Here is some advice on how to define an Interactive project:

 

1
 The first step is to define the Theme, you can solve this in one paragraph.  

  Sports, Music, Entertainment, Art, Business,Traveling...
How are you going to approach it: Is this your personal perspective?Are you building a Portfolio site- a personal site?
You you have a business you are trying to illustrate over the web?
Are you pretending to be building a Corporate Site?		  

 

2
 Those are some questions you may ask yourself:  
 

1.How many "screens" are you envisioning?
Screens as different scenarios or scenes that you need to build up, not Flash-literal scenes.

2. Do you have a general Intro to your movie?
or better
Are you planning to animate the scene/interface dynamically in front of your audience?
(elements appear on Stage as a short Animation; this way you don’t ask Flash to load everything at the same time and you give a nice organic effect)

3. How many Buttons to other sub-scenes do you have from each one of those “main knobs” ?
(look at your wire frame-structure, envision how the links will be integrated in the Interface)
There should always be a clear way out from the scene you are in, and the navigation should be consistent
(always in the same location, same font-color treatment, interactive behavior...)
Art sites tend to be more subtle ( you don't need to use text in the buttons, but still buttons should have a strong sense of identity)

4. As we click though the Interactive application, Where is the "new content" appearing on Screen?
Content gets incorporated into the main interface _like the way we are organizing the Interactive Map_ or
Is the button taking you to a whole new screen?

If the buttons take you to a whole new place; What are you keeping constant, so the user can intuitively navigate out of that scene into some other location?

Do you have links to external web pages_URLs?

5 That new content introduced by the button click, is:

an Animation-movie clip
a bitmap-graphic
a bitmap-slide show
a sequence of bitmaps inside a movie-clip symbol
a digital video/ a sound?

6. If your project includes a little Narrative (an interactive story), Does the user have a way of inventing an order or path through your story, or all they can do is push the Play/Stop button?
The second choice is considered as "fake interactive": that is sequential Linear-Narrative. Things happen according to a linear sequence (one after the other). You just decide when to go. (like a classical Slide-Show)

 

 

 

3
 Then you have to provide some Technical facts.  


The idea is that building the description serves you to understand the scope of your own project.

It would be a good idea if you create a little Outline of the structure of your final project.
Choose between:

 

1. Creating a STORY BOARD
(with sketches of your main scenes and indications of links,
You can draw it on a paper and scan it or build it from scratch in a Photoshop file.
You don't have to draw the whole thing! You can use low resolution images, rudimentary collage...
This is about the concept, not the final rendering. Ideas SHOULD come across, though.

 
     
  2. Making a WIRE-FRAME diagram of your Flash project
(A graphic representation of the Outline: a simple layout of screens and navigation) 		 

Click here for a wire frame-diagram of a project

 


to previous Final Projects

Project number 3
of that page:		   The worm story applied a very literal interpretation of an Interactive Narrative: you get to a crossroad and you choose between A or B.
     
Project number 7
of that page		   Click on "see complete project".
The Reu-matrix project has an interesting approach to Navigation.
Through multiple interfaces you access a series of animations that “define” the theme of the site.
     


To more previous Final projects

Project number 5
of that page:		  

The build-up of the Interface constitutes 50% of the piece.
The Navigation is very simple, and each one of the scenes constitutes a surprise.

Notice how he used real photographs as a background and worked the presentation of the buildings in a dynamic way. The form becomes the content in a fascinating way.

     
Project number 6
of that page:		  

No text for the navigation. The project could be understood in any language.

The star, the balloon and the winged-ribcage constitute the navigation icons that you can find inside the movies.
You need to locate those icons integrated in the movies and click on them to access additional content and understand the scope of the project.
One of the best projects ever made in my classes.

     
Project number 7
of that page:		  

A very interesting alternative to The Linear Narrative of Television programs.

The interactivity is sequential in a linear way (you can only go forwards) but the interactive motifs are perfectly integrated with the story. IT gets you involved with the course of the story.