Most of the aspects of the design process are incorporate into one. Their brief, specifications, storyboard and plans tend to be one document because they don’t have much time to work through a linear iterative process. These aspects help them to work our how long this project will take and it also help them to identify expected outcomes. To design their product they create concept art during meeting with client and evolve the concepts and quickly start implementing the design using design specification because they don’t have time for proper storyboard and design interactions. As they charge on daily rate so time is very important over the life of the project. They think it is necessary to produce a good and relatively detailed specification, because if they do not work according to specification and can not deliver the product that client wanted they will lose money. So they must outline this is exactly what they going to create by producing story board. The storyboard indicates the time they will to require completing the whole project and they can also show it to client so if client does not like any feature or function of the animation, they can change it. At the moment there storyboard is relatively simple. This is a weakness however it does show that an indication of what will happen. I think this stage is important and will try to add the depth required. Instead of changing the whole product at the end of the project if client don’t like it. It will cost them. When they produce storyboard, specification and design brief they consider their user. They look at the user experience especially in an interactive project, if a user is able to deal with this function or not. They also consider accessibility where appropriate (their client tells them usually).
If they require information to create a product then they look for it on internet or ask existing contacts. They usually know their weaknesses and are not afraid to ask, so they asks who are expert in those field or alternatively they research it on internet to find out how to create a particular function.
The major part of their job is to help the client to understand their own needs and developing their brief. They always make sure that the client knows exactly what are they developing and what it will do for them. This is always based on a meeting with client and they let the client see what exactly they going to deliver. That’s the way ensures that the product is fit for purpose so if the end product is not what they wanted, they have known about it for a long time. To make sure that the product is exactly same as client brief, they match the product with design specification constantly because if the product does not matches the specification at the end they have to go back and self evaluate to see where they have make mistake and is it possible to put extra time to make changes. However putting extra time on project affects the progress of other projects. So it is a valuable process for them to recheck and see if they taking it to the right direction and are on schedule. As a business they believe that deliver to your brief not to your idea.
They meet their client several times. Meeting physically can be very expensive and is not included in the budget as well so it cost them and also wastes their time on travelling. They contact their client through email, telephone and video conferencing. They meet with their client quite frequently at early stage to built the specification properly and discuss what functions they have make and at third stage to show the work they have done. Then there are plenty of emails and phone calls at the end, client checks the product against specification. Then there is a sign off meeting mostly through email or phone.
The questions they ask a client are different from client to client. The question depends on the project and the level of client understanding. The big of their job is to collect the right information from the client which they use to implement and deliver a right product. They need to understand the job very quickly so they can explains it to the client in straightforward terms which helps to ensures that the company and client both agree on that’s what they want. Before a work order is signed, they suggest some extra features that client might want to include, it helps them to raise more money. The questions they ask client enable them to see if it is possible for them to develop and what they already know about it. They write down the information from client so they can read it later if they need. The questions they ask help them to produce a good brief and specification.
They create their animation by drawing it or by using the code to perform action. Compare to code the drawing is more time consuming than code. However using the code is complicated and need experience to write appropriate code to perform functions. They combine artwork and functions to produce final product. Depending on the size of the project and amount of the code required, it is worth blocking in graphics at an early stage and getting the functionality sorted. They go back and work on aesthetics once it works. If the aesthetics are a big part then they get the client to sign off on the design whilst they are working on the functionality so the project is not delayed.
In i-education ltd they do not carry out any external testing to test the product but they test everything they create thoroughly in house and then get the client to use it and sign off. So after the end of their involvement; client comes back to them with tweaks based on the feedback. Sometimes this can be done at no charge. They suggest to client a pilot launch is done initially with a small group of users if it is an interactive product. But they are not directly involved as they have to work on the next project. They leave some emergency time to make revision if they offer a new thing so if there are any implications; they can go back as soon as possible and modify it. The implications can be found by someone who is closer to them and can provide them some feedback in an audience perspective.
They revise their product regularly through out the process to make sure they are on track. They look at the features list to see what client wants and we made. The flash work is not easy to adjust and correct so if the graphics were done in a different style it’s a problem for them. Functionality is always easy to modify so they regularly check if they are taking it to right direction and make the changes accordingly. They always focus on what client wants which enhance good client relationship and for a business good client relationship is incredibly important as it increases the chances of getting more work in the future and building a good reputation. They include time for revisions in their time plan otherwise it will have negative impacts (they would not be able to deliver the project on time or they would not deliver what client wants, which ruins the business reputation and relationship with the client).
If the product is final the client will sign off, saying they are happy the product i-education has delivered and is what they said they will deliver. The product meets the every aspects of the specification and the product should have definitive start and end. . There are some projects which never finish developing but there are some cut off time such as phase 1, phase 2 etc.
Issues with the current working practices and ways in which the current system could be improved
The major issue I have found in i-education ltd is that they do not use any specialised program or software to plan their project. They produce a Gantt chart on spreadsheet which is easier but not efficient at commercial level. Spreadsheet allow the allocation of using lead and lag time but its very time consuming and at commercial level time is so important. I think they should get a specialised program, it will save their time and the details would be more accurate. The specialised program will be capable of sharing data internally which might able them to report their progress without meeting physically by ticking the tasks they have complete. This will also help them to save their time by reducing the time of internal meetings and they will know who has completed his task in advance. The specialised software will enable them to use the techniques for effective time planning. A specialised programme also allows you to specify complex tasks sequences - a task or multiple tasks can be required to be completed before other tasks can be started and they can also view the overall progress of project. These features of specialised software will make their Gantt chart more efficient as they will know any delay in project in advance or if they would be able to finish this project in time.
