Thursday, April 27, 2006
Design principles for audio-visual products
Today I went to an interesting presentation by Dr April Weiss of RMIT University. April completed a PhD by project in 2005 titled The iTour Project: A Study of the Design and Testing of Effective Online Animation Tours as a Form of Interactive Online Documentation. Quite a title ...
Here is my condensed summary of what I found important.
What is an iTour?
Essentially an audio-visual object that uses animation to assist in learning how to operate software products. It seems to me that the iTour is a subcategory of the broader group of audio-visual objects that include digital story telling.
Software and Product Quality
April started her Masters in 1997 and converted to a doctorate in 2001, some light years ago in terms of software available for iTour products. Her group used Macromedia Director, Flash and supporting softwares. The products were centrally produced by a production team. Therefore the product is of a technical quality that one would expect of organisation development.
Today there are simple and readily availble software that allow teachers to develop practitioner based audio-visual objects. These include Microsoft PhotoStory, Windows Movie Maker. To capture screen animation one can use the freely available Camstudio or purchase products such as Captivate or Camtasia.
11 Main iTour Design Principles
1. Aim for clarity, conciseness and minimalistic approach - keep the iTour short and focused on the task.
2. Ensure the iTour is understandable, helpful and approachable.
3. Provide sufficient navigational control and orientation information so the user knows where they are, where they can go, and how to get there; plus when the iTour has started and finished.
4. The iTour should be chunked, well organised and consistent.
5. Visual interface should be easy to see, run at an appropriate speed and move smoothly.
6. Aural interface should be easy to listen to, using a voice to which the user can relate.
7. Consider accessibility first, not last, such as building redundancy into iTour.
8. The demonstration should show the user around the software, or how to use the software, and so should match the software being demonstrated
9. The components should be well integrated; one step of the instruction should be seen in a text box and heard if there is a voice-over; then it is followed by the demonstration, in which the cursor or highlighting is used to show areas of interest.
10 The result should be searchable. At least give the user control so they can move around the iTour.
11. Ensure that the iTour is error free and not frustrating. In short test, test, test - test the functionality, test the usability, test the accessibility, test on the environment where the iTour will run.
Here is my condensed summary of what I found important.
What is an iTour?
Essentially an audio-visual object that uses animation to assist in learning how to operate software products. It seems to me that the iTour is a subcategory of the broader group of audio-visual objects that include digital story telling.
Software and Product Quality
April started her Masters in 1997 and converted to a doctorate in 2001, some light years ago in terms of software available for iTour products. Her group used Macromedia Director, Flash and supporting softwares. The products were centrally produced by a production team. Therefore the product is of a technical quality that one would expect of organisation development.
Today there are simple and readily availble software that allow teachers to develop practitioner based audio-visual objects. These include Microsoft PhotoStory, Windows Movie Maker. To capture screen animation one can use the freely available Camstudio or purchase products such as Captivate or Camtasia.
11 Main iTour Design Principles
1. Aim for clarity, conciseness and minimalistic approach - keep the iTour short and focused on the task.
2. Ensure the iTour is understandable, helpful and approachable.
3. Provide sufficient navigational control and orientation information so the user knows where they are, where they can go, and how to get there; plus when the iTour has started and finished.
4. The iTour should be chunked, well organised and consistent.
5. Visual interface should be easy to see, run at an appropriate speed and move smoothly.
6. Aural interface should be easy to listen to, using a voice to which the user can relate.
7. Consider accessibility first, not last, such as building redundancy into iTour.
8. The demonstration should show the user around the software, or how to use the software, and so should match the software being demonstrated
9. The components should be well integrated; one step of the instruction should be seen in a text box and heard if there is a voice-over; then it is followed by the demonstration, in which the cursor or highlighting is used to show areas of interest.
10 The result should be searchable. At least give the user control so they can move around the iTour.
11. Ensure that the iTour is error free and not frustrating. In short test, test, test - test the functionality, test the usability, test the accessibility, test on the environment where the iTour will run.
# posted by Ian @ 5:03 AM 
