Development of a Multimedia Application - Literature review Example

?Development of a Multimedia Application: A Literature Review By Introduction The importance of latest technology based multimedia applications is increasing with the passage of time. At the present, innovative user interfaces holding different kinds of media categories are utilized for different purposes, for example in training or simulation software as well as in various other types of applications. Additionally, the computer games are another significant instance of this technology usage. Usually, the development of multimedia systems and applications requires utilizing specific authoring systems/tools or programming languages. In this scenario, ActionScript, Flash and Director are some of the important tools those can be utilized for the development of multimedia applications. In addition, this development process requires high-level efforts of developers. However, there is lack of appropriate concepts and methodologies sustaining software engineering standards intended for the development of this kind of projects. Moreover, maintainability and reusability are frequently ignored in these projects. In the same way, there are no ideas that are necessary for a suitable design phase of multimedia application development. Furthermore, the majority of present authoring tools and software offer inadequate support for creating the multimedia applications (Maurer, 2011), (Turban et al., 2005) and (Georganas, 1997). Web and Multimedia Technology It is necessary for the web designers that they always take care of their customers because a pleased customer will come back to the web designer for another assignment; on the other hand one who is unhappy with the final product is probable to shop elsewhere. In view of the fact that the multimedia appears to be a high price tag, thus it should be utilized carefully and judiciously. Additionally, majority of web designers make use of the visual effects or moving components on the page in an attempt to catch the users’ awareness. Basically, this idea is foundational upon the statement that web users have small awareness spans, which in a lot of cases might be true. However, the ultimate choice in this scenario is not to include unnecessary "eye candy" to the web interfaces, that can actually take a great deal of the user's awareness and divert their interest from the most important content or elements of the web page. Thus, while making the selection or incorporating media to their web pages, web designers should think about the basic theme and nature of our materials. Moreover, web designers should incorporate animations, images, video, or sound into the web pages simply when they match with web site’s message (Lynch & Horton, 2004), (Martinez et al., 1998) and (Rahman 2002, p.232). Furthermore, web designers should also keep in mind that there are also several technical restrictions to the deliverance of audiovisual content through the web. For instance, large-size videos and videos demanding flat movement or understandable information would need huge amount of bandwidth to be transmitted from one computer to another as well as can charge the playback capability of the user's computer. In this scenario, web designers can utilize the techniques of down-sampling and data compression to produce a file that is of minimum size and small enough to be transported through the web. However, in many scenarios, this compromised data and information can be too important to demand more effort. In addition, when web designers are deciding to incorporate multimedia to the web pages, they must confirm that the technology is able to convene the requirements of web content. Moreover, web designers should make sure that the users spend minimum time and energy in downloading files that would be the best use of the technology (Lynch & Horton, 2004), (Martinez et al., 1998) and (Rahman, 2002, p.232). Web Design Web design is the process of planning and developing the websites. This process consist of various elements such as data and information structure, site structure, user interface, web layout, navigation, fonts, colors and pictures. Additionally, these all elements are joined by using standards of design to make a website that fulfills the requirements and objectives of web site owner, web designer and users. In addition, the process of web design is utilized as an across-the-board idea to explain a variety of jobs concerned in producing a web page. However, the basic aim of web design is to build the front-end of an online web-page. Normally, a web site is composed of several pages, presenting data and information by means of various technologies as well as connected jointly via hyperlinks. However, a web site that can be visited on the internet has two fundamental characteristics. The initial characteristic is its interface that a user uses in order to interacts with the web site, typically visually, and the second is a back-end of the web site that encompasses information intended for non-human browsers (Kyrnin, 2011) and (McGuigan, 2011). In addition, HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the fundamental markup language utilized to notify a web browser how to offer data and information. In this scenario, the newest version of HTML is acknowledged as XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language), which is also utilized to develop web sites. Additionally, a web designer can use HTML or XHTML to notify a web browser how a website page should come into view when a user visits the link. However, with the passage of time the trends of web development are changing since web designers are focusing on the visual appearance of the website (using CSS or Cascading Style Sheets). In