Planning a multimedia project

Creating a multimedia project is a substantial undertaking. A successful result depends on the time and effort that you invest up front while planning effective ways in which your project can achieve its intended goals. We have found it useful to carefully write down a concrete topic, audience, purpose, approach, and metaphor for your project. It is even more helpful to hang the completed list above your computer as continual reminder of what you are doing. Without such a reminder, you are all too likely to find yourselves in the position of the author of a novel who let his characters get away from him, taking the novel in a direction that the author never intended. (A review in The New Yorker suggests that best-selling author Kenneth Starr now finds himself in this embarrassing position.) Getting caught up in solving difficult multimedia problems and polishing interesting special effects can cause you to produce an ineffective result, which is even worse than missing deadlines.

Here is an example of a list of reminders for a multimedia project:

Topic - How to find a suitable restaurant in Binghamton, New York
Audience - Women over 60
Purpose - Educate the audience on suitable restaurants
Approach - Humorous
Metaphor - A map of the Binghamton area

Whereas the first three items may be pretty much given, your creativity can be evident in selecting the last two. The approach controls the experience that your project will deliver to a user. If you fail to decide on (and stick to) a suitable approach, you are likely to find that the approach that develops is inappropriate for the intended audience, especially if you yourself are not a member of that audience. The metaphor is an overall concept, theme, or setting that gives a user a sense of visual coherence while using the project. A map could form the background image on every page of the project, continually highlighting the location of whatever restaurant the rest of the page describes. If you fail to provide some consistency throughout your project, a user is likely to become disoriented, which seriously decreases the chance that the user will have the experience that you intended.

The next step in planning your project is to think about what media will effectively communicate your topic to your intended audience. However, you need to do more than just think. Nothing is more effective than asking people who are in the intended audience. If you have sufficient resources, you could go out and perform a marketing study or hire a company that specializes in performing such studies. However, even on a tight budget, you can't afford to just guess. Ask somebody, even if it is has to be your own grandmother or mother. Bring mock-ups of sample designs with you and ask which are most appealing. Don't leave this important step to chance. You will find changes that you need to make in use of color, sizes of text, volume of music, type of music, type of humor, and so on. You may even find that you need to change your approach or metaphor. On a different level, you may find that you have assumed an unrealistic ability to point with a mouse or type on a keyboard.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic