Topic 008

Multimedia Application Development

Lifecycle

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Lecture Overview

• Multimedia application development lifecycle

• What are the similarities with other product
development lifecycles
• .. And what is different
• Individual phases and their characteristics

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Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) phases

SDLC
• You all remember this
• Software Development Life Cycle
(SDLC) phases

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Movie Production Life Cycle
Phases
Movie Production Life Cycle Phases

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Multimedia application development lifecycle

• Most similarities can be found with the software

development lifecycle
– computers involved – the product itself is software
– requirements often vague and unstable
• Important differences:
– both technical and creative/artistic parts are present, with
creative/artistic aspect often more important
– special equipment – interface/conversion problems
– prototyping is a must
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Phases

• Conceptualization and Analysis

• Design and prototyping
• Production
• Testing
• Distribution and follow-up
• and (of course) management

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Management

• phase 0, because it …
• spans all other phases, including activities such as
– Planning
– Estimation
– Control
– Resource management
– Documenting

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Business Plan
• Defines objectives and means to achieve these objectives
• Analyze and define
– Key employees
– Products
– Finances
– Markets
– Distribution channels
• Develop a business model

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Project Management
• Planning, estimating, monitoring, controlling, and
coordinating resources
– People
– Content
– Material resources (equipment, tools, materials,...)
– Finances
• in order to achieve the project objective
• Most important variables: time, cost, quality
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Multimedia project management
• Traditional project management tasks
• Additionally, the manager of a multimedia project
must orchestrate different
– Persons (with skills and personalities)
– Technologies
– Resources
in a marketplace that is constantly evolving and
changing
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Project plan

• A common document which should help all

interested parties to
– understand the defined goal
– understand the way of attaining the goal
– follow the schedule
– cooperate with others
– use the resources (tools and content) properly

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Finances
$ Funding: the process of finding sources of capital
to develop your product
$ Various types of funding:
$ loans
$ grants
$ self-funding
$ venture capital
But: each has good and bad sides
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People

• Many different specialties are required in each

phase of the project
• Both technical and artistic specialties are needed
• They have different
– backgrounds (professional and cultural)
– skills and expertise
– and, of course, personalities

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Material resources
• Different types of resources
– Computer hardware and software
– Production equipment
– Content (existing and new)
• How to obtain them?
– Borrow
– Lease
– Purchase
– Make your own
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Legal issues

• Securing sources of funding

• Licensing content and/or technology
• Hiring employees or contractors
• Drafting contracts
• Purchasing or leasing the necessary equipment,
props, office space

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Phase 1: Conceptualization and Analysis

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Phase 1: Conceptualization and Analysis
• Every multimedia project
begins with an idea or
concept
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• The concept and the plan
define a project
• Planning should make the
realization of the concept
as straightforward as
possible
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The Kickoff Meeting

• Projects often start with a

meeting to discuss the |

project direction and plan

• Usually only a group of key players
• Serves to create and unite the team
• Defines and/or clarifies goals, roles, expectations,
and strategies

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Project Scope

• What are you making? … … the concept

• What is it for? … … the purpose
• What do you want to say? … … the message
• What will be used? … … the approach

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Types of projects
– Electronic Books and Magazines
– Kiosks and Information Centers
– Multimedia Databases
– Corporate Training
– Interactive Education
– Interactive Games
– Interactive Music
– Interactive Movies
– Interactive Art and Performance
– Interactive Sales and Marketing
– Presentations and
Communications
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Target Audience
• What is their background (with respect to age,
education, gender, …)
• What are their preferences (even those prescribed by
current fashion)
• Are there some cultural and other constraints to be
observed
• What equipment will they use to access your product
(environment)

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The Message
• What is the message that you want to convey to
your audience
• All components of your project must be related to
its message
– Consistency
– Focusing
– Creativity
• Closely related to the “approach”
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Market Research First …