addition, this technique offers numerous advantages in the short and long term, and is becoming more popular with the passage of time (Kyrnin, 2011) and (McGuigan, 2011). Moreover, every web site is developed in order to fulfill some specific goals thus it is extremely significant to keep those goals in mind while selecting a best design for a website. Additionally, every web page of the website should steadily deliver the message for which it is built as well as the services a company offers. In addition, the navigation among different web links should effectively be considered as well as arranged contributing to the user behavior and the majority of them should be straightforward in its implementation (SmallBusinessFriends, 2011) and (Dix et al., 2003). Now I will discuss some of the important characteristics that make a high-quality website design: Eye-catching look and feel: A web site should be attractive in its design so that it could get the attentions of the users. However, many small attributes similar to look and feel specify a long method when it appears to making sure accomplishment for our website (SmallBusinessFriends, 2011) and (Dix et al., 2003). Easy to use: User friendliness is one of the central attributes when it appears to deflecting traffic onto our website. According to various researches, a website that is user friendly is able to attract more users as compared to a website that is not that simple in its design (SmallBusinessFriends, 2011) and (Dix et al., 2003). Clear and accurate operations: The basic purpose of designing a website is to demonstrate the business objectives thus it has to accurately describe the services the website presents. Moreover, the instant a user visits our website; he should be capable to measure our website’s working and processes instantly (SmallBusinessFriends, 2011) and (Dix et al., 2003). Consistent: All the pages of a web site should steadily represent their fundamental theme. In addition, the reliability is always helpful for web designers in formulating a brand image of their website in front of a user (SmallBusinessFriends, 2011) and (Dix et al., 2003). Simple navigation: A high-quality website for all time waits for user behavior since a high-quality website better knows what a client expects. In addition, a high-quality design encompasses well-organized navigation, one that directs to suitable areas as well as offers the user the information he is searching for (SmallBusinessFriends, 2011) and (Dix et al., 2003). Multimedia Development One of the most important features of the web site is that users do not for all time identify where they are going or what they will discover there. In this scenario, for a number of users it is exciting. On the other hand, many of them will feel it irritating, mainly when a long wait is drawn in. Additionally, most annoying situation possibly will be when a user lastly finds the desired page from a number of pages and come to know that it is not what he anticipated or that it holds materials in a layout that is impossible for him to understand or use. Moreover, the content that technologically requires multi-media, it is particularly significant to offer the users sufficient information to formulate a well-versed decision before they click of the desire link, so that they could imagine that what to anticipate and are ready to receive their desired content (Lynch & Horton, 2004) and (Lynch & Horton, 2002).. In addition, the heavy content like that huge multimedia files should not be element of our fundamental page design. Additionally, these materials could be placed in secondary pages that can be retrieved from the main page of our website. In this scenario, web designers should make the menu page a plain HTML page that appears rapidly on user request as well as does not necessitate particular software. In addition, web designers should also add explanatory information regarding the materials along with previews like that new shots from the video. Web designers should also make use of the run time for running time-based media, as well as add the file size for materials that download. Moreover, web designer should completely explain some particular software needs for retrieving the content as well as offer a download link for that software. Furthermore, using a menu interface, web site users are able to acknowledge that their applications are correctly installed as well as that they have sufficient time, bandwidth and patience to load the website materials (Lynch & Horton, 2004) and (Lynch & Horton, 2002). However, this conventional debate of multimedia concerns requires one significant capability. For instance, if a website is designed for an open audience and not for worldwide people we will certainly have additional flexibility and are able to inquire more from our users. In this scenario, we can suggest them to make use of a specific browser software and plug-ins, as well as we are able to incorporate data-intensive multimedia components in our layout. For instance, if we are going to design an academic web site in this scenario our audience will be a group of faculty and students with particular interests. Thus, we will need to develop a custom website that completely tackles their interests, consequently purpose should describe form. On the other hand, a web site for foreign-language educational could hold higher bandwidth intensive video and audio elements with the intention that the students who visit the website will make use of these multimedia elements to develop their language learning skills. Since our audience is identified and fixed, thus we are able to take some necessary actions to make sure that they identify what to anticipate and are ready when they visit a website (Lynch & Horton, 