is a very short statement, preferably only a sentence, that expresses the
essence of an interactive digital media project. Defining a concept
involve thinking very clearly about what is to be achieved and expressing
it succinctly. The value of having a clearly defined concept is that it
aids communication among members of the design team by providing a simple
benchmark against which design decisions and ideas can be tested. It is
also invaluable for helping to communicate with the client and others
outside the design team. 6.3 Proposal A design
proposal is a detailed description of the scope of an interactive digital
media project. It will contained a project plan describing what activities
will be taking place, when they will occur, how they will cost and what
their outputs will be. It will also stated the range of skills that will be required to realise the
project and who will be doing what. A proposal can be seen as a kind of
organisational blueprint for the whole project which will form the basis
of all the planning and coordination that needs to take place. It is also
often forms a crucial part of the contract between the client and the
creative team. 6.4 Brief A design brief
is the outcome of a period of negotiation, between the key members of the
design team and the client. The objective is to strive for the creative
marriage of what the client wants, what is technically possible, and what
works best for the end-user.
In working towards this goal, the clients initial brief (if there is
one) is merely the starting point. Essentially, a design brief is a clear,
preferably short, statement about what the project is trying achieve, who
its users will be and what are the principal constraints, including the
time and budget available. 6.5 Design
criteria Developing a set
of explicit and specific design criteria against which the work of the
project can be tested and evaluated can be a useful device to help keep
the project focused. These criteria are best expressed in form of
questions to which the answer is yes or no, for example Is
the "tone of voice" appropriate for target audience? or
Are the effects of user interactions predictable and consistent? 7 Developing Initial Ideas 7.1
Developing initial ideas This stage of
the design process is about defining in very practical ways the design
direction and strategy of a
project. The techniques outlined
here are the visible manifestations of that direction and strategy.When
the outputs from this stage are combined with those from the first stage
the design team will know what
is to be achieved, what needs to be done to achieve it and how it is to be
achieved. They can then move on to the next stage of producing the
detailed design. 7.2 Mood
boards Mood boards can
be a very quick way of establishing the overall "look and feel"
of a project. They are a collage of images, typography and colours made up
of found objects such as pictures from magazines that start to establish a
visual and emotional style of a project. They are a very useful way of
communicating the approach to both the client and to the members of the
design team. 7.3 Sketch
visuals Sketch visuals
are the first set of ideas developing the visual look of the project. They
may be done on screen or as a mix of paper sketches and screen shots.
Their function is to begin to establish the visual feel and style of the
project. 7.4
Structural schematics Structural
schematics are a formal way of mapping out the structure of the
"space" the users will be able to move through. They define what
events occur and where they are located. In very many cases those events
will be defined in terms of information to be presented to the user. In
others they will be defined in terms of transactions or actions the user
participates in. 7.5
Storyboards Storyboards are
an informal kind of structural schematic which can be very illuminating
both in terms of exploring how users may move within an interactive
multimedia environment, describing that space and giving some sense of its
look and feel. Unlike a traditional, linear storyboard for a film, a
interactive multimedia storyboard will look more like a flow chart and can
even take up several walls to show all the possible interactions! 7.6 Scenarios A scenario is
means of describing how a user may move through one session within an
interactive multimedia environment. Scenarios being time based are always
linear and may be described in text or images or a mixture of both.
Scenarios should always begin and end with events in the real world. A
scenario might begin with someone deciding they need to find something
out, going to the interactive multimedia environment to find it and then
doing something in the real world as result of what they have found. A
well chosen scenario can often reveal problems and opportunities that can
be concealed while looking at the bigger picture. 7.7 Treatment A treatment is
another technique that, like storyboards, originated in the film industry.