• Identification:
– Is there a target audience at all?
– Is there significant competition?
– What could be our edge
in the marketplace?
• Classification
– Business vs. Consumer
– Early adopters vs. Lazy ones
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… Technical Research Later
• Is it technically feasible to create a product that is
better, cheaper, more useful than anything else available
• Think about:
– Delivery media
– Installed base
– Storage capacity
– Speed
– Economy

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Phase 2: Design

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Phase 2: Design
• Bridging the gap between
the audience and you
• Design should embody
concept, purpose, and
messages
• Technology helps and often is
indispensable – but
technology alone without the
proper design creativity
cannot do the trick
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Design goals

• Simplicity
• Consistency
• User involvement
• Affordability
• Fun, efficiency, timing

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Simplicity

• Multimedia by definition includes user interaction

and exploration
• Note: prettiest designs may not be the simplest,
nor the easiest to use
• Good interaction design should instill a desire to
go on and find out more
• However, efficiency is always an issue

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Consistency
• Primarily related to user interface (we will have more to
say about this)
• A good product should behave in a consistent manner
• Consistency reduces learning time and reduces chances
for surprise, even with functions you have never used
before
• Increased familiarity translates into increased
productivity

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User involvement

• Most people like to get “involved”

• Adding a human dimension to the communication
with a mindless machine
• People enjoy exploring and discovering new paths
– reward curiosity by designing depth
• Allow users to explore more than one level of
information – but only if they explicitly choose to
do so
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Affordability

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• Analyze what the users from
the target group can afford
• Different audience segments have different
amounts they are willing to spend on a given
product
• Design goal: accommodate as much as possible
within a given price range
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Other qualities

• Some applications can be fun to use (but each

user can have his or her own definition of what
exactly is “fun”)
• User comprehension has its own pace – try to be
neither too fast, nor too slow
• Performance is always an issue: but this is
predominantly a technical problem

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Shaping the Design
• Often begins with a
brainstorming session
– a dynamic process of gathering
ideas and exploring possibilities
without judgement or constraint
• A good brainstorming session results in a collection of
ideas and solutions that become the foundation for both
the design and the prototype developed from it

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Storyboard
• An illustrated scene-by-scene plan for telling a story:
represents actions, images and narration unfolding over
time
• Each significant frame is described in (some) detail, the
actors are outlined, and their important actions are
spelled out
• Storyboard may be considered to be a specification of
the prototype (and, ultimately, the product itself)

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Information Design

• How to organize and present information in a

clear, accurate, meaningful and useful form
• Includes the information in all media and their
visual interaction (to an extent)

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Phase 3: Prototyping

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Phase 3: Prototyping
• A limited implementation of a design
– Emphasizes exploration and
experimentation
– Prototyping helps simplify and improve
production process
– Often used as proof-of-concept and/or
testing purposes
• Multimedia applications must be
prototyped
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Product Specifications

• A complete list of features that

covers structure and behavior of
the product should emerge from
the prototyping phase
• In multimedia, this means type
and amount of content,
interface characteristics, and
interaction
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Phase 4: Production

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Phase 4: Production

• Organizing people and resources

• Providing and producing content – text, graphics,
videos, sound, animation, VR
• Integrating all of the above into a meaningful,
coherent product
• Details of production related to different media
types will be covered in a separate lecture

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Organizing the Production Schedule
• Specification of all the tasks and their
interdependencies in sufficient detail
– Estimates should be made for each task (i.e., time and
effort / manpower)
– Appropriate resources should be allocated
– A number of milestones has to be established
– Main project goals must be established
– Deliverables: the product itself, documentation and additional
materials

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Organizing People
• Responsibilities and roles should be clearly delineated
and defined
• Some people may take on different roles (well-defined
tasks are a must)
• Professional services should be used whenever possible
(at a cost)
• Remember: quality obtained is always proportional to
investment made

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Organizing Production Resources

• Organizing resources: define what is required and

a schedule of its usage
• Equipment selection: based on the project script
and on the actual shooting location
• Major equipment has its own schedule, with each
major piece assigned to a person
• Compatibility issues must be resolved

