Unit 11

Interactive Multimedia Products

Task A Product Review –

Review Criteria

For each CD that you review you need to use the following headings in a word processed report:

Intended audience. Impact that the product has on the audience. Skills used to create an atmosphere. Product appropriateness. Communicating a message. Content Presentation. User Interaction.

Intended audience.

Explain who you think the CD is aimed at e.g. young children, teenagers, parents, adults etc.

You must give reasons why you think the CD is aimed at that audience e.g. is it the colour scheme, images, font styles etc.

Impact on audience

What do you think the CD has been designed for?

To give information. To shock. To amuse. To entertain. As learning tool. Training.

Explain using examples why you have come to your decisions.

Skills Used to create Atmosphere

What skills have been used in the CD?

Examples Choice of music. Sound effects. Lighting. Font styles/sizes/colours. Background Colours. Animations. Pace of animations. Video clips.

For each skill discuss whether you think it is effective or not with reasons why!

Product appropriateness

You need to discuss whether the product is appropriate for the audience & the purpose it has been designed for.

Discussion Points Is the content appropriate for the audience? Is it suitable for the age of audience. Language used – is it appropriate. Images used. Music used. Sound effects used. Video clips. Colour schemes. Text styles & sizes. Navigation.

Communicating a message

For the CD you need to decide what message it is trying to get across.

Is the message positive or negative? Is the message designed to amuse, shock,

entertain or inform? The audience should understand and

remember the message – will they?

Content

You need to comment on the content of the information on the CD.

Comment on: Text – is it suitable Photographs – colour, b/w, quality, size Images – size, position Videos – quality, length Animations – quality, type, colours Music/Sound effects – appropriate Navigation Buttons – position, size, colour Hot spots – position, size, suitable Changes in content – is it too quick for audience to process? Types of effects used – too many/not enough?

Presentation

You need to comment on the way the information is presented on the CD.

Will the information suit the audience? Is the information clear to read/follow? Are there any errors? Is the text style/size/colour good? Is there too much or not enough

information on a page? Page layout.

User Interaction

You need to comment on how users can interact with the CD content.

Does the interaction suit target audience & purpose? Can Users select areas they are interested in on the CD or

do they have to go through it all? How easy is it to navigate around the pages? Different users have different levels of skill has this been

thought of? Is there a search facility? Are short cut keys used as well as a mouse? Are menus used? Are Buttons, Hyperlinks & hotspots used? Is there a help facility? Can you search it? Is there a quiz or test? Are there any games?

Design Influences

To get the highest marks you now need to:-

Explain fully how each multimedia CD has influenced the design of your product.

Explain what features from the CD’s you have reviewed will you include in your product design and why.

Describe any design decisions you have come to based on elements that you found in the commercially produced products. This could be ones you did not like but with some improvements you would use them.

Report Structure

Use the sub headings you have been given. Insert page numbers. An Introduction to explain what CD’s you have

chosen to review & why you chose them.