In the same way as a film treatment expresses in a few pages the essence
of the mood, story and style of a movie, a treatment for a interactive
multimedia project does the same thing. Though, unlike a film treatment,
it will almost certainly use images and diagrams as well as
words to evoke a sense of the experience the finished product will
provide. 7.8 Demos All the
technique we have described so far have been paper based or use static
screens. As such they require considerable imagination and experience to
see how they would work as interactive multimedia. This is why from a very
early point it is vital to be producing "demos" or prototypes
using interactive multimedia tools themselves. These can be very crude
screens simply labelled with descriptive text and some means of navigating
between them or they may be a simplified expression of some of the major
elements of the project shown in a relatively sophisticated way. They maybe produced by the interactive multimedia designer
using an authoring package such as Macromedia Director or in HTML. In more
software intensive projects the interactive multimedia designer may
collaborate with the software engineer to produce prototypes using a
programming environment such as Microsoft's Visual Basic or Borland's
Delphi. 8 Developing a Detailed Design 8.1
Developing a detailed design Whatever the
nature of an interactive multimedia project the first two stages of the
process are likely to be very similar, differing only in the amount of
time that can be spent on them. It is when you come to the other stages of
the process, beginning with developing a detailed design that significant
differences begin to emerge. We would categorise these different
approaches as falling in to three main types, the craft model, the product
model and the process model. Of course, in the reality of professional
practice many design teams will adopt a hybrid approach incorporating
elements from each of the different approaches determined by the specific
nature of the projects they are working on. Whatever the approach they
adopt the key design decisions should have been resolved by this point and
this stage should consist of a detailed refinement and implementation of
those decisions. However, it should be remembered that sometimes work at
this stage will reveal flaws in the initial thinking that can only be
discover at this stage. In that case it may be necessary to return to the
earlier stages of the process to refine and revise the earlier design
decisions. 8.2 The craft
model In the craft
model, once the design decisions made in the first two stages of the
process have been agreed, the process of detailed design and production
becomes a seamless process. Effectively the design is built up using a
prototype, which becomes more elaborate and refined as the various media
elements are added to it. This craftlike process can be very effective as
the results are immediately visible and corrections are built in to the
process, but is really only suitable for relatively small, self-contained
projects. Also the dangers of getting lost in the process and seduced by
interesting, but not strictly relevant aspects of the design can be very
high. However, if used in a disciplined way with frequent references back
to the map of design decisions develop in the earlier two stages
this can be a very creative and productive way of working. 8.3 The
product model In the product
model design and production are strictly separated. Here the design team
will be drawing up functional specifications, detailed structural
schematics and other forms of what are essential instructions for the
production team. In some cases these may need to be supported by working
demos when the interactions are to complex to describe on paper.
This approach can work well and on some very large projects may be the
only workable method, but it does have the problem that the production
team does have to interpret their instructions. This can lead to
misunderstandings and because of this the strict separation between design
and production, in practise, can become blurred. 8.4 The
process model The process
model is the most recent of the three models and arises from forms of
interactive multimedia, such as some kinds of web sites, which are
designed to evolve and change over time. The key outputs from the design
team in this model are the guidelines, style guides, templates, processes
and procedures guidelines. These will determine how the content that is
generated in the future will fit in to the design and how the structure
can be modified and adjusted to accommodate the way users actually use and
interact with the design. This form of open ended design is something
there are few models for, except, perhaps, landscape design and certain
forms of town planning. It is certainly the one that is most challenging
and that will require the greatest learning to do well. 9 Generating the media elements 9.1
Generating the media elements As we have
described in the section about the design team generating the media
elements is likely to require input from a range of media specialists. In
some cases, many of the media assets may already exist, often in analog
form, and here the task of generating the media elements largely lies in
converting them into the appropriate digital form. But, increasingly the
media elements that make up an interactive multimedia design are being
created for a specific project. In both cases it is the role of the
interactive multimedia designer to create the structure in which those
different media elements will fit. While the interactive multimedia
designer will specify what is to be used or created it is the role of the
project manager to ensure that all the media elements required are brought
together at the right time and in the right form. 9.2 Interface The interface is
the means a user has to interact with and navigate through an interactive
multimedia design. It involves the hardware the user physically uses to
interact with the computer or other display device, keyboard, mouse, etc.
and the icons, menus, buttons, dialogue boxes and other symbolic devices
that the user can act on. In most cases, the hardware elements of an
interface are a given, though the interface design team still needs to
think about how they are used. With the symbolic elements the designers
have more freedom, though as a general rule using conventions that users
have encountered in other interactive multimedia designs is desirable.
Successful interface design depends upon three elements 1) an empathy with
the user and their perception of the system 2) a deep understanding of the
system the user will be using and its capabilities and weaknesses, and 3)
a rigorous concern with detail to ensure that every element of the design
is consistent and coherent. 9.3 Text and
Hypertext Interactive
multimedia is still predominately a text based medium. As the medium
develops the balance between the different media elements is likely to
change with images, sound, animation and video taking on a greater
prominence. But for the moment text is still the major vehicle for
communicating ideas, information and emotion within the medium.