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Source Materials

• Source: any items containing media data that can

be used in our product
• Production can involve
– creating new source materials,
– converting (re-purposing) existing materials,
– or (most often) both
• Source materials must be indexed and kept in
order (do not delete anything, never)
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Selecting the Right Tools

• Most important criteria:

– Whether the production artists are familiar with the
tool(s) selected
– Whether the format used by the tool is compatible
with other tools
• Availability and cost may be important for small
projects: in large projects, the cost is never a big
part of the overall budget
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Production Integration

• Integrating content elements: usually the

responsibility of programmer(s)
• Project manager must overview integration
• Project manager should make sure that no
content is forgotten or missing
• Problems of all types tend to multiply as the
delivery time is approaching

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Style guide
• Necessary in order to create a product with a sense of
integrity and unity
– Use of punctuation, grammatical conventions, use of jargons
– Samples, illustrations and templates for graphical layout
– Graphics production: standards used, layout templates
– Video production
– Sound production
– Conducting and attending production meetings

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Documentation
• Different types of documentation may be needed, depending
on the project
• Both size and scope depend on the project and its intended
audience
– Mass audience requires the documentation to be as simple as
possible, together with additional materials (getting started,
tutorials, … )
– Narrow, well-educated audience require in-depth coverage,
description of more sophisticated functions
• Internet helps…
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Phase 5: Testing

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Phase 5: Testing
• Walking in user's shoes – before the user does so
• Main questions
– When to test
– What to test
– How to test
– When to stop testing
• But the crucial question is: can testing give us
complete confidence in the product?
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More on testing
• Different types of testing: functional, content
testing, collateral materials testing, user testing
• Different timing: alpha, beta, user testing
• Test plan with relevant information on
– Schedule
– Resources
– Testing environment
– Deliverables
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Phase 6: Distribution

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Phase 6: Distribution

• Activities related to:

– Preparation and duplication of physical media
– Choosing distribution options and channels
– Marketing
– Sales

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Options and Channels
• Publishers • Mail order catalogs
• Affiliated label program • Distributors
• Self-publishing • Retailers
• Education and government markets
• Content-specific stores
• Direct mail
• Bundling

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Marketing

• Public relations – press releases, press kits, trade

shows
• Promotions
• Advertising
• Meetings, presentations and negotiations
• Sales calls
• Product demonstrations
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Phase 7: Follow-up

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Phase 7: Follow-up

• Development wrap-up
• Maintenance
• Training
• Documentation
• Customer relations
• Pursuing additional opportunities

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Development Wrap-up

• To determine the actual schedule and costs and

compare them against the original estimates
• To find out ways in which the process (and
subsequent products) could be improved
• In other words: how we did it, and what have we
learned by doing it (that coul dhelp us fare better
next time)

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Customer Support

• Providing assistance to customers and clients in

response to specific problems and inquiries
• Internet helps here as well …
• Main activities:
– Maintenance
– Training
• Multimedia titles generally need little support

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Maintenance Classification

• Maintenance: managing the operation and use of a

product once it has gone into distribution
• Different classifications possible
– According to strategy (preventive vs. Defensive)
– According to type of changes introduced (corrective,
perfective, or adaptive)

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Training

• Teaching and educating an audience about the

purpose and use of a product
• Training equips users to be self-sufficient with a
product – reduces users’ need for support
• Consequently, training should reduce the cost of
supporting the product

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User Feedback (What do they think of us?)

• Mail-back registration cards

• Online customer comment forms
• Direct customer contact (e.G., By phone or email)
• Press reviews, and
• Sales statistics

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Pursuing additional opportunities
• Some products are suitable for organizing user groups –
some are not:
– Oracle user group makes sense
– Encarta user group does not (why?)
• New versions or upgrades
• Reuse of the content material in a different publishing
medium
• Creation of companion products

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