Features a compilation of the best articles from GameDev.net on game design and content creation. Features invaluable information and ideas for anyone who wants to learn how to shape a great game idea into an actual functioning and fun game. You'll learn game design mechanics, benefit from invaluable professional insights into successful game creation, discover how to make good game art even if you're not an artist, and even explore the tools and techniques that make for awesome game audio. All articles have been updated to comply with the latest technology.
With digital content published across more channels than ever before, how can you make yours easy to find, use, and share? Is your content ready for the next wave of content platforms and devices? In Designing Connected Content, Mike Atherton and Carrie Hane share an end-to-end process for building a structured content framework. They show you how to research and model your subject area based on a shared understanding of the important concepts, and how to plan and design interfaces for mobile, desktop, voice, and beyond. You will learn to reuse and remix your valuable content assets to meet the needs of today and the opportunities of tomorrow. Discover a design method that starts with content, not pixels. Master the interplay of content strategy, content design, and content management as you bring your product team closer together and encourage them to think content first. Learn how to Model your content and its underlying subject domain Design digital products that scale without getting messy Bring a cross-functional team together to create content that can be efficiently managed and effectively delivered Create a framework for tackling content overload, a multitude of devices, constantly changing design trends, and siloed content creation
The very word "digital" has acquired a status that far exceeds its humble dictionary definition. Even the prefix digital, when associ ated with familiar sectors such as radio, television, photography and telecommunications, has reinvented these industries, and provided a unique opportunity to refresh them with new start-up companies, equipment, personnel, training and working practices - all of which are vital to modern national and international economies. The last century was a period in which new media stimulated new job opportunities, and in many cases created totally new sectors: video competed with film, CDs transformed LPs, and computer graphics threatened traditional graphic design sectors. Today, even the need for a physical medium is in question. The virtual digital domain allows the capture, processing, transmission, storage, retrieval and display of text, images, audio and animation without familiar materials such as paper, celluloid, magnetic tape and plastic. But moving from these media to the digital domain intro duces all sorts of problems, such as the conversion of analog archives, multimedia databases, content-based retrieval and the design of new content that exploits the benefits offered by digital systems. It is this issue of digital content creation that we address in this book. Authors from around the world were invited to comment on different aspects of digital content creation, and their contributions form the 23 chapters of this volume.
In the world of web design, if one wants to create a successful web site, one needs an effective content strategy. Return on Engagement shows web designers and developers how to implement an effective content strategy and how to stay ahead in the rapidly changing industry of web design. It presents best practices in terms of web design through a marketing function: content strategy, SEO, social media marketing, and success measurement to help web designers implement a strategy that ensures success for the site they are building. Return on Engagement shows web designers and developers how to not just design an aesthetically pleasing, functional website. This book shows those professionals how to implement marketing strategies and analysis into their website, thus ensuring its success. Nearly 3 years since the previous edition published, new best practices have been formed. Tools in which web developers use to analyze website metrics have advanced. New social media networks and communities have cropped up. New research in how audiences read and receive content has been done, subsequently refining best digital marketing practices. Return on Engagement features a step-by-step breakdown of how to use new tools, techniques, and technologies. The new edition also includes updated case studies of industry leaders who implement best practices on projects. Return on Engagement also features a regularly updated companion site that offers readers sample content, easy sharing tools, and web-based resources to help measure marketing viability of web properties.
Making learning and development (L&D) content inclusive and accessible for everyone is not only a good thing to do, it's the right thing to do. Designing Accessible Learning Content provides evidence-based advice on designing digital learning content that ensures all learners are included and are therefore able to perform to their full potential. This is a practical guide on accessibility for anyone involved in the design, creation, development or testing of online learning content. It provides detailed guidance on how to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines making it essential reading for L&D professionals, instructional designers and course developers who need to comply with legal accessibility requirements. Using the author's 'eLearning Accessibility Framework', Designing Accessible Learning Content demystifies sometimes complex technical accessibility standards and provides an easy to follow contextual framework uniquely designed for learning content created using any authoring tool. This book also demonstrates how creating accessible learning content can improve usability and provide the best possible learning experience for everyone. In addition, it offers essential background information such as a focus on disability, an overview of assistive technology and an exploration of the case for digital accessibility. This guarantees that L&D professionals have the vital background knowledge they need to make sense of accessibility before they begin practically applying the principles. With online checklists, learner case studies, and industry perspectives, Designing Accessible Learning Content is an essential handbook for all L&D professionals seeking to harness the benefits of accessibility in order to improve their learning content for everyone.