Technically, text currently enjoys a number of advantages over the other
media types that can be used in interactive multimedia. It is very
compact. It can be easily searched and manipulated. It is also a familiar
form of computer mediated communication. So we tend to turn to text when
we want to say something. But, now the medium is more capable of
supporting and delivering other media types we should be more thoughtful
about how, why and when we use text. In particular, it is important to
remember that we are not writing for the print page and that the medium
offers us unique features such as hypertext and dynamic means of linking
text to other media elements such as sound or images that need to be
exploited. 9.4
Typography and layout Words are still a very important means of communicating in interactive multimedia, but how a word looks can sometimes communicate as much as what is says. The art of typography has been developed over many centuries in print and more recently in film and television. Many of the lessons about the uses of typefaces and layout in print can be adapted for interactive multimedia. But it is important to remember that a display screen is not paper, so such lessons should not be applied too literally. More than that, in this medium, type can take on a dynamic character, using animation, which in some circumstances can make it more effective. 9.5 Image Images can used
in a multiplicity of ways: to entice, inform, appeal, communicate and
enrich. They can excite passions, express feelings, communicate ideas,
explain complex relationships, become objects of aesthetic pleasure,
meditation and contemplation, and even tell stories. In interactive
multimedia, images can be used in all these ways, and they can also be
linked together with text and other images to create new kinds of
relationships that can be explored interactively by the user. Just as a
painting can tell us a "story" in an iconic,
"all-at-once", non-linear way, so images in interactive
multimedia can be devices for providing a variety of different ways of
looking at a particular subject or theme. 9.6 Animation Animation is a media element that can usefully express the dynamic nature of interactive multimedia. What is important is that it should be used purposefully. Too often animation is used as decoration or to grab attention in a way that serious affects usability and detracts from the users experience. However, when it is used thoughtfully it can positively enhance the users experience. Some forms of interactive multimedia, such as computer games, are built around animation. In other forms of interactive multimedia its use may be more subtle, quietly providing a dynamic element in what otherwise might be perceived as a series of static events. There are several ways in which it can be used in interactive multimedia, including: 'animation bites' - short sequences of full or part screen linear animation that illustrate or explain processes and are progressively or automatically played in response to the user's interaction, as longer sequences in which the user has to make branching choices; as attention-seeking devices, as expressive or decorative effects; as transitional effects, as feedback, and as an 'autoplay' or 'default' condition, that occupies the screen if the user decides not to interact with the programme. 9.7 Sound Sound can play a
very powerful element in interactive multimedia, that up until recently
has rarely been fully exploited. In part, this is due to technical
reasons. Sound is memory hungry and limitations on the amount of memory
available to the interactive multimedia designer meant that often it was
used sparingly, if at all. But perhaps equally importantly our sense of
hearing is surprisingly complex. Learning how to use sound effectively in
this new context presents a number a of challenges to the design team.
Sound can play a number of different, but related roles in interactive
multimedia. It can generate an inclusive space that creates a greater
sense of involvement with all the other media elements for the user. This
may be achieved by the use of music, sound effects and voice overs. It can
provide confirmatory feedback for the user by providing sounds that signal
the effects of an action, for example an aural "click" when
clicking a check box with a mouse. It can provide information, help and
instruction. In fact, it can be used in a multitude of different ways,
many of which have barely begun to be explored. 9.8
Video Video can
communicate things that would be very hard to do using any of the other
media elements available in interactive multimedia. For example, if you
want to show how something has been made, a very direct and powerful way
of doing this is simply to show the process in a video sequence and then
perhaps to elaborate and explain what has been shown using other media
elements. However, it is important that users are given full control any
video presented and are not put in the position of having to wait until a
video sequence has completed before they can move on to do anything else. 9.9 Software
engineering Interactive multimedia is a form of computer software. This obvious statement is one that can too easily be forgotten in our excitement about seeing the other media elements text, images, sound, animation and video deployed within a computing environment. This is why it is important that software engineers are active involved as full creative members of the design team right from the begining of a project. The knowledge and experience they can bring to a project will often suggest possibilities and approaches that some one without that background simply could not imagine. The moments of magic we sometimes experience when using interactive multimedia are invariably due to the fact that the capabilities of the computer as a medium in its own right are being fully exploited. While it is true that applications such as Macromedia Director or Dreamweaver can allow someone with little programming experience to produce interesting work, increasingly, as the medium matures and becomes more ambitious, intelligent and creative software engineering will be a key component in successful projects. 10 Integrating the media elements 10.1 Integrating the media elements The way that the media elements are integrated in to the interactive multimedia design will vary according to whether the craft, product or process model is being used. 10.2 The craft model In the craft model the media elements tend to be built in to the interactive multimedia design as they are produced. It is important to keep records of where the originals are stored, because with this adhoc approach there is a danger that material will get lost or misplaced. 