2004) and (Lynch & Horton, 2002). Mudpy Methodology Online teaching and learning has attained fame in the previous few years because many more people are able to get access to the online education. This is the basic reason of development of a lot of web based teaching systems that are foundational upon ontologies. In this scenario, MUDPY (Multimedia Design and Planning Pyramid) model is a meta-design structure that helps web developers in development of multimedia projects. Additionally, the MUDPY model is established on the semantic web by formulating ontology for it. In addition, MUDPY ontology can be helpful for developers to build up intelligent tools that are able to guide the students in the course of the multimedia design and planning. MUDPY Methodology is a meta-design structure that helps in the building the multimedia content for standalone and online multimedia appearances and systems (Jakkilinki et al., 2010). However, at the present MUDPY methodology is applied for the semantic web by building ontology for it. MUDPY ontology is considered as a theme designed for the domain of multimedia planning and design. Additionally, it outlines the ideas which exist in this domain along with their features and associations among them. In addition, this ontology directs the system developers throughout design and planning stages of a project in a systematic style by permitting them to produce a project proposal, make out the practical system development requirements, formulate a decision on the navigational structure and produce a storyboard intended for the project. Moreover, multimedia project developers are able to make use of MUDPY ontology to map out and design their projects; as a result they can produce high-quality projects (Sharda, 2004) and (Jakkilinki et al., 2010). MUDPY offers a theoretical structure for understating multimedia authoring procedure, as well as allows the developers to divide the whole development process into 5 levels. Additionally, the clear acknowledgment of these levels and their operations of a variety of design mechanism that encompass the MUDPY model facilitates in creating significant multimedia. In this scenario, the requirements encompass the tasks that the system has to carry out. Therefore, while collecting requirements developers have to eliminate the requirements which are not strong. However, this is never a simple job. Furthermore, it is their duty to confirm that any compelling requirement is not left out (Net Industries, 2011), (Sharda, 2004) and (Jakkilinki et al., 2010). Conclusion At the present, innovative user interfaces holding different kinds of media categories are utilized for different purposes, for example in training or simulation software as well as in various other types of applications. Web design is the process of planning and developing the websites. This process consist of various elements such as data and information structure, site structure, user interface, web layout, navigation, fonts, colors and pictures. MUDPY (Multimedia Design and Planning Pyramid) model is a meta-design structure that helps web developers in development of multimedia projects. Additionally, the MUDPY model is established on the semantic web by formulating ontology for it. This literature review has presented a detailed overview of website design, Multimedia technology and MUDPY methodology. This paper has shown MUDPY methodology is helpful for the designers in designing an effective web site. Bibliography Dix, A., Finlay, A.J.E., Abowd, G.D. & Beale, R., 2003. Human-Computer Interaction. 3rd ed. Prentice Hall. Georganas, N.D., 1997. Multimedia Applications Development: Experiences. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 4(3), pp.313-32. Jakkilinki, R., Sharda, N. & Georgievski, M., 2010. Abstract Developing an Ontology for Teaching Multimedia Design and Planning. [Online] Available at: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.89.5195 [Accessed 24 June 2011]. Kyrnin, J., 2011. What is Web Design. [Online] Available at: http://webdesign.about.com/od/webdesign/qt/what-is-web-design.htm [Accessed 23 June 2011]. Lynch & Horton, 2002. Design and multimedia. [Online] Available at: http://webstyleguide.com/wsg2/multimedia/design.html [Accessed 26 June 2011]. Lynch & Horton, 2004. Applications for multimedia. [Online] Available at: http://webstyleguide.com/wsg2/multimedia/applications.html [Accessed 22 June 2011]. Martinez, J.M., Bescos, J. & Cisneros, G., 1998. Developing Multimedia Applications: System Modeling and Implementation. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 6(3), pp.239-62. Maurer, M., 2011. Development of Multimedia Applications. [Online] Available at: http://www.medien.ifi.lmu.de/forschung/mma/ [Accessed 21 June 2011]. McGuigan, B., 2011. What Is Web Design? [Online] Available at: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-web-design.htm [Accessed 24 June 2011]. Net Industries, 2011. Multimedia Design and Planning Pyramid (MUDPY). [Online] Available at: http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6808/Multimedia-Design-and-Planning-Pyramid-MUDPY.html [Accessed 26 June 2011]. Rahman, S.M., 2002. Interactive Multimedia Systems. Irm Press. Sharda, N., 2004. E-Learning Lecture Series. [Online] Available at: http://dbis.rwth-aachen.de/cms/projects/PROLEARN/mudpy-ontology-an-innovative-tool-for-multimedia-project-development [Accessed 25 June 2011]. SmallBusinessFriends, 2011. What is a Good Website Design? [Online] Available at: http://smallbusinessfriends.com/web-design/what-is-a-good-website-design [Accessed 24 June 2011]. Turban, E., Leidner, D., McLean, E. & Wetherbe, J., 2005. Information Technology for Management: Transforming Organizations in the Digital Economy. New York: Wiley. Read More