They do not produce the storyboard design brief and specification individually. The problem with not producing storyboard properly is that when they are creating final product as the storyboard lacks the details they may not know what they are going to make next and functions they need to perform. They look at the design brief but this does not help them with the layout and the motion tweens they are required to create. If they will produce storyboard they will be able to know what sounds, motion tweens and objects that require completing this product. Other staff especially inexperience staff can also look at the storyboard and have an idea what about the things they need to include as they will know how is their final product going to look like. This will make their more work efficient and would allow for the expansion of the company. The planning techniques they use are not very efficient at business level. They guess the time for tasks which they have never done, this is very risky if they can not deliver the product to client on time it will affect the reputation of their business and they will have pressure at the end to complete the project which could affect the quality of the product. Poor quality and delivering the product on a different date will makes the client unhappy. They should always want their client to be happy so it is important for them to use proper and efficient techniques so they can deliver their product on time. So they should produce story board and also show it to their client so they will know the exact layout of the final product and features that i- education ltd has decided to include. They also said that they focus on functionality rather than aesthetics but I think both are important and these can be addressed using the storyboard. If client would want to edit something they would be able to do this at this stage easily rather than after finishing the product and making revisions as this affects the time required by other projects. Story board will also help them to estimate accurate time required for this product to create because they will know how long each scene is going to take. It is important to estimate time required for a project accurately as it affects the quality of product if is not given a required amount of time. they should use effective time planning techniques, if they have not done a particular task before then they can estimate the time by breaking it into as smallest components as possible and also leave some emergency contingency time at the end of this task or project. I will therefore ensure I produce a detailed storyboard so I am clear about the functions and the designs of my product.
i-education ltd consider the audience whilst creating a product but they do not test their product on audience, they let the client to test the product and come back to ask them to make the changes. This is a problem because when a client come backs they must be working on some other projects so taking some time from other projects to make changes would affect their schedule. It would be better if they test the product first and then, they can obviously charge for it but it will save their time and make the client more confident about their product. During other projects it would be harder for them to manage their time and make changes. I will try to build in time to create a testing plan with evidence and I will also collect feedback from the users as I feel it is important to address their needs.
They don’t have internal meetings as frequent as they should; this is a problem because they won’t be able to know if someone is not on schedule which will affect the project. They might not be able to complete their project on time which will affect the relationship with customers. Internal meetings will allow them to check the progress of individuals by meetings as it will allow them to think a backup plan. They will be able to discuss and ask questions if they have any queries regarded the project. Unfortunately I have no client to meet as a brief has been set by exam board but I will meet with my teacher to check my progress regularly.
They have to meet with the client several times to write a proper specification, which waste their time as sometime client do not have any idea what exactly they want and then they have to explain the client and discuss which is often very time consuming. So there should be questions on their website about the features, layout and techniques. A client can answer these questions and send them through email before meeting with firm. It will help the client to understand what things he should know to tell i-education to get the wanted product. It will also help i-education by saving their time on meeting, they will have some idea of what client wants and then they can ask relevant questions.
They have limited resource to gather research. The research from internet is sometimes not useful because of the copyright and it takes time to gather from existing contacts and it might cost them as well. Obviously they do not have time to visit local art library so I limited resources could potentially affect the quality of the product and waste their valuable time to research. They can’t afford to waste their time as it is very crucial at commercial level. So it would be better for them to build up their own organise library on computer. This would enable to get the images, buttons, ideas and functions etc immediately and at no cost. As they will be using their own images which will be different from their competitors, this will build a good reputation of their business for customers. I will try to gather material and images etc when creating the story to limit the time required after production has started by doing this I should be able to develop an effective and eye-catching designs.
All the weaknesses mentioned above can be improve and would be beneficial to make a business more successful. Implementing these improvements will make the quality of product and relation with customers better. This will help them to compete with other businesses. I will also try to avoid these mistakes when designing my own product.
Possible problems with implementing the new system
Planning the project will be essential I will need to ensure that I build in time and use a range of techniques to effectively identify what needs to be done and how long I can allocate to each component. My problem is that I have limited experience both planning my time and so will need to research different options and I also will struggle to estimate the correct amount of time to allocate to the task as I have only used the software in a very limited context. i-education Ltd use their knowledge of the software and their past experiences to estimate the time for each component and I simply don’t have that knowledge and expense and this is a major concern to me.
Storyboards are very time consuming. As a business it is important for them to concentrate on their final product what they going to deliver. If they use all the time to plan one product by making storyboards they will not be able to finish other products on time. Obviously they just can’t work on project at once as they are growing so they would be getting more projects to work on. If they only concentrate on one product they won’t be earn much. To survive it is important for a business to earn. Storyboarding however is going to be a key component in the successful delivering of my product to the client as this stage will allow me to develop my ideas and the design and functions of the characters. I can’t afford to not dedicate enough time in this section as if is very difficult to correct mistakes in flash once the animation in the time line has begun.
Testing the product before delivering it to the client would be good idea because they will not have to do it again once they finished. i.education might not be able to test the product because of the shortage of time. I think it will be essential for me to ensure that it fit for purpose.
The problem with internal meetings is that they are time consuming. They can use the time they will spent on meeting to complete their project. Meetings are sometime waste of time if it is not relevant to project. I still think it would be useful to sit down with my teacher to discuss my progress and having milestones should be useful for monitoring my progress.