10.3 The product model In the product model all the media elements will have been produced and catalogued before they are integrated into the interactive multimedia design. They are then passed on to the programming team to integrate them in to the interactive multimedia design. 10.4 The process model In the process model the media elements that form the starting point of the interactive multimedia design may have been integrated following either the craft or product model, though in most cases it is more likely to the product model that is followed. In the process model since many media elements are going to be produced in the future it is even more important to have systematic methods for logging, cataloguing and controlling what is used. 11 Testing, Monitoring and Evaluating 11.1 Testing, Monitoring and Evaluating Testing, monitoring and evaluating can be seen as a mechanical process. This would be a mistake. While there are elements such a technical testing which are a question of ensuring that everything is working technically as it should this part of the design process can be more important than that. At its best, all design can be seen as a form of learning and the learning that takes place feeds the creative process. Interactive multimedia has a particular advantage over other forms of design in that in very many cases how a user interacts and behaves can be tracked and recorded. This means that the opportunities for very precise learnings are much greater and hence the possibilities of that learning feeding into the creative process are increased. While have placed this as one of the final stages of the process - the place it has traditionally occupied, the slogan Dont assume, test can be applied right from the very beginning of the design process. 11.2 Technical testing Technical testing should be an on-going process as the project develops. However, the key point for testing is when the project is complete and before it is released. Technical testing can be done by the design team though on a large or complex project is advisable to get the testing done by a third party. 11.3 Functional testing Functional testing is very similar to technical testing though in this case we are looking for errors where the system may be working technically correctly, but there is a functional error. This maybe a link that takes the user the wrong place or a set of interactions which instead of moving the user forward are circular. Again, using a third party for the final testing is desirable. 11.4 User testing User testing and the issue of usability deserve a module of their own. This is a very important and complex subject. However, what we must stress here is how crucial it is to involve people as close to your intended audience as possible in testing. An interactive multimedia design may work perfectly both technically and functionally and still be difficult for a particular group of users to understand and use. With some creativity and imagination it is possible to involve users right from the very beginning of a project. In the case of certain kinds of interactive multimedia, such as web sites or interactive point of information systems user testing can continue after a project has been released and what has been learned can be fed back in to the system to improve or modify it. 11.5 Monitoring One of the great strengths that the computer base of interactive multimedia design gives us is the ability to track and monitor the way that users actually use what we have created. This gives us an opportunity to learn which is simply not available in other media. Developing a strategy for monitoring how an interactive multimedia design is used is a key design decision that should be considered from the very beginning of the design process. 11.6 Evaluating Of course, simply setting up the means to monitor how users are using an interactive multimedia design is not enough on its own. The point is to evaluate what it means and to use this knowledge to improve what has been done. The combination of monitoring and user testing gives us a very powerful means of continuously improving the design to make it more effective in delivering the experiences we want our users to encounter. The design of processes and procedures to link monitoring and user testing with evaluation so that what is learned is turned into design action is in itself a key design activity in this medium. 12 Maintenance 12.1 Maintenance Maintenance is doing those things that are required to keep an interactive multimedia design functioning correctly in the future. Until the development of the Word Wide Web maintenance was rarely seen as an issue. But with on-line products such as Web sites and with disc based products such as kiosks or information systems the question of how they are to be maintained and updated has become an important design issue that needs to be considered when the project is first being formulated. Effectively, there a two distinct kinds of maintenance. The first is for what we could call closed projects, such as CD-ROMs, where we are produce a complete, finished piece of work. The second and more challenging is for open projects, such as many web sites, which are designed to evolve and change over time. 12.2 Maintenance for closed projects With a closed project there may seem little need for maintenance and in one sense this is perfectly correct. However, since the generation of content for interactive multimedia can involve considerable expense, archiving and documenting such content for possible future use in other projects maybe worthwhile. For this reason it is often sensible to when digitising material such as photographs, illustrations, film and video to do so at a higher resolution than is necessary for the current project. Of course, the decision to do this or not is a design decision that should be taken at the earliest stage of the design process. 12.3 Maintenance for open projects Maintenance for open projects may involve the development of manuals, templates and style guides or it may also involve a more fundamental set of strategic guidelines about the future development of an interactive multimedia project. The process model of designing interactive multimedia projects, that right from their initial conception, have been designed to evolve and change as they are used, is something that we are only just beginning to discover how to do. This model of collaboration with users to evolve a design is perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of interactive multimedia and maybe the one that transforms our notion of maintenance from being a rather dreary design problem tagged on to the end of a project to being one of the most challenging and stimulating issue facing the design team. |