Lessons from HubSpot, Salesforce, Gainsight and Other Iconic Brands "The Uber of this" "The Salesforce of that" "It's like Instagram, but for..." There is no such thing as an original idea anymore – right? Actually, it turns out that the world’s most innovative companies have created so much more than just brand new products and technology. They've created entirely new market categories. The challenge is that successfully building new categories requires a perfect storm of luck and timing. Or does it? Category Creation is the first and only book on the topic written by executives and marketers actively building new categories. It explains how category creation has become the Holy Grail of marketing, and more importantly, how it can be planned and orchestrated. It's not about luck. You can use the same tactics that other category-defining companies have used to delight customers, employees, and investors. There’s no better strategy that results in faster growth and higher valuations for the company on top. Author Anthony Kennada, former Chief Marketing Officer at Gainsight, explains how he led Gainsight in creating the “customer success” category, and shares success stories from fellow category-creators like Salesforce, HubSpot and others. It requires much more than just having the best product. You have to start and grow a conversation that doesn’t yet exist, positioning a newly discovered problem in addition to your company and product offerings. The book explains the 7 key principles of category creation, including the importance of creating a community of early adopters who will rally around the problem they all share—especially if someone will lead them. · Identify the “go” and “no go” signals for category creation in your business · Activate customers and influencers as brand ambassadors · Grow a community by investing in live events and experiences · Prove the impact of category creation investments on growth, customer success, and company culture Written for entrepreneurs, marketers, and executives from startups to large enterprises, Category Creation is the exclusive playbook for building a category defining brand in the modern economy.
In this essential guide, Meghan Casey outlines a step-by-step approach for successful content strategy, from planning and creating your content to delivering and managing it. Armed with this book, you can confidently tackle difficult activities like explaining clearly to your boss or client what's wrong with their content, getting the budget to do content work, and aligning stakeholders on a common vision. Having The Content Strategy Toolkit at your side is like hiring your own personal consulting firm. You get a complete array of instructions, tools, and templates for most challenges you'll face. In this practical and relevant guide, you'll learn how to: Identify problems with your content and persuade your bosses it's worth the time and resources to do it right Assemble a stellar team for your content project Prepare your organization for content transformation Make sense of your business environment and understand your audience Align stakeholders on business goals and user needs Set a compass for your content and decide how to measure success Create, maintain, and govern on-strategy content You'll learn how to treat content like the strategic asset that it is. "Quality content increases value. Poor-quality content destroys value. It's as simple as that. Meghan's book has specific, practical, and immediately actionable ideas that will help you increase the quality of your content."—Gerry McGovern, CEO, Customer Carewords "This second edition goes deep into three integral topics for content leaders—assembling cross-disciplinary teams, evaluating processes, and building a content playbook. If you're looking to build a new practice or retool an existing one, this book will help you succeed.—Natalie Marie Dunbar, Author, From Solo to Scaled: Building a Sustainable Content Strategy Practice
This book teaches you all you need to know to create effective web sites for businesses of all sizes. It’s packed with useful tips and practical examples. First you are taken through the planning stage, including overall site structure, grouping content, using content and language effectively, and planning for accessibility. Next, you are shown how to effectively design the different parts of your site as well as how to add specialized improvements, including feedback forms and search functionality. The examples focus largely on CSS and HTML, but the principles are applicable to any site and some useful Flash examples are also provided.
The Art of Theatrical Design: Elements of Visual Composition, Methods, and Practice, Second Edition, contains an in-depth discussion of design elements and principles for costume, set, lighting, sound, projection, properties, and makeup designs. This textbook details the skills necessary to create effective, evocative, and engaging theatrical designs that support a play contextually, thematically, and visually. It covers key concepts such as content, context, genre, style, play structure, and format and the demands and limitations of various theatrical spaces. The book also discusses essential principles, including collaboration, inspiration, conceptualization, script analysis, conducting effective research, building a visual library, developing an individual design process, and the role of the critique in collaboration. This second edition includes A new chapter on properties management and design. A new chapter on makeup design. A new chapter on digital rendering, with evaluations of multiple programs, overviews of file types and uses, and basic tutorials in Adobe® Photoshop® and Procreate. An expanded and revised chapter on traditional rendering, with the inclusion of new media, including watercolor, gouache, and mixed media, and updated exercises and tutorials. Revised and expanded chapters on individual design areas, including additional practices for conceptualization and collaboration, with new exercises for skill development. Additional exercises in all elements and principles of design chapters for investigation of each design principle and skill development. Revised and updated content throughout the text, reflecting current pedagogy and practices. This book gives students in theatrical design, introduction to design, and stagecraft courses the grounding in core design principles they need to approach design challenges and make design decisions in both assigned class projects and realized productions. The Art of Theatrical Design provides access to additional online resources, including step-by-step video tutorials of the exercises featured in the book.
