week 8 -sarah,daniel,samuel

In order to create a multimedia project, the developer needs to follow a series of steps from the Idea Analysis till the Delivery stage. This is to ensure that the project or material results in good quality due to careful planning and taking strategic measures throughout the process.

Idea Analysis is the first step to developing any multimedia project. This is where you write your idea down on paper, and decide on the purpose and message of your project. You will need to and weigh the cost and measures it will take in order to make your idea a success. There must be a balance between purpose and feasibility which can be done by increasing or decreasing multimedia elements depending on what is relevant to the project at hand.

You will need to think about the content materials and hardware that is needed and how you may obtain them if you don’t already have them. Research is needed to check if your idea is original or if it has already been used in the multimedia market. How big your project is will determine the amount of space you will need in order to store your raw material and later on the finished product. Necessary time and money are also important factors to consider before continuing your project.

Pre-development stage is where you take your details to the next step. Define your project goals specifically and each skill needed to make it attainable. Then a content outline needs to be sketched or written out. This provides a guideline for you to follow as you develop your project further in case you forget any important ideas, or it could help inspire new ones along the way. A strategic positioning and marketing plan is needed in order to place your multimedia project in the correct target market. Create your prototype on paper so that a visible outline or illustration of your project is available for viewing when dealing with sales and marketing people.

Prototype development makes itself as the next stage for creating the concept of the project. For starters, creating screen mock-ups just to get the rough idea of the overview of how your project is going to look like. Similarly to creating a skeleton of a website, designing the content map will guide users in navigating themselves through the multimedia project and interacting with the option tools available. When designing human interface, consider making a layout that is not cluttered and user friendly. When developing the content messages of your project, ensure that you text is grammatically correct, straightforward and easy to understand. Finally test the prototype that you have done in order to troubleshoot. This trial and error process is necessary at every stage at save you the trouble of correcting error in the long run.

Alpha development is the stage where you draw out your storyboard and flowcharts in detail. Include the finalized story scripts as well. Graphic art should be chosen to suit the idea and concept of the project. It plays an important part in giving the overall feel of the project to appeal to your target market. Including sound and video in your project will enhance usability and optimize the options for interaction. For example, if it’s an educational multimedia project, a video tutorial would explain your content better than just an audio player and will be more interesting than text because it allows demonstrations. In the process of putting all these elements together, you might face minor technical problems. Solve all technical problems and test prototype once again before moving to the next stage.

Beta development is one step before the final delivery stage. Your project is sent out to a limited list of users who will test your program or project in case you might have missed out any details. Your project should be usable on the proposed delivery platform. In testing the program, respond to bug reports from the computer. Analyze the scripting code error and fix it. You should also prepare a user document to make your program user-friendly. This can be in a hardcopy format of a program manual, or a softcopy document made available in the file. Design the packaging for your project according to what is suitable. Create a range of varied gold candidates of your project so that one may be chosen as the gold master copy. Once that is done, inform PR personnel so a press release may be written to launch your new program or project.

Delivery is the final stage where you prepare technical support for your project in case of any malfunctions. Install a sales team to support your launch and make replicates of your gold master copy. Hold launch seminars to further promote the newly launched program. Finally, arrange to ship your products to various companies who have requested it.

week 8 -adriel,amanda,nicole

For every project that is to be done, planning is a definite pre-requisite. In fact, the planning process is considered the most vital process to make a project successful. This applies to the IT and multimedia industry as well.

There are five processes in the making multimedia. The first is process or step is Idea Analysis. In this process, it is important to weigh the ideas thought of and consider its feasibility, cost of production and delivery. This is because if the idea is not feasible, you may be in the middle of your project and finally realize that it is impossible for the project to be completed. This results in loss of time and energy.

A way to weigh your ideas is to jot it down- it is very useful to have notes around so that when a new idea hits you, it can be jot down immediately. Making notes is also useful because you will be able to write down the pros and cons of your idea. This makes the first process much easier.

Asking yourself questions will also make the idea clearer. Examples of questions will be “How can you organize your project?”, “What multimedia elements (text, sounds and visuals) will best deliver your message?”, etc.

The second process is the pre-development process that is a pre-requisite before developing multimedia. In this process, it is important to define the project goals. Defining the goals is important because goals will keep you focused on the purpose of the project and it saves time. It is also important to define the skill set needs required like the type of software available for use. Then, it is the creation of content online that furthers strengthens the goals set. It gives a clearer picture of the project. Next thing is to position sales and marketing so to prepare the public to accept and receive your multimedia project. It is also good to create prototype on a paper.

