Multimediautveckling - konst eller teknik? Reflektioner kring produkt, process, kravarbete och kunskapsutbyte

Sammanfattning: Multimedia involves using a combination of text, sound, still graphic images, motion graphics, and animation in the user interface of computer based products. The general aim of the study has been to explore, describe and analyse the concept of multimedia in relation to the concept of information systems and thereby contribute with knowledge that could be used to improve the methods for multimedia development.



The main research question has been: What are the distinguishing features of multimedia and how can multimedia be characterised from an information systems perspective? The thesis consists of four investigation areas: product, process, requirements work and knowledge exchange between developers of multimedia systems and developers of information systems. The work has been carried out with a qualitative and explorative approach where literature study and an interview survey have been the primary data collection methods.



The investigation has shown that multimedia development demands co-operation between people from many different expertise areas who respect each others knowledge and share a holistic view. The development work requires creativity, rationality and a systematic approach. One difference between multimedia development and information systems development is that information system developers often clearly separate the problem-oriented analysis phase from the solution oriented design phase. This separation was not common among the studied multimedia developers. Another result was that quality in multimedia products is hard to describe and measure. The developers claim to have higher demands on quality than their clients have.



The investigation further showed that detailed explicit requirements specifications seldom are produced in the studied companies. When they occur, it is often the vendor, not the client who produces the requirement specification. To specify requirements for multimedia products is complicated which seems to stem from the nature of multimedia which makes the products hard to describe using traditional means as text. Finally, the investigation showed a knowledge gap between vendor and client concerning the use of multimedia