Multimedia application development life cycle

A multimedia application development life cycle is the ordered set of phases a team follows to take a multimedia product from an initial idea to a delivered, maintained product. It is similar to the software life cycle, but it has an extra stage for collecting and creating media content (text, audio, images, video, animation).

 Conceptualisation / Analysis
            |
         Design  <-------------+
            |                  |
 Content collection & creation |  feedback
            |                  |
 Authoring / Implementation    |
            |                  |
         Testing  -------------+
            |
 Delivery (CD, web, kiosk)
            |
        Maintenance

Phases

1. Conceptualisation and analysis. Identify the need, the target audience, the purpose (teach, inform, sell, entertain), the platform, budget, time and team. Output: a project proposal and a feasibility study.
2. Design. Decide the content outline, navigation structure and look and feel. Typical outputs are a flowchart of screens, a storyboard (sketch of each screen with media and interaction), a script, and the interface design (menus, buttons, colour, fonts).
3. Content collection and creation. Gather or produce all media elements: write text, record and edit audio, shoot video, scan or draw images, build animations. Convert them to suitable formats and compress them.
4. Authoring (implementation). Integrate the media into a single product with an authoring tool (Adobe Director, Flash/Animate, Authorware, Toolbook) or a programming language. Links, timing, synchronisation and interactivity are added here.
5. Testing. Check that the product works as specified: functionality, links, media quality, synchronisation, speed, and compatibility on target machines. Usability tests with real users are done. Errors send the team back to design or authoring.
6. Delivery. Package and release the product on CD/DVD, web server, kiosk or mobile app, with an installer and user guide.
7. Maintenance and evaluation. Fix errors, update content and release new versions based on user feedback.

Example: an interactive "Learn Nepali History" CD

• Concept: a CD for school students, covering kings and events with pictures and narration.
• Design: storyboard of each chapter screen, main menu with timeline navigation.
• Content: scan old photographs, record narration in a studio, draw maps, make short animations of battles.
• Authoring: assemble in Flash/Director with a Next/Back button and quiz at the end of each chapter.
• Testing: run on Windows machines in a lab, check audio-video sync and quiz scoring.
• Delivery: master CD with an auto-run installer; Maintenance: update the content for the next syllabus.

Key points of the cycle

• The process is iterative: problems found in testing or reviews send the team back to design or content creation, so phases overlap.
• Documents produced at each stage (proposal, storyboard, flowchart, media asset list, test report) allow the client to approve work before the next stage, which controls cost.
• Team roles: project manager, content/subject expert, instructional or graphic designer, audio and video producers, programmer/author and tester.
• Prototyping: a small working sample of the main screens is often built after design so the client can judge the look and navigation early.
• Documentation and user help are prepared before delivery, with a readme and installation guide.
• Risk areas: copyright of media, file size against storage or bandwidth, and playback differences between computers.