Principles of Interactive Media Design

Your current project requires that you produce a:

• Report
• Blog Article
• Presentation
• Video

about the principles of interactive media design.

As part of your research you should investigate existing interactive media products. These might include:

• CDs
• DVDs
• Web based interactive media
  - Websites
  - Flash Movies
  - Games
• Handheld devices
• Motion graphics
• Animation
• Games

Your research should include a range of sources which could include:

• Internet
• Magazines (relevant journals available in cluster)
• Television
• Newspapers

Remember to cite your sources (scroll down for more information).

As you investigate existing interactive media products you should evaluate them. This evaluation might cover:

• Use of interactivity
• Use of fonts
• Overall design

Effective investigation of existing interactive media products should help you get higher grades which require you to explain or fully explain principles of interactive media design with reference to well chosen examples. The principles you need to explain follow.

The Principles

Layout and Interface Design (for more detail click here >)

• Usability
• Language and terminology
• Design
  - Colour
  - Images
  - Consistency
  - Typography (use of type)
• Effective use of layouts
• Identification of users
• Use of navigation
  - Navigation types

Visual Treatment

• Visual cues
  - Use of colour for indication
  - Metaphors
  - Highlighting text
  - Attracting Attention
  - Prioritising
  - Aesthetic Appeal
• Accessibility
  - Use of colour etc.
• Screen Design
  - Amount of information presented
  - Grouping and prioritising of information
• Balance
  - White Space
  - Grey Space
  - Black Space
• Use of Images and Composition
  - Rule of thirds
  - Lead lines
  - Focal point
  - Depth of field
  - Use of colour
• Colour Theory
  - Primary colours
  - Contrasting colours
  - Complementary colours
  - Colours in common
  - Colour wheel

Plagiarism

It will no doubt be very tempting to find other people's explanations and copy and paste. First, this activity has legal and ethical issues all of its own. Second, if you plagiarise you will be subject to an academic disciplinary process and could fail the unit or worse. How will I know? We have software that compares student submissions to work on the internet and tells us what % was plagiarised.

It is much better to read other people's work, understand it, then write up what you understand in your own words. That's real learning that is.

Citing Sources

You should include a bibliography at the end of your report (or provide it printed at the time of your presentation or with your video).

A bibliography lists all the places (sources) from which you got your information. This includes books, magazines, TV programmes and web pages.

You may quote other sources, but when you do you should surround the quote in quotation marks "" and cite the source within parenthesis (), e.g:

"Intellectual Property Office can help you get the right type of protection for your creation or invention." (Intellectual Property Office, http://www.ipo.gov.uk/)

or

"Whereas composers and authors get to keep their rights for 70 years after they die - or rather, their heirs do - for performers, the cut-off point comes 50 years after the original performance." (BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/11/conflict_over_copyright.html)

Good luck.