IT82: Assignment

The assignment handout is available in its original PDF format here.

New Information (last update: 25th April)
The Brief
Assignment Submission
Helpful Notes

New Information

25th April:: The colours on this page have been changed so that it is now printable!
25th April:: Use the program WinZip to archive your files (Start->Programs->WinZip->WinZip 7.0). There is an online Help manual if you have not used the program before. Basically all you have to do is create a new archive file and add all the files that you want included into it.
23rd April:: REMEMBER: all files that need collecting for your presentation should be in the folder "home"\IT82\AssignMM (where "home" is your home folder) by the collection time - 5pm Thursday, April 26th (unless told otherwise). Ideally, everything should be in a single WinZIP file. Make sure you provide everything needed to run the presentation. This may be just a single Director projector file, for example, BUT check that it works.
23rd April:: The demonstration version of Authorware only allows the use of 50 icons. If you are using this for your presentation, and need to use more than 50 icons, simply produce two (or more) presentation files, each containing different sections of you presentation. Detail in your report, and in a README file in your presentation folder, how the different presentations relate to each other, and how a fully integrated presentation would actually run.
23rd March:: A simple example of "button clicking" navigation in Director is to be found in Groups on Wide\IT82\Examples\ExampNav. Copy this entire folder to your file space then investigate the movie (.dir file) to see how it works - pay attention to the behaviours added to the image sprites on the two screens, and the "Hold on current frame" behaviours added to the script channel to stop the movie on particular frames.
22nd March:: The report and the prototype will have equal weight in the assessment.
The report should not be too long: around 10 pages or less, including all diagrams. Reports may be longer than this if you have many and large storyboards and other diagrams. Storyboards can be hand-drawn, provided they are neat!

The Brief

You are required to design and build a prototype Multimedia presentation. This presentation must follow the following criteria:

It must be made in a multimedia presentation tool (i.e. NOT Macromedia Flash or HTML). Options include:
Director, Authorware, PowerPoint
(if you feel you wish to use Powerpoint or another authoring tool besides Director or Authorware, clear it with me FIRST!)
The presentation must include:
1. Text elements
2. Images: still and/or AVI movies
3. Simple animation
4. Audio tracks
5. Interactivity
The topics for the presentation are (Choose ONE):
1. A tourist's view of Stirling
2. William Wallace, or other historical figure
3. What every IT student needs to know about the University of Stirling
4. Hobbies
5. An interactive course eg learn the guitar etc
6. An introduction to a software package
7. Another topic of your choice (CLEAR IT WITH ME!)
The Deadline is 5pm Thursday 26th April.

You may work alone, or in groups of 2 or 3. However, groups will be expected to achieve more BUT will not receive extra marks for doing so. In any case, you MUST submit an individually written report.

By Friday 23rd March you must have emailed me (b.graham@cs.stir.ac.uk) your topic (subject to approval) and, if your working in a group, who with.

Assignment submission

There are TWO components to the hand-in for the assignment: (a) a report, and (b) the presentation itself.

THE REPORT - The report should contain the following:

A description of the general concept of the presentation - What is it? Who is it aimed at? How would you deliver it? etc.
Storyboards, navigation maps and general design choices for the presentation
A simple task analysis of your prototype
A description of what the full product would contain
A plan of the testing (functionality, usability) you would use
A list of all sources for any media used in the prototype (i.e. web addresses, references scanned from etc)
Make sure you have stated the name of the "Zipped" presentation file on your report and that you are identified on the report.

SUBJECT TO CONFIRMATION: This report should be placed in the box, outside 4B94, with the IT82 label by 5pm on Thursday, April 26th.

THE PRESENTATION PROTOTYPE:

SUBJECT TO CONFIRMATION: This will be delivered by utilising the WinZip utility program and producing a single Zip file containing the following:

All the media (graphic, audio, video etc) files
The presentation development file (e.g. the editable movie in Director i.e. the ".dir" file, or the ".a4p" file for Authorware, or the ".ppt" file for Powerpoint)
The deliverable presentation, if possible (e.g. a Projector or Shockwave movie in Director ie. the ".exe" or ".dcr" file) (NOTE: this is not possible using the demonstration version of Authorware available in the labs).
Any Xtras or additional files as required to run the presentation
A Read.me containing any information on requirements when playing the movie (e.g. which browser or plugins required to view online).

You should preserve any directory structure within the Zip file. Details of how you are to submit your Zip file will be given later.

NOTES ON REPORT AND PROTOTYPE

Design big BUT build small! The report should detail the design of a potentially complete multimedia presentation, but the prototype will only be a partial implementation of this.
Treat the assignment as a "commercial" exercise: you have a deadline for producing your design and prototype (i.e. the assignment submission date) and you have a "budget" - it is worth 35% of your overall marks for IT82. Use these criteria to determine how long you should spend on the assignment and how much to produce.
Your report should detail a consistent design process, such as the approach given in lectures.
The prototype should meet the following criteria:
- Show examples of all presentation styles to be used in the final product.
- Use examples of all types of navigation to be employed.
- Clearly indicate when material is missing or will be different in the final system e.g. never have a clickable button that does nothing! At least have a popup text box describing what should happen.
The emphasis in the prototype is NOT on the quality of media you have available, but on the sensible integration of different media (text, graphics, animation etc) and the usability of the system (e.g. is it easily navigable). So DO NOT spend long on producing original media. Where you would use different media in the final product, this should be indicated in the prototype (e.g. a still image in place of a video, with some text indicating this).
You may be able to find suitable media on the Web, or in books, magazines etc. In addition, we have a number (20) of disposable cameras available for FREE (processing NOT included) if you wish to take photos - please ask Graham or Sam (the computing officers) for one, telling them that you want it for IT82; PLEASE DO NOT get one if you do not need it, as numbers are limited!!
Capturing video clips from videotape, for example, is beyond the scope of this exercise (we do not have the facilities in the department, for a start!).
You have LIMITED file space, so use suitable compressed file formats and graphics resolutions of 72dpi at most (JPEG is good for photographic images, GIF for drawings). Video or sound clips will have to be VERY SHORT (you can always play them repetitively).
Common sound file formats are ".au", ".aif", ".aiff", ".wav", ".mp3". Check whether to authoring tool you want to use can import particular file types before spending time collecting such files (Director will import all these, for example). The program, CoolEdit, will allow you to convert between formats, if you have to. It will also record from CD, to extract music clips, or from a microphone, for voiceovers etc. CoolEdit is available in the labs (we will use it in the second half of the course, BUT after the assignment is due!). If you would like to do a voiceover, see me to arrange a time to get a microphone plugged into one of the computers. Free programs such as RealPlayer will also allow recording from CDs to MP3 files.
A CD containing demonstration versions of many of the software packages used in IT82 is available for borrowing from Graham or Sam, so that you can install them on your computer at home. There are limited copies of the CD, so you may have to wait to borrow one.

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