General | Design | Tools | Programming | From Practitioners  FROM PRACTITIONERS: Tips from actual experts in the field of of interactive multimedia, including programmers, artists, instructional designers, and project managers.   A WORD FROM THE EXPERIENCED: GENERAL: Multimedia is not the perfect solution for every problem - you need to consider if your presentation of ideas and your final end product is going to be benefited by using this technology. Be able to say you're sorry, you misunderstood, you made a mistake. Be willing to learn from your mistakes and be willing to ask for help. Work on projects from which you can have some degree of care and respect. During stressful times of long hours, it will help to have a product that you believe has some value. WORKING ON A TEAM: Multimedia is usually developed in a team environment. It requires a team of specialists who can hold onto the vision of the final product and what is best for the product as a whole. You must decide which part of the team suits you best. Keep communication channels open. WORKING WITH A CLIENT: Try to understand the client's perspective. Do everything you can to define all the issues and goals related to the product (i.e. marketing considerations, classroom configurations, coordination with textbook adoption, etc.). Set limits on the scope of the product in the bid and in the initial design documents. This can easily turn into a list of features that will not be included. Try to find a positive way to present the limits so it doesn't come across as negative. Make sure the client understands that the cost of changes goes up as you move through the development process. Set time limits on client reviews so you can maintain your schedule. Plan to do 2-3 versions of each design document. Start design documents with broad strokes, get the client to review each version, and move toward greater levels of detail with each iteration. Make sure all decision-makers at the client company review all design documents. Get signed approval at pre-defined points throughout the development process. Make sure the client understands what is being approved as final and what (if anything) can continue to change. PLANNING: Remain flexible. Be prepared to accept decisions that you disagree with. The more planning up front, the better, just like any other project and most anything you undertake in life. The more you sort of anticipate possible problems and the more you plan for things at the front - the better is - because if your problems accumulate at the end, it becomes very difficult to deal with. You want to try to hit all of your problems early. Planning, as much preplanning as you can do, will save you a lot of grief. There is a 9 to 10 rule. Supposedly when you have 10% left to do, you really have to do 90% of it - because that is when the major problems happen. So, try to stay ahead of your schedule! Be realistic about time when you are planning! Account for problems to happen along the way, so make your timeline flexible. Plan time for revisions at every phase of the development process. Try to engender an attitude among production staff that revisions are normal. Plan revision cycles into the graphics and code production schedules. DESIGN: Make the navigation and interface of the program effortless to use. Make the interface functionality obvious. Keep global navigation (controls available on every screen) separate from screen-specific navigation or controls. MEDIA: It's a visual medium. Think visually and avoid screens of bulleted or scrolling text. Also, audio can enhance a program tremendously--but not "wall-to-wall" narration. Think of sound effects, music, and limited narration for emphasis. It's an interactive medium. Think interactively. "Check in" with students frequently, have them do something meaningful to process the new content every few screens, if not every screen. Programs need to run well. When they crash, perform sluggishly, do erratic things, it impacts credibility, to say nothing of destroying the learning moment. Design the interactive experience all the way through. PRODUCTION: This stuff is complicated to produce. Don't underestimate what it will take to produce even a simple CD-ROM or Web site. Start small and build on your successes. Begin script writing ASAP; this will alleviate bottlenecks later and force the design to be thought through and tightened up. TESTING: If you are creating multimedia for multiple platforms, test early on both Mac and PC - whatever your end platforms are going to be. Resource : West, C. Farmer, J. & Wolff, P. Instructional design: Implications from the cognitive sciences. Needham Heights, MA.: Allyn & Bacon. - Return to Top - Multimedia Best Practices University of Texas System Comments to g.culp@cc.utexas.edu