Designing a user interface for web based project managment in film production.

Abstract: The aim of this thesis project is to create a user interface for a web based film production project management portal. This implies creating a site map and a functionality specification based on the needs of the people working in the film production industry. The project was made on account of The Chimney Pot, a post production company in Stockholm. For the scope of this project, the research was concentrated on the part of film production that concerns The Chimney Pot, i.e. the procedures that take place after a film has been recorded. The research also focused on people working in the area of Stockholm, even if their clients and customers in other areas of Sweden and abroad were indirectly included in order for the project portal to be a usable tool in projects where these people are involved. Before any visible results can be seen in a web production project, a range of preparation steps needs to be taken. Planning is essential if the final product shall work properly. Extensive research has to be done into the industry. In order to make the product usable, the intended users, their requirements, work procedures and environment need to be examined. Only when there are substantial results and enough knowledge about the industry, the actual implementation can start. The first step is to make a functionality specification, next a site map should be produced and the technical architecture should be specified. These are the areas that are covered in this project, but there are also recommendations about how the further development should be made. Important aspects in the next phase are to create a budget, to put together a development team and to create a graphic user interface. In the whole process the issues of usability need to be considered, i.e. efficiency, flexibility, learnability and satisfaction. The key requirements for the project portal turned out to be speed and effectiveness. The user interface was designed to be intuitive and to be shallow, which means that the user should be able to perform any task with the least amount of mouse clicks possible. Another intention with the produced user interface is for it to be clearly divided into the four main areas that could be extracted from the user requirements. They are planning, project details, communication and file sharing. Directly after logging on to the project portal, the user should get an overview of all these areas. Other important considerations were security, version control and seamlessness. These issues demand a thorough planning of the technical architecture and this thesis provides some useful tips for the further development of the technical specification.