Software Application Design Specification - Presentation Portal
Over many decades, newspapers have developed a reporting technique
that helps readers find precisely the amount of information they want. The first paragraph of any newspaper story is always an
overview of the major events. The next few paragraphs add detail to the basic framework of the story, and the remainder is devoted
to specifics. The same should be true of design documents. Too often, we get bogged down in details too early and fail to firmly
establish the bones of the product before fleshing it out. As an example of my technique, here is an exerpt from one of several
software design specs I have written.
Overview
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The Presentation Portal is intended for use by
educational institutions and industry as a multimedia, interactive training and presentation tool for reaching users anywhere
in the world via the public Internet. Courses, lectures or exhibits are created locally and uploaded to a server host which
distributes the content to subscribers on demand using a customized streaming media player developed by the vendor. The player
will display multiple sub-windows to accommodate video and/or audio, text/pictorial content, targeted advertising, and the
ability to dynamically navigate and interact with the presentation using embedded controls. This paper describes at a high
level how the overall system will operate.
There are three primary activities associated with any given course that may be presented via the system:
- Presentation content is prepared and published
- End users participate in a broadcast session
- Usage reports are created and evaluated
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Preparation of Presentation Content
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The Presentation Portal is a powerful utility
that will be used by content creators (educators, trainers, presenters) to convert traditional presentation materials and raw
media into content that is ready for on-demand streaming playback. This includes tasks such as importing or recording content,
creating or converting slides, synchronizing slides to the audio/video, and encoding the completed project. After the
presentation has been built, the content is then published to a shared fileserver and made available for on-demand playback.
Additionally, the content creator may specify particular player skins for specific customers. This will have the effect of
enhancing and personalizing the Presentation Player to suit the intended audience. Slides may also be animated for additional
emphasis. |
Figure 1. Presentation Creator Interface
(Product mockup created by author using Photoshop) |
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Upon completion of the presentation, the
Presentation Portal will encode and compress the content to a format intended for media streaming and upload (publish) the
files to the shared fileserver.
To ensure the security of the system, there are two points of authentication that a producer encounters during the publication
process. First, the content creator must present a valid user name and password in order to download the Presentation Portal
software. The second point of authentication occurs when the producer has finished building the presentation and attempts to
publish the content onto the shared fileserver. He or she will again be required to validate himself or herself as an authorized
user before publishing the presentation to the shared fileserver for hosting.
Once the content has been received and approved for distribution, the host makes the presentation available for playback to
the selected audience. Audience selectivity can be configured according to need and the streaming media format leaves no
residual content files or other information on the recipient's system. |
End User Playback
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End user logs in to the host
To access any of the presentation or training materials, the end user must supply a valid username and password. Any end users
that have not yet registered with the host system will be prompted to do so. After the login process is complete, the user will
be presented with a menu of available materials. If the user does not have the most recent version of the Presentation Player,
a link will be provided for downloading it.
End user views a presentation
The end user will select the desired content by clicking on its link. This selection will launch the Presentation Player on the
end user's computer. Playback of certain presentations will require custom components (developed by the vendor) to be installed
within the user's player. A check will be automatically performed to determine if these components are already resident. If they
do not exist, the player will display a prompt to the end user explaining that they can be automatically downloaded and
installed. If the end user approves, the download and update will be performed immediately.
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Figure 2. Presentation Player Interface
(Product mockup created by author using Photoshop) |
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When the streaming presentation begins, the
window area within the player will be divided into multiple sub-windows. These will include a video window in which to view
the course presenter, a slide show area in which the presenter's materials are displayed, a table of contents (if desired) for
interactively navigating through the material, and an area for advertisements (if desired). As part of the on-line viewing
experience, the end user will also be able to pause or backtrack the presentation at any point. Links can be provided for
additional information or feedback. Statistical information related to the end user's session will be logged and processed for
subsequent viewing within system reports.
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Collecting and Evaluating Usage Reports
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While the end users participate in the
presentation, information about the user's session will be periodically written to the database. The database writes will be
executed at logical points within the presentation, such as the end of each segment or slide. As soon as the data has been
written to the database, it is available for importing into a summary report. Therefore, results may be viewed in near real-time
while end users are actively participating in a presentation. |
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