The document provides guidance on application design and development. It emphasizes designing for the user experience first before starting development. Key points include: 1) The primary focus should be understanding the user, their needs, and creating an experience that engages them within the first 8 seconds. 2) Thorough planning, research, and paper prototyping should be done upfront to define the purpose and scope of the app before starting coding. 3) Interactivity and how users will interact with the application needs to be a core part of the design process. 4) Creativity happens away from the computer through activities like sketching, diagramming, and team collaboration to develop the initial design concepts.

1. Application Design
Where to begin?

2. APPS, APPS, APPS
An application is simply a program that
gives a computer the machine coded
instructions required to provide a USER
with the necessary tools to accomplish a
task.

3. The User
• In Multimedia, there is really only one person
who matters... the USER.
• Users have history, expectations, dreams and
yes, even feelings.
• Where musicians call their audience the
LISTENER...we often call our USER the VIEWER.
• You are the composer and the USERS are your
audience..

4. UX - User Experience
• The field of UX design is growing at an alarming
rate.
• The IXDA is a growing group that discusses
issues with Interaction Design. SIGN UP!!!
• We need to PREDICT what the user expects
from the experiences that we are creating
because...
• YOU HAVE 8 SECONDS TO GRAB THEM!

5. Interactivity
• INTERACTION with our media is the one thing
that differentiates us from our sisters and brothers
in Media, like film or tv.
• We help the user to play, explore, to learn through
the use of our applications.
• We must design applications for our users thinking
the entire time about how they will interact. Let’s
listen to the pros.

6. The “WHY” question.
• Ask yourself at the beginning of every project:
• “WHY AM I BUILDING THIS APP?”.
• The answer to this question will lead to more
questions and will ultimately expose the SCOPE
of the application and the TECHNOLOGIES that
you will use.

7. Be Thorough &
DESIGN your ideas are
• Do not touch the computer until
complete. We might believe that the computer is
the most creative tool of all time...I personally
disagree.
• It may be one of the best tools in our kit to build
an app once the design is complete.
• Time will teach all of you that this is not the case.
You may need a few years in the industry to believe
me.

8. Off the Keys
• We will investigate strategies over the next few
weeks to ensure that our creativity is flowing and
that we are ready to create a meaningful
application.
• White board sessions, team drawing, mind
mapping, sketching and flow diagrams will be our
new creative suite.

9. Onto the Keys
When the time is right and we have come to
a consensus about the applications purpose,
the USER experience and our technologies,
we build.

10. Planning our App
Over the next two weeks, as we investigate methods
of design. I will need input from all of you relating to
what your final app will be!

11. Designing YOU!
1. Consider your portfolio.
2. Using simple language, describe the function of
that application, remember it is about you.
3. Look to Blackboard, to the JOURNALS area.
There we will sketch out our
portfolios...
...YES THIS IS HOMEWORK