Artifact: Media Content
Media Content includes all audio and visual aspects of an application's user interface, including all formats of any given instance, from source material to final production format.
Domains: Deployment
Purpose
The purpose of Media Content is to enrich the experience of the user interface and the application's output, enhancing its aesthetic experience, usability, ease of understanding, and brand awareness. Audio and visual cues help the user to learn and anticipate the effects of application controls. Learning, comprehension, and retention are increased by reinforcement through multiple media types: text, graphics, audio, and video. Finally, brand and aesthetics can only be represented effectively through rich media applications.
Description
Main Description

Work products of this description are created throughout the development process, through acquisition, digitization, creative development, reformatting, compositing, and editing. In many applications, such as those designed for information delivery, the output of the application is represented as Media Content. This description includes, but is not limited to:

  • Still images, electronic or printed
  • Sound effects
  • Music
  • Speech and dialog
  • Animations, 2-D and 3-D
  • Video
  • Film
Key Considerations
  • Archive Media Content at each stage of development because tasks in later stages usually require Media Content from earlier stages as input.
  • Perform digitization and compression as late in the development process as possible to retain the highest quality work products.
  • There is, at times, a fuzzy line between Media Content and data. As a rule of thumb, Media Content represents data. For example, data may be used in a financial account statement to create a chart, and the graphics that make up that chart would be called Media Content.
  • The following are visual Media Content design principles that promote clarity and visual simplicity in the user interface:
    • Subtractive design - Reduce clutter by eliminating any visual element that doesn't contribute directly to visual communication.
    • Visual hierarchy - By understanding the importance of users' tasks, establish a hierarchy of these tasks visually. An important object can be given extra visual prominence. Relative position and contrast in color and size can be used.
    • Affordance - When users can easily determine the action that should be taken with an object, that object displays good affordance. Objects with good affordance usually mimic real world objects.
    • Visual scheme - Design a visual scheme that maps to the user model and lets the user customize the interface. Do not eliminate extra space in your image just to save space. Use white space to provide visual "breathing room."
  • Seek feedback from end users that the Media Content is intuitive and aesthetically appealing and is implemented in a consistent style across presentation screens and/or devices.
Tailoring
Impact of not havingIn the absence of Media Content, the development team will build a traditional text-based user interface. In today's competitive market, a relevant, compelling online experience is often critical to the success of an application. Not leveraging the advantage that different media affords, forces the development team to limit the application's effectiveness and risk creating a non-competitive solution and dissatisfying customers.
Reasons for not needingThe application does not require a graphical user interface, video, or audio components. It does not need to represent the organization's brand image.
Representation Options

Media Content comes in many formats. Typical formats for source material and finished products are listed in the table below:



Source Material

Finished Product

Still Images

Photographic prints, slides, transparencies, PhotoShop PSDs

.GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .WMF

Sound Effects, Music, Speech

CD, DVD, 1" Master, ½" Master, DAT

.WAV, .AU, .MPG, .RM

Animations, 2-D

Director .DIR, Animation cells, Softimage

Shockwave, Flash, SGI

Animations, 3-D

3-D Studio, Alias/Wavefront, Softimage, After Effects, Flint, Flash

.AVI, Animated .GIF, .MOV, Digital Composite modules