The next development is the prototype development. In this process, screen mock-ups are build so that a rough idea is given and more ideas for improvement can be generated. Then, there is the designing of content maps and human interface. After that, the story and message develop. Lastly, it is important to test the prototype. Should it be faulty, it is important to review and analyze the whole planning process to rectify the problem.

During the prototype development designing is the main agenda. Here, developers would build screen mock-ups where is it a model to be seen as a reference. Next, they design content maps which works like a site map to guide them through. Then, they design human interface such as buttons for a better navigation to communicate the subject to their target audience. Later, they develop the story or the messages they would like to portray. Lastly, they test out the prototype.

The development moves on towards the alpha development when the developer finds no defect on the prototype development. There would be a focus group to evaluate and report and if there is any revision made, they would go back to the previous development.

During alpha development, there would be detailed storyboards and flowcharts to be charted out as to see where the whole project is is going and giving a clearer picture. Next, developer would finalize story scripts. Then produce graphic art, sound and video related to the topic of the development. The developers too solve out technical problems faced and test working the prototype. If there is no other problems involved they would bail out and reach out to the next development step.

One clear example is www.friendster.com main page; it has changed from the alpha development to the beta development with a change of features on the main page.

During the beta development, the project will be distributed to a limited number of testers to further check and perhaps add input on what else should be done. At this time, bugs can also be reported and then accordingly dealt with by the creators, should there be any.

Without any guides for their products that they are selling, it would be useless to users. So it is in this stage of development that user’s guides or manuals be produced to guide and give information to users as to how to operate or use the project. Packaging is also important in this stage as it is sometimes, if not most of the times the part that convinces and persuades users to use or buy the project.

Special or gold candidates are also found at this stage. These candidates are actually various version of the product. Examples are like versions 1.0 to 1.3 to 2.0 to 2.1, and so on. From these versions, developers can gauge how well the project has been done and which one should go out to be sold and used. Special candidates are therefore essential to the development and the success of the whole project. Finally in the beta development, advertising through press releases, announcements to various press associations, and PR lists are done. Exposure of the project is a must and these PR activities are the best ways to get that type of exposure to the public.

Delivery is the final stage of the whole development and the first one would be the preparing of a technical support team who will be ever ready to answer any questions or inquiries from customers and also to aid them with the product/project. A sales team is also set up here. These are the ones who will do the disseminating of the product to put it into the hands of people. They also are the ones who will garner profits and revenue from selling the product.

The gold master, which is the final version of the project, is now mass produced to be sold. The gold master comes under this development and will be what the product really looks like. A launch seminar is also given at this stage. This is the time where the lime light now shines on the product and is finally introduced to the world. With that, the product is now ready to be shipped to different countries all around the world to be used and enjoyed.

week 8 -sim pin,alvin,canaan

There are many steps in the process of making multimedia. This process is one of the project planning. Project planning is important because there are some tasks like building blocks of project management and pre-requisites must be completed before other begins. The steps in the process of making multimedia included Idea Analysis, Pre-development, Prototype Development, Alpha Development, Beta Development, and Delivery.

The first step in the process is Idea Analysis. Weight your idea against the feasibility and cost of production and delivery. Through the whole project, you need to organize the project to deliver your purpose and message. After that, make a draft for the project by using note paper and scratch pads to write down the idea. In this step, you need to maintain balance between purpose and feasibility by dynamically adding and subtracting multimedia elements. You must plan your time management and money for the project also.

Then you come into the step of Pre-development which you need to define the project goals and skillset needs, create content outline and prototype on paper, and also position in sales and marketing. You need to list down the multimedia elements and content material which you need to leverage your project. However, in prototype development, you need to build screen mock-ups, design content maps, design human interface, and develop story or message. When you finish these step, you need to test the prototype.

After that, you come into Alpha Development and Beta Development. These are the last steps before you deliver your project. In Alpha Development, you must detail the storyboard and flowcharts, finalize story scripts, and produce the multimedia elements. For example, video tape, music, documents, photographs, advertisements and others. Besides, hardware and software which available for the development has been chosen also. Thus, in Beta Prototype, you must distribute to limited tester list, respond to bug reports, prepare user documentation, prepare packaging, develop gold candidates, announce to press and PR lists.

After all those steps, you can deliver your project. When you deliver your project, you must prepare the technical support, install sales team, replicate gold master, hold launch seminar, and ship product.

week 8 assessment

Discuss the process of multimedia project management from Idea Analysis, Pre-development, Prototype Development, Alpha Development, Beta Development to Delivery.