May's 'Digital fact' - taking the initial design brief

One of the most difficult element in digital projects is getting the design 'spot on'. Given the flexibility & opportunities that digital media such as CD-ROM and the web, during the design process, clients 'learn' what is possible and the final designs can be very different to initial concepts.

E-creation uses a three step process during the early stages of the design processes in order to generate the most creative & appropriate designs:

1. Project View
2. Self View
3. Market View

In the Project View step, we look at the project to define the boundaries of the work - is the projects really a website or infact an animation to be used on a website, etc. We demonstration previous projects that are relevent & brainstorm with the client potential concepts & the latest technological advances that might affect the scope of the project & design.

In the View View step, we use a standard 'business analysis' document to record essential information about the company, how they perceive themselves & how they would like to be perceived. Within 25 questions, we have a clear view (both E-creation & the client) of what 'values' are essential to communicate within the design.

In the Market View step, we analyse the competitors & their design & marketing. This provides the context in which any designs are going to be seen. There are very few clients operating with an absence of competitors, so seeing what competitors are doing should factor into our design work.

London Underground CD-ROM

When we were asked to develop a multimedia CD-ROM for the London Underground, accessibility was not the most immediate issue that we thought about. However, accessibility was for obvious reasons a key consideration for the London Underground - presenting E-creation with an interesting challenge in terms of how to make multimedia content available.

The first step we took was to ensure that all visual content was recorded by a voiceover artist & accessible with the minimum of keyboard interaction.